"Best Photo From Your Internship" Contest - Internmatch.com

Internmatch.com held a intern photography contest and I just sent in my entry twice with a follow up email because I was not reading instructions. These pictures are definitely not the best that I have to show, but I really want an Ipad and this is my best chance get one for free. I had to really scour my hard drive to find five decent pictures. Out of the ones I submitted and listed below, my favorite is Bootstrapping Business Trip. Ideally, I would have had a picture of me pitching to the Startup Weekend crowd, but you have to work with what you have. Nonetheless, I believe that these five pictures present give a good idea of my internship these past two weeks, so that is why they made the blog.

A Shoestring Budget Office

At Wednesdays.com what you see is what you get. On the first day of my internship, I was surprised to find that our whole office was just four tables pushed together, which we sublet from another startup. It never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that you could even do that! This office represents to me what a startup is all about, making due with what you have and building amazing products on a shoestring budget.

Three is Company

In a three person company, the work place is very intimate. I sit right across from my two founders/bosses/co-workers and as a result the atmosphere is very casual. Whenever, I have questions I just speak up at the table and ask. In addition, I get to see and partake in pretty much everything that happens in Wednesdays.com. In a close environment like this you have to love the people you work with and thankfully I do.

Coffee is my religion and Cafes are my church

Coffee is a vital part of my internship because without it there would be no way I would be able to make the one and a half hour commute to San Francisco and ACTUALLY work once I got to the office. When you rely on coffee as much as I do, there are some strange behaviors associated with it. For instance, every time the coffee pot is empty I curse under my breath whoever left it that way and when there is no more coffee in the office, I die a little inside as I make a cup of tea. Due to the fact that they serve coffee, cafes become the second office, conference room and home whenever we at Wednesdays are on the road or tired of our real office. My internship at Wednesdays has led me to ask where would startups be without coffee!?

Bootstrapping Business Trip

When you are an intern on a "business" trip at a startup, there's no corporate credit card that you charge your expenses to. Instead, you bootstrap it like the rest of your company, which means bumming off friends' couches or in this case air mattress. Nonetheless, it was a blast to meet current users and potential users. Getting out into the field was what I was taught in Anthropology and that is what I have found to be most effective for customer development during my time at Wednesdays.com.

Startups by the beach

As part of my week long "business" trip, I was able to attend Startup Weekend in beautiful Santa Monica. Wednesdays.com is partnering with Startup Weekend to create lunch groups for their alumni. As the Wednesdays.com representative, I was able to meet the CEO of Startup Weekend Marc Nager, and he even pulled me up in front of the crowd so that I could pitch the lunch club. This scene was definitely one of the high points of my internship experience and a perfect way to end my "business" trip.