Rohit Singh: Exploring the Boston Tech Community with Medumo — TechGen Intern Spotlight

The TechGen
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read

Rohit Singh is an MBA student at Boston University. Before knowing about the startup scene in Boston, he aimed to become a consultant. However, after he immersed himself in the community and became an intern at Medumo, he found out that “startups are what I actually want to do”. Here we share his story about interning with Medumo and becoming part of the tech community in Boston.

Rohit Singh

How did you find out about TechGen and Medumo?

I saw TechGen’s booth at a career event off campus and got to know about TechGen, and from there I went to the website and applied for the internship at Medumo.

What about Medumo stood out to you?

Before I joined the team I had an interview with Jacob (co-founder) and Amanda (product designer), and they were amazing at explaining the product. Usually, I have some skepticism about whether the startups know enough about their business or what I could learn in that type of environment, but when I spoke with Jacob and Amanda, I knew this startup has potential. I could feel their energy and attitude in the interview when they spoke about their product. I guess that was what stood out to me.

What’s your role at Medumo?

I was hired as a data analyst, but at a startup, we wear many different hats. I’m primarily a data analyst but I also support different roles such as product management, I work with the computer science team a little bit, and I work with the UI/UX team a lot. It’s fun.

Inside a Medumo office.

Is this your first time working at a startup? Were you more interested in working at a startup or a larger company?

Yes, this is my first time working at a startup. I came from an MBA program, so I was sure that I wanted to do consulting. But around October or November I found out about designing and I signed up for the Harvard Design Conference, and I learned so much about design that I thought I could apply it to many cases and situations, and that’s when I wanted to pursue the idea of working at startups and learn all the things about building a business, so that I could eventually do something of my own.

Any highlights during your internship?

There was a Philips event and Medumo was part of it. It was a great experience, and I learned so much from it. There were six startup founders and many questions for them from the panelists and audience, and it was a great learning experience. It was great to learn what they were facing when they were starting their company. Everyone has something different to say and I could see the different stages the startups were in and the different challenges they faced.

As for the highlights at Medumo, before I joined Medumo, I didn’t think I would work on so many different things, which is good. And the people here are positive. Sometimes I work in the public area (of PULSE, the accelerator we’re in), I find that everyone has an enthusiasm about startups. I think startups require some passion, otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible.

What’s a typical day like at Medumo?

Every day is different, but most of the days I am doing data analysis, and we have a team call every two weeks to talk about what’s happening. I work with the UI team and we almost meet every day and discuss what’s required. We are making many hypotheses on what the product needs, so we have a few hypotheses, we dig into the data and test whether the hypotheses are true or not.

What’s your background? And what brought you to Boston?

I am originally from Mumbai, India, and I did my undergrad at National Institute of Technology.

I applied for two schools and Boston University was one. I was not sure which one to choose. But then I met someone who told me about Boston and he said that it is a very young city and that I would like it. Plus BU gave me a scholarship, so here I came.

Now that you are here, what do you think of working and studying in Boston?

I’ve had a very good experience. There is so much to do and are so many smart people. Like I said, Harvard Design Conference is one of the best design conferences that I have been to. I have also been to MIT a lot and the people I met there were amazing. I don’t think I would’ve gone into a startup if I didn’t come to Boston, and I might be doing consulting instead. And my professor at BU, Ian Mashiter, he is amazing. After taking his course, I was like yes, I definitely want to go into a startup.

Do you think your experience here will provide you with things that you can bring back to India?

I think in India the learning will be lesser and will be very different. In terms of understanding corporations I can learn a lot in India, but conceptually I think that what startups are doing here is better than that in India. In India, a normal idea can get some attraction if they execute it well, but it is much more competitive here. You have to have great ideas and great execution, because there are so many startups in the community.

How were you searching for companies? Were there specific companies or industries you interested in?

When I was looking for startups, initially I was looking for tech internships, probably because I did computer engineering in my undergrad. Although I don’t like coding a lot, I wanted to go into tech. I didn’t think of going into healthcare technology though because I don’t have any medical background. But as I said, when I spoke to Amanda and Jacob, I knew about their product and saw the simplicity and efficacy in it.

What’s your plan after graduation? Do you want to stay in the US?

Not forever. I am definitely going back to India, starting my own company there. But I don’t know how long I would like to stay here. I think after graduation I want to stay here for at least one or two years first to learn all I can learn because the opportunity for learning here is much greater than in India.

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