Tell HN: From unpaid intern to full time as a biz guy in a startup
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1202168
I hear a lot about intern experiences at startups that seem awesome like the one mention above. The only problem is I am a business guy and would have been virtually useless trying to learn php to code for the summer. I want to share some points from my experience of interning as a business guy in a online startup.
A quick overview; I started interning in October part time while during my senior year (which is still going on). Today I just got a full time offer as employee #15 when I graduate.
One of the first things I try to say to other business guys who are interested in working at internet startups is to readjust what "business stuff" is to them. For example I make the assumption that in a small startup business stuff to a hacker is ANYTHING that doesn't involve hacking. This includes SEM, landing page optimization, analytics, social media marketing, and SEO, in addition to the usual suspects like cold calling and market research. Luckily this is all the stuff I like and/or have experience in and for an early stage startup the former stuff will a lot of times hold more weight. Here is a list of some stuff I did for the startup:
Landing page optimization on feature pages 50% of the design/features of an iphone app Researched cross selling and upselling optimization points Data collection Analyze SEM campaigns Pro forma cashflow models for new features
As you can tell there's a range, that basically includes everything except coding. I hope this helps any other business guys trying to break into the startup world. I consider myself very very lucky.