Entrepreneur Internship

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Suzi's post about hiring an intern reminded me about something which I've been meaning to get the group's thoughts about.

Alex and I have had some conversations recently about education and helping students learn how to be independent workers, as an alternative to the typical career path.

It's from there that I hatched an idea for a special kind of internship, likely to take place in a coworking space, where one or several members (either small companies or individuals) would show a student (or several students) how to maintain an independent entrepreneur's lifestyle. They'd help them find some freelance work based on their skill set, and walk them through the legalities, billing, etc associated with freelance work. They'd also show them how to form small teams and launch independent projects while still doing work to pay the bills.

The student would be interning for themselves, and not for a company. In exchange for their help, mentors would get some inexpensive labor :-)

This could be partnered through existing universities, or be a completely independent program. Members can volunteer to offer internships for people with particular skill sets, and take applications.

My questions to the group:

1) What do you think of this idea? How does it contrast with existing programs of a similar nature? I know there are tons of internship and other work-study programs, but I get the feeling that there is some ground to be covered in the realm of teaching students how to be independent workers. What else is out there?

2) Would anyone be interested in trying it out? I'd be happy to help set up the guidelines and get things started.

I'm planning on setting something like this up in New Work City, once we open-- but the idea shouldn't have to wait. If someone would like to try it in the meantime, let me know!

Best,
Tony Bacigalupo
New Work City

[axon]

Tony--

We plan to employ interns from CSU-Chico to help staff the studio.
We've formed a partnership with the student services operation (that
oversees internships), in coordination with the Entrepreneurship track
of the Management degree in the College of Business (which offers a 3
unit internship). Our plan is to task them with projects in our
parent organization (which helps early stage companies source private
equity capital), that they will work on in the Uptime space.

They will be exposed to other entrepreneurs working on their
businesses, and have the opportunity to take on tasks on their behalf
as alignment and skills suit.

We think this will work out great for both the students and the
entrepreneurs. Will let you know if we were right. :-)

--Ax

On Aug 2, 10:52 am, "Tony Bacigalupo" <tonybacigal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Joseph A Holsten]

As a student, starting a coworking in Tulsa, OK, the idea sounds
great to me. I've worked internship & work-study—they never taught
the important things this could provide. The closest to this I've
seen are the startups who poach grads from the local university.

> 2) Would anyone be interested in trying it out? I'd be happy to
> help set up the guidelines and get things started.

I say, give it a name and a website. A wordpress + google group +
pbwiki—as coworking & jelly do—ought to do it. I'll be talking to
universities around here. I think this might be very good for
students. Assuming people like us try to make it work

http:// Joseph Holsten.com

[Suzi Edwards]

Phenomenal idea Tony and Alex.

I'm on board with getting something started in CT. I've been working
with the University of Hartford to get us an intern for the Fall
because they have a great biz program but I will be curious to see how
they embrace this "In Turn" idea where a student is less of a gofer
and more of a director in regards to their intern fate.

One thought: I'm thinking the universities will want the interns to
have a real goal by the end of semester. Maybe once the skill sets are
defined and the companies that they shadow have been chosen, the
students are encouraged to start a wiki or do something so that the
university/coworkers can chart their progress? This way the student
has something awesome to walk away with for future employers -- and
the coworking spot has something great to talk about, and show to the
next intern!

I'll float the idea by UHart and let you guys know their response.

Suzi

> http:// Joseph Holsten.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Tony Bacigalupo]

That sounds awesome, Suzi!

Joseph, agreed all the way. I'll work on setting up a separate spot for us to discuss.

Axon, sounds like an awesome program! Keep us posted on how it goes!

Tony Bacigalupo
New Work City

NYC

[Suzi Edwards]

Alex & Tony + Joseph + Axon + anyone . . .

Just wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about the indie
intern idea that you guys have been cooking up. I haven't heard back
from UHart but will also approach other universities -- tough time of
year as they are mega busy and in "omg, they're all coming back"
stage.

Have you guys had anymore thoughts kicking around?

--Suzi E.

On Aug 5, 11:07 am, "Tony Bacigalupo" <tonybacigal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Hi Suzi,

Yes, I've been cooking up a lot more thoughts on it, but have been focusing on getting New Work City off the ground.

In the meantime, I've created a Google Group as a placeholder for discussions and anyone interested: http://groups.google.com/group/indie-internship

I'll try to write up some more specifics about how the internship would work soon.

Thanks for keeping up on it!

Best,
Tony Bacigalupo
New Work City / CooperBricolage / Jelly
NYC

[JDean]

As an individual that has work experience in the public sector
education (K - 12th), I am share much enthusiam for modeling
entreprenuership through the exploration of career choices. Although
you wish to obtain a college student, there may be some desire to
become involved with a local high school. I find a number of students
who are quite eager to own their own businesses, and even pursue a
higher education, but no one ever has discussed this opportunity to
them. There a number of young people who have amazing talent and
energy, but just don't know how to capitalize on it. Although, I know
that you all maybe hesitant to employee a high school student, I can
assure you there are some very mature candidates. It will take a
narrow screening process, but the right one can be found. It may
bring you a bigger bang for your dollar, to speak, as you gain buy-in
from those members of the non-coworking community.

Jodi Dean

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Jodi,

Great point; I totally agree.

It can be a healthy thing for high school students to think about the role college should (or shouldn't) pay in the context of their future careers, and those with an entrepreneurial inclination especially should be thinking about that.

Feel free to copy this post over to the Indie group: http://groups.google.com/group/indie-internship

Tony

[Jacob Sayles]

I'm very excited about this idea and I'm thinking Office Nomads will be participating in this as well.  Right now we are realigning our ducks as we are transitioning into a fuller space and me personally I'm packing so I can run away to Burning Man but soon we'll pick this up and run with it.  

Jacob

--
Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500

[Alex Hillman]

Just to let everyone know what Geoff and I are already working on:

We've had a number of meetings with the President of UArts in Philadelphia about what this kind of program might look like. We're in a great position to prototype these interactions because a) UArts has very similar values when it comes to mentorship to what we'd like to accomplish and b) we have a really good relationship with the university as Geoff taught there for 10 years.

The meetings are still high level, but have been moving in an extremely positive direction.

Personally, though:

I'm still a bit concerned about some of the ideas being discussed as a "indie internship" vs. an independent mentorship. I know I might be splitting hairs here, but let me explain. This almost entirely comes down to expectations. Most internships are not very DIY, and I think that even *calling* it an internship would attract the wrong expectations. A mentorship program, where students can come and work on their own things, along side other industry professionals, and experience the information exchange and informal learning that all of the people in a coworking community experience, is much more valuable and aligned with the values of the communities.

I'm also speaking from experience having gone to a university that put huge emphasis on it's mentorship/co-op program, and having seen a high percentage of the co-ops be far less valuable than they could have been, simply because of poor expectations being set on both sides: the employers and the students. Just my .02.

I don't think that these two ideas can't happen, together or independent of one another. I guess the "virtual university" without any accreditation or affiliation has me thinking...why? Why add all of the complication to the program when you can just run workshops and lectures (ours are often very well attended, 20-30 people), you can do those very easily and make them open to anyone.

-Alex, IndyHall

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Alex Hillman
im always developing something
digital: al...@weknowhtml.com
visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com
local: www.indyhall.org

[JDean]

One of my experiences in real life is that many companies need
services, that can be performed by an intern, yet there are no mentors/
role models for the young person at the business. Case in point, I
worked for a nonprofit agency that needed a website built. Since it
was a very small organization with little cash flow, the administrator
contacted the local career center. The high school student came to
the location once a week to build a website for the organization.
However, the administrator had no clue about website development, and
my html experience is not up to par as it should be. So, whenever
this young man had trouble with our software he pretty much had to
pack up and go back to school to get an answer. IMHO, the website
could have been completed a third site, such as coworking facility,
where technological advice could be easily given by a mentor. If one
would look at the need among nonprofits to develop websites and blogs,
there could be an amazing opportunity. The cowrking site could
partner with nonprofit organizations to obtain the needed projects,
and then the mentors at the coworking facilities could obtain the
students. With the expectation, that all work and communciation would
be completed at a coworking site. This may be a win-win, as in this
economy, some nonprofit organizations (particulary grass-roots) don't
have the money to house an intern, and yet need technology to spread
the mission of the organization. It is also, an excellent
partnernship for the local school or college as they have one more
success story to tell.

There may be an added benefit as the nonprofit organization or public
high school could seek out funding to provide a small stipend to the
student intern.

[Nancy]

Lots of great thoughts here...

Indeed, mentorship and internship definitely are 2 different things
altogether though I never thought about it (until now - one reason I
so enjoy this group!).

COLLEGE INTERNS

I am hoping to get some help from college interns (though I have to
lick a few wounds after the "poaching" comment above!). And, I do mean
"help!" Couple of thoughts on interns, in my case, anyway: My alma
mater has a large grad student population as well as undergrads...
There's a tendancy for grad students to apply for internships (keeps
them out of the classroom, I believe). Some of their credentials are
so business impressive and so not in line with my mindset and
background, in spite of my college degree earned "way back in the
day." I'm all about win-win so I envision "employing" the help of
undergrad interns with some expertise but still on the learning curve
themselves. For example, rather than a grad student or a recent grad
to help with my website, I'd much prefer an IT major who has more
computer-specific knowledge than I (not too difficult) but for whom
the experience would be both a great real-world experience as well as
a strong addition to the student's resume. How many case studies can
business students evaluate, discuss, graph, and so on? There's nothing
like the real world to help them wake up and smell the coffee ~ and,
no, I would never expect an intern to get me coffee - and not just
because I'm a dedicated tea drinker!

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

I should point out that, while my values and mindset are in sync with
the coworking community, my business concept is on the fringe of co-
working. In an effort to serve my social mission (increasing awareness
of social and environmental responsibility and lifestyle choices and
action in the suburbs), involving high school kids is high on my list.
In our area (North of Boston), the high school kids are required to do
25 hours of "community service." While some take that and do amazing
things, more spend time babysitting teachers' babies in the on-site
daycare or helping at after-school program at the grammar school. Not
that there's anything wrong with that... Yet, with just a bit more
guidance, I envision providing the opportunity to the students to help
out at my place in an area that interests them and fills a need as I
work to make my business concept a reality.

For example, one feature of my place will be The Re-Wall (working
name). This visual centerpiece will be an awareness building tool
about alternatives to recycling... The goal here is to step beyond the
mindset of so many that is something like, "I am doing my part for the
environment because I recycle my newspapers, magazines, junk mail and
all my water bottles." The Re-Wall will be a wall of cubbies of
various sizes, with the contents exposed via plexiglass. Each cubbie
will house a different item, saved from the recycling bins and bulk
donations to larger foundations (Not that there's anything wrong with
that either). For example, we will be collecting empty medication
bottles. Come to find out, now that there have been great strides in
Africa bridging the cultural differences and increasing the
population's willingness to take HIV medication, there is a bit of a
shortage of a safe means to distribute the meds. Well, if the US
doesn't have enough medication bottles, who does? Now, I need to do
the legwork to find out the details of just what organization to work
with on this, when, how often, and the like... An interested HS
student could do so much of that research with just a little direction
as well as lead the effort to gather the bottles locally (nursing
homes, retirement communities, and the like)...

Sorry to go on. It's a great example of how this mentoring piece can
work for me... Keep in mind though that there would be a great deal of
exposure to the opportunities out there to work in a quasi-business-
like setting, the fact that there are options out there. Something
tells me this group would agree that the quasi-setting blows away the
9-5 cubicle anyway. It's the quasi that makes it all so much more
innovative and inspiring!

One last point, when a student completes their community service,
they'll get a free student membership through age 21 and a letter of
recommendation (assuming they've earned it) from myself or another
adult who served as the mentor... Another bonus here is that my
regular members (the adults!) could offer to be a mentor and get some
help with their projects. Student projects would have to be approved
(which the high school requires anyway), of course, and based on some
parameters that the experience will be service-driven and worthwhile
for the student.

Though I don't add comments here often, I seem to always end with an
apology for the lengthy comments. So, sorry yet again...

My personal blog is www.twsblog.wordpress.com. Every time I think of
going into detail here, I just feel like my concept is too far off the
coworking beaten path (well, getting stomped down path by those of you
leading the way!). Please feel free to let me know what you think of
my concept, such as it is, anytime. I'd love to know what you think
but my site is still too loosey-goosey to extend a full-out invite to
this entire google group. Once the kids get back to school, I'll have
no excuse not to clean up my act and gather my ideas in a more concise
package (this while working on the business plan, seeking start-up
funding, growing my circle of contacts locally and within the social
enterprise sector ~ maybe I will have an excuse, after all).

Along with the apologies for the verbosity, my best to you all, as
always,

Nancy Gallant
Social Entrepreneur
Founder/President, Time Well Spent
Ipswich, MA
www.twsblog.wordpress.com

[ideabrian]

Nice thread.

A thought I had (besides the ones already brought to light here) is
that the reverse would also work well.

What if schools opened up some space for coworking?

They've likely got the needed facilities and in exchange for the
space, the coworkers would offer up an example of how work can get
done from anywhere and would certainly change the face of the on-
campus job.

Brian Ball
BizDevHouse Oakland

> My personal blog iswww.twsblog.wordpress.com. Every time I think of

[Kelli Franklin]

I too am enjoying the thread.

Brian do you not think you would run into liability issues with
schools as they are governmentally funded?

-Kelli

[Suzi Edwards]

Hey y'all . . .

If you're interested in staying with us on this topic, be sure to join
the Indie Mentorship group that Tony has set up and we'll continue
chatting over there: http://groups.google.com/group/indie-mentorship

Thanks!

Suzi

On Aug 25, 2:18 pm, Kelli Franklin <kelli.frank...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I too am enjoying the thread.
>
> Brian do you not think you would run into liability issues with
> schools as they are governmentally funded?
>
> -Kelli
>