4 ms·
Tell HN: From unpaid intern to full time as a biz guy in a startup
This is in response to WePay's post:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1202168
I hear a lot about intern experiences at startups that seem awesome like the one mention above. The only problem is I am a business guy and would have been virtually useless trying to learn php to code for the summer. I want to share some points from my experience of interning as a business guy in a online startup.
A quick overview; I started interning in October part time while during my senior year (which is still going on). Today I just got a full time offer as employee #15 when I graduate.
One of the first things I try to say to other business guys who are interested in working at internet startups is to readjust what "business stuff" is to them. For example I make the assumption that in a small startup business stuff to a hacker is ANYTHING that doesn't involve hacking. This includes SEM, landing page optimization, analytics, social media marketing, and SEO, in addition to the usual suspects like cold calling and market research. Luckily this is all the stuff I like and/or have experience in and for an early stage startup the former stuff will a lot of times hold more weight. Here is a list of some stuff I did for the startup:
Landing page optimization on feature pages
50% of the design/features of an iphone app
Researched cross selling and upselling optimization points
Data collection
Analyze SEM campaigns
Pro forma cashflow models for new features
As you can tell there's a range, that basically includes everything except coding. I hope this helps any other business guys trying to break into the startup world. I consider myself very very lucky.
- PhilWright 17y agoYou need to careful you don't become labelled as the inhouse SEO/SEM expert. Once labelled like that it might be hard to get the chance to develop other business skills that are needed to broaden out your skill set.
- espadagroup 17y agoYeah I did think of that, though I honestly respect and trust these guys and believe they are investing in my knowledge and potential as well in the hopes that they've gotten a good deal.
- pjharrin 17y agoAny suggestions on landing the internship with a startup?
- PhilWright 17y agoI am about to begin a startup if you have skills at SEO and landing pages etc. My holding page is at www.familytreeonline.com
- espadagroup 17y agoAs a business person, the number one thing I think is realizing that to a programmer for the most part business is EVERYTHING other than coding, which includes all the stuff I put above, and it's that stuff that isn't taught in most business schools but what startups want.
- ScottWhigham 17y agoSorry - maybe I'm just cranky this morning but I'm trying to figure out the point of this post. Are you doling out advice - is that why you posted this as a separate thread instead of as a reply in the original thread? I can't help but think this is yet another one of the recent, "Look at how awesome I am!" posts - that's how it comes across to me.
- espadagroup 17y agoWe'll I've read plenty of posts about business guys trying to get in on startups and I've talked to a lot of other guys in that position. I believe there was a recent thread here that tried to partner people for startups and almost every entry read as "I am business guy looking for a technical partner/startup". This is my attempt to shed whatever light I may on the subject and if the post feels a little overly "Go me" it's probably because I feel pretty "Go me" :)
- pascalchristian 17y agoWow congratulations! That's quite an archivement. What kind of business degree/major did you actually took?
- espadagroup 17y agoI'm an economics and bio major, ha I like to joke that I got this job through everything I did in between and after classes. The startup never even asked my GPA.