MBAs for Hire, By the Hour A startup raises nearly $5 million to match companies with the well-educated consultants they need.

When Harvard Business School students Pat Petitti and Rob Biederman needed to create a business for a classroom competition in early 2013, they took note of the students around them who had valuable skills and knowledge to offer, but no jobs. At the same time, they realized that small businesses, which often can't afford to hire a full-time MBA or top-level consulting company, could benefit from that insight.

The pair's classroom project became the starting point for HourlyNerd, a Boston-based temporary-staffing firm that matches well-educated business consultants with companies that need them.

The MBA students started by literally knocking on the doors of hundreds of small businesses. "A lot of the businesses told us to get the hell out, but a lot of them actually felt that this was something they could really benefit from," Petitti says.