Editor’s note: When Morris Gelblum started Sweeps in 2004 as a high school junior, he just wanted to make some extra cash. Ten years later, his business is thriving–without outside funding or mass marketing tactics. Sarah Bill of ExitEvent – a news partner of WRAL TechWire – has the story.

RALEIGH, N.C. – When Morris Gelblum started Sweeps in 2004 as a high school junior, he just wanted to make some extra cash. Ten years later, his business is thriving—without outside funding or mass marketing tactics.

Sweeps is an odd jobs service that employs college students, and the first startup to graduate from the Raleigh-based StartupREAL accelerator program. More than 500 students have used Sweeps to find and then complete upwards of 2,800 jobs. The company won a 2013 Chapel Hill Business of the Year Award along with multiple service awards. And now Gelblum is ready to grow Sweeps nationally, starting with Charlotte and Wilmington campuses this summer. His goal is to make Sweeps the “best way to hire the right college student everywhere.”

Gelblum entered the StartupREAL program after the accelerator started up last year. He wanted mentors and experts to help him determine how to grow the company beyond the Triangle—and he didn’t want to give away equity to do so.

StartupREAL co-founder Blake Callens invited Gelblum into the accelerator because he wanted to bring on a business with leadership who knew the basics.

The full story can be read online at ExitEvent.