When Maya Rafie got to Emerson College over three years ago, she was surprised by how many of her friends couldn’t find jobs they enjoyed.
Whether they were paying off their student loans or just trying to make rent, many of Rafie’s classmates were taking odd or part-time jobs they hated. Meanwhile, Rafie (pictured below) was doing freelance photography –– covering live music, promoting local artists and documenting events around campus. She loved it. 
Rafie felt lucky, but also wanted to help her friends and classmates make money doing what they enjoyed. She launched her startup bistara just over a year ago to fill this need.
“The idea of bistara came from wanting to empower my friends and other college students to turn their passion into something they could do after graduating,” Rafie said. “I wanted them to be appreciated and get paid for their creative knowledge and flexibility.”
bistara dubs itself the first freelance marketplace for college students looking for creative gigs. On the platform, college freelancers and employers can register for free and browse each other’s profiles in just a few clicks. As freelancers sign up, they use bistara’s dashboard to add their portfolio of work and list their services and pricing while employers list open jobs.
Once a freelancer has been selected for a gig and finishes a job, payment is held in escrow until both parties agree the work has been successfully completed. Freelancers also get rated for their work, so employers can vet potential candidates and maintain a good experience using bistara’s marketplace.
Currently, there are six categories of work on the website, including photography, writing and translation, graphics and design, video and animation, music and audio, and web development.
“I wanted to keep it very creative and have college students think outside the box,” Rafie said. “It doesn’t have to be your major.”
Rafie, for example, was a marketing major but said she’s more interested in pursuing photography.
With Boston’s mecca of college campuses, Rafie said she didn’t have to do much marketing to get the word out. She mostly just used word-of-mouth.
Roughly 750 college freelancers currently use bistara across 100 campuses, while about 340 clients are using the marketplace to find workers.
A year from now, she hopes to see bistara as a huge community of freelancers across the U.S. that breaks stereotypes about the type of work college students are capable of.
“From the client’s perspective, I’d like to change the idea that students can only take odd jobs and run errands,” Rafie said. “They’re hiring the future leaders of the creative industry.”
As for the name ‘bistara,’ Rafie said in Bangladesh it means ‘to spread,’ which for her represented spreading talents and spreading the idea that students can be their own boss.
Photos via social media
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