Alumni Start-Up Site Seeks Web Talent
Broadside Online Managing Editor Whitney Rhodes

Reza Pourrabi and Brian Patterson in the Johnson Center. Photo by Whitney Rhodes

Two Mason alumni hold tight to their marketing and IT degrees and charge into the realm of dot-com money makers with their July 4th launch of Performster.com.

Performster is an international video contest site seeking to flesh out the talent that largely goes unnoticed on the Web. Users upload their videos, compete for prizes and vie for attention from talent agencies, record companies and other gateways that lead beyond brief Internet famedom.

"It's YouTube meets American Idol," said Reza Pourrabi, an '05 marketing graduate. "Perfomster's one goal is finding the performers and exposing their talent to the world."

The hotsite idea was born last November when Pourrabi realized that the Internet lacked a focused medium for showcasing skills. With the help of his friend, Brian Patterson, an '05 information technology graduate, they outlined the targeted audience (17 to 35-year-olds) and the required resources.

To combat competition, Performster provides a specialized outlet not yet overdone by Internet video sites.

"At YouTube a lot of people see you and it ends there," said Patterson. "At Performster, there's more industry people hanging out, providing more opportunity."

Yet the prospects don't end with the talented user. Performster hopes to provide the ability for "businesses to seamlessly use Performster's contest code on their websites as a new form of product integration," said Patterson.

So far the developer blog has accrued about 1,000 hits a month, with 150 signed up for the pre-registration iPod giveaway. Pourrabi and Patterson expect the site to grow virally, attracting new users by word-of-mouth means. The two are confident in their content as well, claiming that Performster is a "sticky site," one that will lure users into voting for more than just their friend's videos and into uploading their own talent clips. Other features reward users for site activity by doling out "blingPoints" for viewing, commenting on and uploading videos. Users can turn in the points to redeem prizes.

They predict that the idea will begin to grow popular in Fairfax, where the Performster gurus obtained the know-how to make the site more than just an unrealized scheme.

"My Internet classes [at Mason] gave me the background business model for Internet companies," said Pourrabi. Patterson agreed, "Dr. Anne Marchant, my senior IT project professor, gave me a foundation in project management."

For Mason students interested in creating their own hotsite endeavor, Pourrabi and Patterson warn against needless hesitation.

"Just start, make [your idea] happen," said Patterson. "Throw it against the wall to see if it sticks."

"But when you're in college wait until you get focused," added Pourrabi. "Make it happen. Don't sit back and wonder 'what if'. But the No. 1 idea is research. Research the product, research the idea, then throw it against the wall."

The Performster team also includes the Springfield-raised Michael Waldron and Charles Reith, a Mason '06 english graduate.