WEEK 2: SURPRISES

I am now finishing up my second week with 500 Startups and everything has been amazing. I have (somewhat) learned my way around Downtown Miami (mainly just from my apartment building to the office and back). The 500 Startups team and I have fallen into somewhat of a routine and we are getting all of our tasks done in a timely, efficient manner. So what have I been up to this last week? And most importantly, what has surprised me?

RECAP:

We finished going over the applications together and finalized the list of startups that will be attending bootcamp #3 on Thursday and Friday next week. After that we sent them all formal invitation emails and there are currently 23 startups confirmed for attendance. Majority of the logistics are done for the speaker series event we have on Wednesday of next week as well. The best thing about working with 500 Startups is the amount of support and reliability the team shows towards me. To much of my surprise, they value and ask for my thoughts and opinions on many decisions that need to be made.

I AM WORTHY

When I tell people I am an intern for a company this summer, many think of me making endless copies, going on coffee runs, or maybe even picking up people’s dry cleaning. With 500 Startups, that is not the case. On my first day I was immediately put to work. Again, I had little to no knowledge about traction, revenue, month to month growth, or even what a pitch deck was. Nonetheless, I was asked to rank and comment on each startups application. When the three of us sat down to make the final decision of who would be attending bootcamp this #3, they took my rankings and comments into full consideration.

Ill be honest, at first I figured they were making me review these startup applications to sort of get a feel for what 500 Startups is all about. I had no idea that they would genuinely take into consideration my thoughts and opinions on these companies. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the team agreed on my rankings and to be asked to expand on some of the comments I made. Everyday the team never fails to make me feel valued.

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I have grown so much from just these short 2 weeks, I cant wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me.