Interning at a Startup

Nate Villegas

Last week, a Reuters article reported on nationwide phenomena that in the past years have become more and more common: startups. The article’s premise is that behind this wave of entrepreneurship are recent college graduates and even current college students who, in a time of economy and high unemployment rates, are taking advantage of the “globalization of information and the advent of social media” to turn an idea into a business.

Based on my first month interning at Inigral this Summer, I’ve met enough people, attended enough events, and have experienced so much in a startup to show me just why entrepreneurship is on the rise.

My experience with Inigral

To be honest, these past two weeks of my internship have been intense. I’ve walked into more than a dozen Social Media meet ups and have walked out knowing so much more about Silicon Valley and the industry than before. From writing blog posts to aggregating contact lists to providing my input in marketing strategies, I’ve genuinely learned more from these than from any other internship outside of Social Media. What I am more excited for about this summer, though, is the opportunity to learn more about marketing, learn more about startups, and learn more about what it takes to succeed in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. I’m excited to meet and become inspired by entrepreneurs who are having great progress with their products and learn their means to do so.

This summer-long event series puts on 10 events every Wednesday night here in San Francisco or in Palo Alto where guest speakers (investors, founders, etc.) talk about topics (product design, product marketing, etc) that interest and benefit us (interns). It is a fellowship program that also gives interns the opportunity to meet each other, network and learn about each other’s companies. The first event featured Jeff Clavier, Jonathan Ebinger, and Andy Fillat who discussed venture capital and raising money as an entrepreneur through the eyes of a VC. At this event, not only did interns attend, but founders of startups all across the Bay Area were there eager to have the opportunity to have questions answered by this All Star VC panel in such an intimate space.

The second event featured David Weekly, Dan Martell, Chris McCann and Myles Weissleder who spoke about how to connect with and take advantage of our time with the Silicon Valley startup community. From basic introduction techniques to following up with people you’ve met, this energetic panel unveiled the personality of the Valley with explaining what works and doesn’t work when connecting with people in the industry. The third event featured presentations by Hiten Shah and Jason Putori who spoke about their experiences and advice on product ideation, development and design. As gurus in their trade, I felt that it was an honor to hear from people who are changing the way companies’ websites and products are being designed and presented. From the events in June alone I’ve already learned more than I could imagine about having a successful startup and product…and this has only been from three out of the ten events! I’m honestly excited to hear more from founders, executives, and elites in the community.

The GenJuice Tour is a 13-city wide tour in which the event organizers Arielle Patrice Scott, Danielle Leslie, and Virgilia Singh are encouraging, mobilizing, and connecting more than a thousand young entrepreneurs across the nation to start and follow through with their projects and companies by connecting them together, providing the resources they need, and inspiring them with the talks of successful entrepreneurs. GenJuice creates a support network and environment amongst entrepreneurs and I believe this is exactly what some entrepreneurs need in order to achieve their dream. I attended their first stop in San Francisco with Tony at Justin.tv’s headquarters.

Keynote speakers included Lyle Fong and Daniel Brusilovsky as well as several small discussion leaders. What I took from Lyle’s speech was preserverence and trust in where your company is going even though you don’t exactly know where it’s going. Daniel’s talk was especially inspiring, not only because he’s a 17 year-old entreprenuer, but because of how he set up his company execs and employees to be located all over the world. This just goes to show the impact of the Web bringing people and businesses together. The small group discussions were primarily focused on topics brought up and led by attendees. Some of the topics included and which I attended were about maintaining community and keeping a 9-5 job separate from your startup.

I really liked this event because it was very personal: only two other interns, Ryan and Jesse, and George from Inigral were there along with three of our new friends from Udemy. Our lunch seminar was with Cheryl Cheng who really opened my eyes on internships in general. She spoke about how to take advantage of your time with your company by making the right connections with the right people and learning as much as you can about the company. She also spoke about how interns should be assertive and become a source for new ideas, information, and recommendations.

From all this, I’ve learned that entrepreneurship definitely should be something college graduates should look into. Whether it be for profit or non-profit, someone or some group can always break into an industry as long as it’s new and hasn’t been done before.