Convincing a co-founder
The company had an intern before I came into it. To put it simply, it didn’t go well. That means there is residue from that experience that still sticks to the co-founders. I get it and am sympathetic. Yet, none of that changes my thinking about the potential opportunity. It does however, mean that how I approach the topic of looking for an intern with them matters greatly.
I am fortunate enough to be in a work setting with a CTO that shares my love of all things psychological and entrepreneurial. We both also happen to be both inspired by people like Gary Vaynerchuck and Claude Silver. They are doing business and HR differently and succeeding on a both fronts! The CTO and I have actually joked in the past about wanting to be interns at VaynerMedia.
I had my leverage. Gary Vee was going to help me get my intern.
I asked the CTO where he would put an intern if he had one? He insta-responded with one word, branding! I don’t disagree with his analysis but I didn’t really have a dog in the fight as to where to put an intern. I just wanted to open up the possibility. As quickly as he answered the question, a flood of objections came my way. I had expected this, that whole residue thing. But he also had some points that I hadn’t considered that mostly circled around taking time away from current employees to train an intern.
Allowing the CTO to process, I stayed quiet. He was rapidly integrating, as is his nature, and I didn’t want to break flow. Finally, he said, “I know that Gary Vee would disagree with me.” I really don’t know how Gary would feel about this but I do know that I was going to go with it. We went into the needs of the company and just how an intern could possibly work. And then, a switch was flipped. The CTO was not only willing to try with one intern but was pushing to get three. The ideas just kept coming and the next day I got an email from him with one link that above it said, “Can you tell the intern to do this?”
I guess it worked. Now, I just have to figure out the rest!
