"These are opportunities your everyday startup doesn't get, " says Robert Falcone, 24, cofounder of Campus Sponsorship, which allows students to raise money from big companies by completing online puzzles or watching videos sponsored by those companies.

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Companies outside the tech sector are coming aboard, too, seeing online programming puzzles as a welcome shortcut to the wearying rituals of traditional technical recruiting.

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"KateModern" will try to encourage a high involvement of its fan base, enabling them to chat to characters, doodle online, help them solve puzzles, exchange plot ideas with other fans, respond to polls and upload their own videos to the characters' profile pages.

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