#summerstartup

Week 5

Photo Credit: The Odyssey Online

This year marks my fourth year working with StartUps and I am amazed at the overall personal and professional growth I’ve gained from such involvement. To begin, LearnerNation taught me the importance of content for marketing one’s business. I thought to myself content? I was assigned to produce content in the form of blogs for the company’s website. It took me days to write out three short paragraphs. The title alone was difficult to come up with. Alia, my mentor, helped me by introducing me to HubSpot (an inbound marketing and sales platform). I watched their videos and learned so much. Now, I understand what inbound marketing is and why small businesses who use it thrive. First, I need to compile thought leaders in the e-learning industry, follow what was trending and/or what were popular topics, then I would devise blog topics that were relevant and engaging. The idea is that a business owner, seeking to train his or her employees, would come across LearnerNation’s blog, and eventually to its services. 

My second year I worked with Rokk3r Labs, particularly with Juana La Iguana, through this startup and my mentor Charles, I learned the importance of doing marketing research. We had to do comparative analysis of successful children’s learning applications. Juana is a kind of Barney (but based in Latin America). Our job was also to clean up the company’s WordPress website and keep up with google ad words. This experience also allowed me to see the steps that a company goes through to develop new material. Juana had three applications we were finalizing the second, and working on building the third. Working in this capacity allowed me to live a day in the life of CEOs and the staff who put the application together (physically), marketed the application, and who financed the project. 

For my third and fourth years, I continued to learn about the effect that marketing tools through my mentors Corey and Kiesha. I learned the importance of tools such as SurveyMonkey for writing newsletters, google surveys to quickly gather data, and the importance of staying true to your brand. More importantly the processes large organizations use to execute various functions. 

My participation in various startup events has also been very beneficial to my growth. It has allowed me to put what I’ve been learning into practice. When I speak to other attendees, participate in workshops, and share in front of a group, I feel confident sharing the knowledge and experience I bring to the table.

Today June 28, 2017, marks the beginning of my internship with Venture Hive, via Teach for America’s Start-Up Summer Program. This is my second consecutive summer as a participant in the program, having completed an internship with Jacq’s Organics last year (summer of 2016). 

My first day was a deep dive into an exciting project involving former professional athletes turned cannabis entrepreneurs. I could tell you more, but I would have to eliminate you.

LOL I’m only messing with you. 

My task today was to review content for a workshop curated by Venture Hive to meet the specific needs of the aforementioned entrepreneurs. Specifically, I am to re-formulate the content from a non-profit lens or viewpoint. 

Venture Hive seems like an incredible place to work. Although currently the “slow season” for them, there are still between 10-12 companies and organizations at work there now. The majority of those are all from different countries, so there is certainly an exciting international vibe in the office.