A TEESSIDE digital firm with plans to rival Google and Yahoo has kick-started a recruitment drive just months after launching.
Bsearcher was struggling to find the right staff with many graduates choosing to seek employment in major cities, often unaware of the range of opportunities in the North-east technology sector.
However, the South Bank-based business recently created two new jobs, appointing Richard Trotter as a web developer and Daniel Benson as an apprentice data engineer.
Thirty-year-old Richard from Billingham has a BSc (Hons) in information technology at Teesside University and will be responsible for programming websites.
A qualified teacher, his previous roles include work as a network systems manager at Ian Ramsey School in Stockton.
Meanwhile Daniel, from Nunthorpe, has been recruited to carry out web research and data gathering to help with bsearcher’s growth as it rolls out.
The 20-year-old attended Middlesbrough College where he achieved his BTEC Level 3 for IT practitioners.
Haniff Din, a founder and director at bsearcher, said: “Both Daniel and Richard bring a huge amount of enthusiasm and superb skills to our business.
“Smart IT people, like those working for us, crave the type of work we’re offering and we’re planning to create more jobs this year to help the North-east become a technological hub for graduates so that they don’t have to move to big cities to find employment.”
Bsearcher now employs a team of 10 but is expected to create a further 20 jobs in the coming year and is actively recruiting programmers and internet researchers.
Originally launched as ibod, the company was forced to re-brand following a dispute Apple.
The Teesside company provides free business search engines, social networking and advertising for SMEs, not-for-profit and corporate organisations and aims to revolutionise internet marketing for businesses and social enterprises.
Bsearcher is now live and free to use and has seen hundreds of businesses signing up. Trial sites show that it could have some 300,000 users by the end of the year.
Experts predict bsearcher’s turnover could exceed £12m in its first four years.
The business was the brainchild of marketing manager Kevin Robinson and IT specialist Haniff Din, who have spent the last three years developing the technology with a team of experts.
It is thought the venture, which is already attracting global interest, could eventually rival big names such as Google, Yell and Yahoo.