For anyone looking to work at a startup or start one, I thought I’d share some insights from my experience thus far on why working for a startup is awesome and what I’ve learned so far.

Reason #1: There’s no work for work’s sake, you get to do more in less time, every time.

My second day on the job, I sent out some emails and mentioned to the founders that we should have a demo video to keep our emails from being too long. So one of them said, “Great, go for it”. On my third day, I wrote a script and pulled together a powerpoint with screenshots. I asked Rick, the UX advisor for 500 Startups, to help me edit the script, and he even helped with the voiceover. By the end of the fourth day, a1-minute demo video was ready to go and was on every individual lunch club’s landing page.

Tip: When you’re really early stage or pressed for time, a powerpoint, with audio recorded on the slides, saved as a movie file is a MVP demo video that will do the trick until you can pull together something fancier is. I put together a detailed how-to on what we did to make our video here.

Reason #2: There’s a culture of people believing in you even when you don’t believe in yourself, instead of a culture of people seeing you as “just an intern”.

One morning, Hong, a 500 Startups advisor, looked at our stats for the Bay Area Interns Lunch Club. We were at 50 members, and I was pretty excited. Then Hong said, “Okay, great, now double that”. “What? Oh, I can try…” I said. He looked at me, “No, you won’t try. You’ll just do it.” The clock was ticking and I went on a community management frenzy. That day, I sent “thanks for signing up, invite a friend!” emails out like crazy and watched as the numbers climbed from 50, to 63, to 76, 86, then at midnight, 94. The next morning, I got to the office early to do some last-minute hustling. In 24 hours, I had gone from 50 members…to 96. And a few minutes later, 102.

Though I missed the initial goal by just a bit, I grew the group’s user base by 100% in just over 24 hours. I never would have believed that I could do that, but sometimes you just have to be the person who says,“Challenge Accepted!”

Tip: It’s a mistake to think you can do everything alone. The best way to be SuperIntern is to thank your existing users and ask them to help you out: “Hey, thanks for having us! If we’ve helped you, please invite a friend!”

Reason #3: You’re always surrounded by smart, creative and passionate people.

Over one weekend, my desk disappeared, so the Monday after, while rolling over a desk to replace it, I had the chance to chat with Tara, a designer sitting nearby, who told me about how she got to work internationally (she did web development in Italy): she bought a one-way ticket to where she studied abroad and figured it out when she got there. And when I wrote a random blog post about a mystery in the office parking lot, you would not believe how many people on the 500 Startups mailing list had such strong opinions on parking etiquette. The 500 Startups family is a community like no other.

Tip: I was stumped on how to respond to a bunch of people I contacted (HR at companies, leaders of professional associations and alumni organizations) when they said they were too busy and wanted to talk later. Andy and Hugh helped me see their needs, to see the situation from their perspective and come up with a way to explain that we’ve made the process as hands-off as possible. They explained that when I could clarify that we would allow them to get credit for starting a really valuable program but we would do all the work, they would be much more likely to send an email and restart the conversation.

Reason #4: You actually know upper management.

Hugh and Andy are the cofounders, and I’m the first intern. The founders aren’t just names to you, lecturing you from afar, they’re people you get to know. For example, I know that we usually forget to eat unless Andy reminds us. And I know that Hugh enjoys making those obscure math jokes that nobody understands until he explains them.

But really, it’s not about silly things like that. It’s about how knowing the silly things makes it not scary at all to ask them why they started Wednesdays, what they did in their past life at PayPal, which translates really well to it not being scary to ask about an unfamiliar acronym or why a feature is set up a certain way or why we’re assuming something about a user.

Even if you’re sitting in a meeting and feeling lost, try to ask a good question.

UPDATE:
“The only thing I’d add—in case I haven’t said it yet—you are making a very real impact on our tiny little company and the customers we serve.  Thanks again for the great post.” -Hugh Olliphant, Co-founder of Wednesdays.com

This post was originally featured on the Women 2.0 blog.

One of the attendees at our first lunch was Daniel Shi, an MBA intern at Nokia Growth Partners. I interviewed him to learn more about his experiences with networking and his feelings about the Wednesdays intern lunch club.

Q: So Daniel, are you a big networker in general?

A: I’m actually painfully shy and awkward in large and noisy groups. I was one of those Asian American guys who had their heads down studying or playing StarCraft in high school, but I also worked in sales, where networking was a key to the profession.

Q: What did you do to build upon your networking skills?

A: I would try to find the other wallflowers and strike up a conversation with them. Believe me, they are looking for someone to talk to just as much as you are. Check out the edges of the feeding frenzy. Find the guys who are just standing around. Eventually I started my own networking event. It took a lot of work, but it was worth it. And most importantly, don’t always be closing. Pitch every day, but not every minute.

Q: What about the Bay Area Interns Lunch Club made networking easier for you, both personally and professionally?

A: The lunch today was a blast! I ended up meeting some really cool fellow interns. When I graduated from college, I realized that in the real world, it’s a lot harder to have the kind of social life that a college campus comes with because of a bunch of like-minded peers. And I personally think that one of the biggest bummers of the modern white-collar life is how often we eat alone, so this lunch club program is something I think is super compelling.

Daniel had a great time at the lunch club, and you can too! If you’re an undergrad or grad student interning in one of the cities listed below this summer, then join a lunch club to meet fellow interns and make new friends!

San Francisco Bay Area: http://wednesdays.com/g/bayareaintern

New York City: http://wednesdays.com/g/nycintern

Boston: http://wednesdays.com/g/bostonintern

Seattle: http://wednesdays.com/g/seattleintern

Chicago: http://wednesdays.com/g/chicagointern

Washington DC: http://wednesdays.com/g/dcintern

Los Angeles: https://wednesdays.com/g/laintern

If you are interested in starting a lunch club in your city, then shoot Crystal an email! crystal@wednesdays.com

A few weeks back, Cofounder Andy noticed a mysterious phenomenon in the parking lot of the building the 500 Startups office is in.

One row in the parking lot has almost all the cars parked facing out, even though the most logical thing for a car parking there would be to park facing in. Here’s what I mean:

Say you're driving down into the parking lot...

You turn the corner...

And bam!

Almost every car is facing out. Why?

Seriously? Why?!

One theory we’ve come up with is that people drive around and then park facing out. But why would you do that? Why not just drive in? We’ve bounced tons of ideas back and forth, and we’re stumped. Do you think you can help us figure out why?

P.S. While you’re busy thinking, perhaps you should join an alumni lunch club or an intern lunch club to enlist assistant detectives. Just a thought. I mean, you just might find your next co-founder or even better, the perfect laser tag buddy. You can thank us later (we take cash and cookies).

——————————————————————————————————————————-

UPDATE:

Someone has proposed the theory: “The parking spots are not angled, so it is tighter turning right into the spots. It is easier to just turn left a bit and then reverse into the spots.”  This would make sense if only the cars in the first few parking spots near the parking lot entrance were facing out, but almost ALL the cars, even the ones in the spots farthest away from the parking lot entrance, are parked facing out. And this happens every. single. day.

Welcome to "the best four years of your life"

We’ll be able to offer a chance to network with other advisory board members, a chance for your opinions to have a major impact on a growing company, and for board members in the Bay Area, we’ll take you out to dinner.

Mmmm...free food...

We’re not asking for too much; the board meets over an hour-long dinner (if you’re in the Bay Area) or conference call (if not) once a quarter.

If you are a college/university alum, a staff member at a university alumni office or career center, or a current college student, or if you know a great candidate, please email Crystal at crystal@wednesdays.com.

P.S. Check out our lunch clubs for university alumni and student interns!

But even when several companies bring in hundreds of interns from all over, most of them rarely get a chance to meet the other students who are in the area too, just for that summer.

We're not in Kansas anymore.

We talked to interns at local Bay Area startups and corporations, and it’s clear: these kids are builders, creators, and they want to meet up.

So we wanted to help them make history. Introducing…the secret*-society-of-interns-everywhere lunch club series!

If you’re an undergrad or grad student interning in one of these cities this summer, join this lunch club to meet fellow interns in the area.

Here are three awesome reasons why:
1) You can become an elephant, get closer to inbox zero, and avoid IOU awkwardness
2) You can find like-minded peers to talk about projects you’re working on and plot exciting trips to explore the city you’re interning in this summer
3) You just might find your next co-founder or even better, the perfect laser tag buddy.

What are you waiting for? Join already!

• San Francisco Bay Area: http://wednesdays.com/g/bayareaintern
• New York City: http://wednesdays.com/g/nycintern
• Boston: http://wednesdays.com/g/bostonintern
• Seattle: http://wednesdays.com/g/seattleintern
• Chicago: http://wednesdays.com/g/chicagointern
• Washington DC: http://wednesdays.com/g/dcintern
• Los Angeles: https://wednesdays.com/g/laintern

If your city’s not up there and you’d like us to represent, shoot me an email! crystal@wednesdays.com

Auf Wiedersehen,
Crystal

*Eh. I suppose it’s not so secret now. But…still. Join.

Because nothing says summer like watermelon

It’s only a few weeks into summer, and I already miss my friends from college. For those of you who already graduated, I hear you, keeping in touch with college friends is hard. I mean, I hate the pesky email chains like no other, and the awkward post-dinner moment when some people bring cash and some bring credit and nobody has change? Ugh.

That’s when I met Wednesdays.com*, which is this awesome lunch club service that helps you stay in touch with friends over lunch on Wednesdays.

So here’s how to be an elephant, get to inbox zero, and avoid IOU awkwardness. And did I mention it takes less than a minute?

Fun fact: Elephants consume as much as 495 pounds of food per day. Also: Cofounder Andy likes elephants.

1) How to Be an Elephant.
An elephant never forgets and now, neither will you. That’s because there’s no new passwords to remember. Just sign in with Facebook or LinkedIn. Because how many passwords can a person remember, anyway?

After dinner: Dessert? Awesome. Splitting the bill? Awkward.

3) Splitting the bill isn’t awkward anymore.

Everything’s pre-paid, so no need to keep track of IOUs. This is a biggie. Don’t you just hate those awkward post-dinner moment when some people bring cash and some bring credit and nobody has change, and IOUs ensue? So, AHEM, this. is. awesome!

Don’t be the guy who always says “Let’s grab lunch sometime” but then never does anything about it. Join or create a Wednesdays.com Lunch Club to keep in touch with old friends.

Yum. Lunch.

If you’re an alum of a University of California school, Stanford, San Jose State, Northwestern, University of Michigan, MIT, Cornell, or another one of our first 21 pilot schools, click HERE to join the club. If you’re the alum of another awesome school, shoot us an email at alumni@wednesdays.com and say, “Hey! Please add my school: _____ University”

If you’re a current student an interning this summer, join a lunch club for the city you’re interning in to meet other students!

And whether you’re a new grad looking to impress on your first job or you’ve been working for a while, consider bringing a Wednesdays.com lunch club to your company (PayPal loves us), any professional associations you’re in, a conference you’re organizing or going to, or if you just want an invite to keep in touch over lunch with friends, drop me a line at crystal@wednesdays.com. 

Ciao!
Crystal

*Okay, I’m biased. I intern here. But hey, still way awesome. You just have to take my word for it. Or, take his:

“I recently moved to the West Coast from UPenn, and I can’t wait to join the UPenn Alumni Club. It’s hard to stay connected to the other alums, and this makes it easy.” -Nathan Parcells, Founder, InternMatch.com

How this lunch club works:
1. Sign up with Facebook/LinkedIn
2. Enter your class year, interests, and location (lunches are organized by city, so it doesn’t matter where you go).
3. Get invited to lunches with your classmates 6 times a year
4. Accept and pre-pay if you can make it (lunches range between $12-15)
5. Get an email and text message reminder with directions
6. Enjoy!
Email us at alumni@wednesdays.com if you’d like to start a lunch club for your university’s alumni.

(We’re not just for alumni clubs! We also help corporations better connect employees across departments, conference organizers better facilitate networking for attendees, and individuals keep in touch with family and friends over lunches. Contact Crystal at crystal@wednesdays.com if you’d like to learn more)

Murabeho,
Crystal