Small businesses lose foot traffic and exposure without the budget to afford full-time marketing or advertising professionals. At the same time, student creatives and freelancers face rejection after rejection due to limited experience. What was once a barrier between the two is now becoming a connection. 

Journalism sophomore Viviana Martínez Carrión launched Velo Creative on March 5, a platform she designed alongside Javier Nazario Feliciano, co-founder and seasoned software engineer, with hopes of reimagining the job search for creatives. Martínez Carrión said Velo simplifies finding work opportunities by connecting local businesses that are searching for creative help with students or freelancers looking for projects to build resume experience.

“What if the issue isn’t the connecting or the events for people to actually connect,” Martínez Carrión said. “But more so, how businesses and companies search for people and how people search for these jobs and internships?”

For the past 5 months, Martínez Carrión and Feliciano worked to answer these questions. Through Velo, businesses post projects they need completed, accompanied by a budget and timeline. Creatives — photographers, editors, brand strategists, etc. — upload their work experience and build a personal portfolio, awaiting to be matched by a system that connects projects to people.

“The (artificial intelligence) is only to help facilitate searches,” Martínez Carrión said. “Just to make it easier for both companies and students to get those connections in faster and to make life easier (without) scrolling for thousands of hours.”

To avoid oversaturation of either type of user on the platform, Martínez Carrión and Feliciano filter through and handpick 50 creatives and 50 businesses. For creatives, Velo handpicks individuals with baseline experience and sends a link to the chosen applicants to give them access to the app. The co-founders reach out by cold-calling and emailing businesses to offer Velo’s services and, upon approval, give them access to the app.

For Lukas Behr and his year-old company, The Threader, based in Austin, Texas and Boulder, Colorado, this presents an opportunity to network and help Martínez Carrión and Feliciano grow their business.

“I love being heavily networked with other founders, especially locally,” Behr said. “These connections can bring you all sorts of different places and (it’s) super new so obviously I want to help out Velo any way I can.”

Without a feed and advertisements overloading the app, Martínez Carrion said Velo looks to support businesses by offering help on projects they need to grow their brand without the financial pressure of hiring for a role. Similarly, it looks to help individuals who are passionate about keeping their creative side alive and well source opportunities for their careers. 

Charlize Hi’ilei, a marketing and women’s and gender studies, and marketing member of Velo, said what they look for are people who are interested in taking that step toward coffee chats, learning from mentors and connecting with people.

“We want to milk that creativity side of yours out of you, and we want you to benefit from it,” Hi’ilei said. 

For Martínez Carrión, getting businesses the creative talent they need to gain more foot traffic and creatives the chance to use their learned skills proves a reward in itself.

“Being able to see that I am making an impact on people’s lives and making sure that this works for people,” Martínez Carrión said. “Is what I look at as success.”