Kara Hernandez, a Fresno State student, won first place in a pitch competition for her business idea, Nomad Recruiting. Photo contributed

A local college student was recently awarded thousands of dollars for a business pitch competition for California State University system students.

Kara Hernandez, 35, a Fresno State marketing major, took a first-place award with a $25,000 cash prize in a pitch competition hosted by San Jose State University (SJSU) for her idea of a recruiting service devoted to the hospitality industry.

Students from 18 of the 23 California State University (CSU) campuses competed in the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Competition at the SJSU campus last week.

The event featured business pitches in five separate competition tracks — two product tracks, two services tracks and one social entrepreneur track.

Hernandez won first place in the services track.

Second and third place prizes were $10,000 and $5,000.

Though non-CSU students can be part of a team, leadership and decision-making must be led by students and/or alumni from the participating campus.

Hernandez came up with the business idea, Nomad Recruiting, with her business partner and co-founder, Kat Cole. Both have been in the hospitality and service industry for nearly two decades.

Hernandez said her service, which will launch with a website, will streamline the hiring process for the hospitality industry.

“It allows people in the hospitality industry to find part-time, full-time and also gig-work, Hernandez said. “There are a couple of services that do it already, but not the way we do it.”

Hernandez is currently in the process of patenting her idea.

Hernandez said their service reduces the hiring pool specifically to the hospitality industry, so employers do not have to wade through candidates that don’t have the right qualifications.

“Imagine LinkedIn, Indeed and Tinder had a baby,” is how Hernandez describes it.

There are plans to eventually develop a mobile app from the website.

Hernandez said they observed firsthand the effects of the pandemic on the restaurant industry, including trouble with staffing.

Not having an adequate workforce not only negatively affected the output of service, but also the morale of staff.

This made the team realize that the hiring process needs to be ongoing and tech based.

“We wanted to evolve the hiring process to bring the hospitality industry more staffing options,” Hernandez said.

They also noticed how Covid-19 led to more people working remotely while traveling. They wanted to give people who are more “nomadic” options to find work while they’re on the road.

At this point, the end-of-the-year goal is for Hernandez and Cole to attend the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo in Las Vegas and recruit employees, or “Nomads.”

Right now, the team is busy building the “Nomad Network” of users seeking work and then introduce the app to employers to begin hiring.

About $5,000 of the award money will be used to build a website, with more investment to eventually customize the site. The remainder will be used for promoting and getting people signed up on the website.

Hernandez said that Lyles Center For innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fresno State, as well as the Laval Entrepreneur Mentor Program, provided important resources that helped her learn and connect with others for her venture.