Challenging Everything: A Boothie's Bogotá VC Internship Experience

William K. Lee is a rising second-year student at Chicago Booth. This summer he was an intern at Polymath Ventures, an innovative company builder in Bogotá, Colombia, and he shares some of his experiences in this interview. Prior to Booth, he worked as a software engineer for Bay Area Internet companies including eBay and Wikia. He came to Booth because he wanted to shift to the business and management sides of technology, so his summer internship gave him a great opportunity to practice the high-level skills he has developed in business school. Moreover, the opportunity allowed him to step out of his comfort zone and tackle new challenges in a new place. Will is active in the entrepreneurship scene at Booth and in Chicago and is a Co-Chair of the Booth Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group (EVC) for this coming year. Outside of school, Will is training for October’s Chicago Marathon (his sixth) and enjoys playing bar trivia with other Boothies.

--Matt Richman

Where did you work this summer and what was your role?

I worked in Bogotá, Colombia, at Polymath Ventures. Polymath designs and builds companies from the ground up that serve the needs of the middle class in emerging markets. This summer I was a technology advisor and product manager for one of Polymath's companies, Táximo. Táximo is trying to reinvent the taxi industry in Latin America by making the customer experience safer and more convenient.

What are some resources you took advantage of at Booth that helped you land the job?

The Entrepreneurship concentration at Booth was instrumental in securing my summer internship. I first heard about the job opportunity from the newsletter of the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Group. Once I got the offer, I turned to the Entrepreneurial Internship Program (EIP) from Booth’s Polsky Center for further assistance. EIP offers grants to students like me who want to work at cash-strapped startups.

What was the highlight of your summer internship?

I was in charge of hiring a software developer. At first I tried the regular recruiting channels, such as posting on job websites, but they proved fruitless. The next step I took really threw me out of my comfort zone. I went to several software engineering Meetups in Bogotá in order to meet talented developers in person. I planned on attending just the events’ networking sessions, but I ended up participating in the interactive Spanish-language portions, too. Imagine trying to talk about Big Data with just high-school level Spanish! Nevertheless I am glad I got to experience these Meetups not just because they helped with recruiting but because they informed me about the startup scene in Colombia and connected me with tech entrepreneurs.

 

Will attending a tech Meetup at a Bogotá co-working space

Were there any transformative aspects of the experience that will help you structure your final year at Booth?

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working closely with company founders to advise them on technology issues. I liked drawing on my technical background and also pushing myself to think strategically. I would like to have a role like this after I graduate from Booth. This could be partnering with an entrepreneur for a startup or serving as advisor-in-residence at a startup incubator or accelerator. In my final year at Booth, I plan on participating in entrepreneurial activities and taking many entrepreneurship and general management courses, such as New Venture Strategy.

How was your Spanish before the internship? 

I studied Spanish for four years in high school, but it was very rusty when I landed in Colombia. This wasn't a problem for work because my colleagues used English in the office. Still, I tried to improve my Spanish. I got involved in Spanish-English language exchanges and listened to podcasts. Now it's pretty good—yesterday I tuned into a Spanish radio station and understood an announcement for a supermarket sale!

Did you get a chance to explore Bogotá and Colombia? What was your favorite experience outside of work?

Bogotá had a host of things to do this summer. I enjoyed going out into my neighborhood and discovering nice restaurants, hole-in-the-wall eateries, cafes, and bars. I also ran a lot this summer for marathon training, so I got to explore many parks and districts on foot. I created a Google map of my favorite places, which was a big hit around the office. I tried to break out of the city's large expat scene by meeting locals through various channels. They were very friendly and invited me to special events like a wine expo and an outdoor rock festival. My favorite experience of the summer was spending a weekend in Medellín, Colombia's second city. I enjoyed its fantastic weather, met its outgoing people, and reveled in its vibrant nightlife.

Will and another Polymath intern sampling some reds at a wine expo in Bogotá

How did your first year at Booth help you get the most out of your summer?

When I decided to pursue my summer internship at Polymath in Colombia, I took the Booth motto of "Challenge Everything" to heart. In my work, I used skills I developed in my first year coursework to perform extensive analysis on every claim I encountered. My colleagues appreciated the level of rigor I applied to my job. At a higher level, I challenged myself by taking the risk of working in an emerging market that I had known little about. The safe move would have been working for a startup in the Bay Area, where I'd lived for most of my life, where I planned to return after Booth, and where I would have formed connections seemingly more beneficial for my short-term goals. But conversations with faculty, second-year students, and industry professionals that I met on Booth-organized career treks helped me see that a summer in Colombia could be just as rewarding. I'm glad I chose Bogotá. Not only was it a unique life experience, it opened my eyes to the business opportunities there and gave me insights into entrepreneurship that will serve me well in my career (and which you can read about here). 

Inside Look Into the Fast-Paced World of Rock Star Entrepreneurs

There have been so many conferences taking place these past few weeks! This week we'll learn about Seedcon, an annual conference co-sponsored by the Polsky Center and the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group. Vanessa Xu, a first-year student and enthusiastic DSAC blogger, gives us her unique perspective as a volunteer for the event.

-Dana
***

I was very drawn to Booth because of its rich environment of intellectual curiosity where amazing ideas are born and everyone comes from diverse backgrounds and is willing to share and learn from one another. When ideas and passions collide, as they often do here, fantastic things happen. Once such occasion where this happens is SeedCon, an annual entrepreneurship and venture capital conference hosted by Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group (EVC) on November 16th at Gleacher and November 17th at Venue SIX10. As a member of EVC, I volunteered for this 2 day conference. Part of my job over these two days was working at the registration desk and being assigned to Sam Yagan, a key speaker, as his handler to make sure he is where he needs to be at all times. Don’t know Sam Yagan? Have you heard of eDonkey, SparkNotes or OkCupid? He’s the guy who co-founded all of these start-ups!

SeedCon really allowed me to be near the energy of entrepreneurs in the vibrant Chicago start-up scene. Arguably the most fun part of the conference was the Fast Pitch competition on opening night, during which 6 finalist teams competed for a chance to win $100,000+ in awards and consulting hours in front of a panel of 8 distinguished judges for 4 minutes of pitch and 6 minutes of intense Q&A. Two of the teams were composed of Booth students; a team of first-years actually took 3rd place for their idea of bringing a new infrared technology to market. The other teams were equally impressive in their start-up ambitions; two particularly memorable ones include a team from IE Business School in Madrid pitching their idea on “Bet Me,” a low-cost online gambling site, and a team of two ex-beauty and makeup consultants pitching their idea on “Stylisted,” a service that matched freelance beauty professionals with professional women. The winner of the competition was Intelligent Loop, a B2B service that employed real-time scanning technology to help companies track industrial assets. I had a feeling this was the winner as soon as the judge commented during Q&A that this kind of technology can really help governments keep track of crumbling infrastructure like railways and highways.

On Day 2 of the conference, my day started early at 7:30AM to help set up and grab breakfast with the other volunteers. We were all excited to hear keynote speaker Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners, who was present at SeedCon for the first time after many years of wooing from the EVC group. He delivered a powerful presentation, preferring to use highly visual slides to punctuate his points on what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur – the highs are higher and the lows are lower than any other career. You can read his blog post describing his experiences at SeedCon.

There was plenty of time for networking, where I found people were eager to meet others in search of partners, funders, or just for pure socializing. I met many start-up founders and a ton of students who were excited about entrepreneurship and venture capital. One of the best things I got out of the conference was also learning more about my fellow classmates and their aspirations. A friend shared an insight that resonated with me again and again as I listened to Sam Yagan, Bryce Johnson (the founder of Braintree), and Matt Matros (the founder of Protein Bar) speak about their entrepreneurial journeys: to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have a certain kind of grit that allows you to not give a hoot about what anyone else thinks. Sam Yagan spoke unapologetically about his how his team came up with the idea of building OkCupid: they were trying to find internet industries where it is possible to leverage “cheaper, easier and more fun,” and after ruling out pornography and gambling, they decided on a dating website. True story.

About your blogger: I grew up in NYC with a background in finance and accounting. I always knew an MBA was in my destiny, and the question of “where?” was easily solved when I attended Booth Live; I was blown away by the faculty, the beauty of the Harper Center, and the caliber of the student body. Now that I’ve been a full-fledged Boothie for the past 2.5 months, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life (only a slight exaggeration) and so very glad I made the decision to come to Booth. The two years will go by faster than I can say “recruiting overload” so I’m trying hard to hold onto my seat as I take in each and every second of this journey.

Summer Internship Series: Start Ups in NYC (and Spain!)

Summer is flying by but Booth interns are still being kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to talk about their internships. This week, TBE’s very own Dana Fortini shares her story. I, personally, can’t wait to hear more about her internship at Spanish Vines – and to make myself available for any product testing she might need – when we return to campus.

Beth
****

Tuesday, 9:30a.m.: You're at the Ace Hotel, meeting with the principals of a boutique design firm to discuss re-branding of one of the key products in your portfolio.

Tuesday, 1:00p.m.: You head to Casa Mono, a Michelin-rated Spanish restaurant in NYC, to taste sherries with the wine buyer.

Tuesday, 3:00p.m.: You're at your CEO's studio apartment on the Lower East Side, working on an investor presentation for private equity firms and angel investors.

Believe it or not, I've had days like this while working at Spanish Vines this summer. Founded in 2009, Spanish Vines is a New York-based importer of wines from Spain's most prestigious and highly regarded DOs (DO stands for "denominacion de origen" – the regulatory classification for wines from Spain). I was hired to shape and implement the company's social media and SEO strategies, but in true start-up form, I've also been assigned projects related to finance, mobile app development, and PR for our constituents in Spain. (A perk of the job: I also get to enjoy a refreshing glass of Txakoli on a hot summer day.) Because the company is so small, I work directly for the CEO and collaborate with him on a daily basis. He treats me less like an intern and more like his peer, so I've been given tremendous responsibility over the past 6 weeks.

The entrepreneurship classes I've taken at Booth have done an excellent job at preparing me for my projects at Spanish Vines. The New Venture Challenge taught me many valuable lessons that I was able to apply throughout the funding process for Spanish Vines. Although the business metrics that PE and angel investors look for are slightly different than what VCs seek, I was able to draft the key parts of a business plan and investor presentation based on what I had learned from NVC. Through the NVC process, I also learned how important it was to have a passionate and dedicated team. All of us at Spanish Vines want to share the story of Spain with the US consumer. We also share the vision that Spanish wines are poised to become a category leader in the US market.

Another course at Booth that has been highly applicable to my internship experience is Entrepreneurial Selling. You would think that a product as fun and enjoyable as wine would have no trouble selling itself (especially our wines, they're pretty great!). Unfortunately, it's a lot harder than you would think to receive commitments from key on-premise (this is industry jargon for restaurants and bars) and off-premise (supermarkets and liquor stores) accounts. At Spanish Vines, we target, prospect and qualify our potential wine buyers before scheduling meetings in order to increase the likelihood of placement on the wine list at some of NYC's trendiest and most popular restaurants.

In August, I'll be heading to Spain to meet with our winemakers and the families that own the bodegas. We want to build our US brand image through the use of rich stories and photography, so I will be responsible for generating and curating content on this trip. Although our company is primarily in the business of selling wine, we also want our consumers to learn how wine is directly tied to Spanish culture and the livelihoods of many individuals in the country. I'm very excited about the trip not only because I get to travel throughout some of the most picturesque areas of Spain, but because I have always wanted to deliver the pride and passion that the winemakers have for their craft to the US consumer. In addition to writing about the experience as part of my company's consumer marketing initiative, I'll be reflecting on my time at Spanish Vines during the Entrepreneurial Internship Program (EIP) seminar this fall! (Head here if you'd like to learn more about EIP.) I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with my entrepreneurial peers and learning all about their accomplishments at their internships.

Summer Internship Series: Start-ups in San Francisco

Hey everyone! So although the Harper Center has been relatively quiet the past few weeks, the students at Booth have been exposed to all sorts of interesting projects and given a great deal of responsibility as part of their summer internships. Here at The Booth Experience, we'll be highlighting our students' internship experiences, which span a multitude of industries, job functions, and geographic locations. Our inaugural post is from Sibo Zhao, who is a product manager at Zynga in San Francisco this summer.

- Dana
***

Greetings from the beautiful city of San Francisco!

Three weeks into my summer internship as a product manager at Zynga, I can already say that I’ve had a fulfilling and fun packed experience. I chose to come to Zynga for many reasons. First, I love games. Being at Zynga means that I can legitimately claim “I’m working” when games occupy all the real estate on my screen. Second, like many of the tech companies in the Bay Area, the perks are pretty amazing. Free swag, free meals, free massages, free gym membership... the list goes on. But more importantly, I came to Zynga for its rigorous data-driven culture, its entrepreneurial mindset, and its fast-paced, challenging work environment where each individual can make a difference. In fact, there are many similarities between my first year at Booth and my summer at Zynga: I keep my head above the water by ruthless prioritizing, I back my findings with disciplined data analysis, and I’m always surrounded by incredibly smart people who are ready to learn and share their learnings.

One of the unique aspects of Zynga is that interns are treated equally as full time employees. There is no concept of intern projects - we were expected to jump into a full time role from day one. For me, this has included investigating player behavior by engaging in a world of simulated economy, designing and launching cool new features, and driving revenue for my game studio. These responsibilities give us great visibility among management of all levels, but are also balanced by rigorous training session and multiple mentorship programs. One of the Zynga values is to be CEO and own your results. This means everyone at the company has an entrepreneurial mindset. In particular, I love owning a feature from scratch and working with teams of artists, designers, and developers to delight players.

And of course, we have a ton of fun at and outside of work. Our office can resemble an arcade sometimes - we take breaks to shoot basketball, play mini-golf, and challenge each other to Guitar Hero. Last weekend, the graduate interns all went on a wine tasting trip in Napa. It was a great opportunity to hang out with the interns from various offices, learn about their experiences at Zynga, and gain a greater perspective of the company. Living in San Francisco also has its own perks. San Francisco holds an abundance of diverse culinary treasures. One of my favorite activities is discovering new restaurants with great friends and catching up on each other’s stories, while learning a new thing or two about the cultures around the world.

Taking on the New Venture Challenge

Hi everyone,

Happy Friday! Here at Booth we have just completed Finals week (woohoo!) and are getting ready to head off on our Spring Break vacation destinations all over the world. It’s almost a shame to be leaving the 70+ degree and gorgeously sunny days we’ve been having in Chicago over the last week!

In addition to a new blog entry today, we’d are very excited to bring you another Day in the Life - a continuing video series through which Booth's students share with you what the Booth experience is really like. Today, we join Albert for a day as he starts his day with a healthy breakfast, goes to meetings and class at Harper Center, then Kuma's Corner (great burger place) for dinner before finishing the night with a model (an excel model). Check it out here and let us know what you think!

In today’s blog, we check back in with our aspiring entrepreneur, Dana, as she gets ready for Booth’s New Venture Challenge that will take place this spring!

Tina

***

Although the spring quarter hasn't even started, I know it will be one of the most exciting and busy of my time at Booth. Why? I will be participating in the New Venture Challenge (NVC), one of the country's best-known MBA business creation competitions. NVC is hosted by the Polsky Center and previous winners have included high-profile start-ups such as Bump and GrubHub. This year has been one for the records: the Polsky Center received 119 applications, 52 of which are advancing to Round 2. Although the final round of the competition is not until May, my team has plenty to do and thankfully, the Polsky Center has incredible resources and contacts for us as we work on our business plan. I will be working on Omakase, an online platform that will bring "underground" dining and supper clubs to a broader base of eager diners.

Both Professor Rudnick and Professor Kaplan teach a course, Special Topics in Entrepreneurship: Developing a Business Plan, for those of us who have progressed to Round 2 of NVC. The course not only allows teams to dedicate additional time to business plans, but allows us to practice our presentation skills and receive feedback from our professors and judges. The lecture portions of the course cover legal issues, sales and marketing, and how to develop a financial plan. My team will be one of the first to present; the Monday we get back from spring break, Team Omakase will deliver our first 15 minute pitch and business overview. In addition to the time spent in class, teams also have appointments scheduled with entrepreneurship professors for additional guidance and leads. Although each member of Team Omakase has an extensive network, I am both very impressed by and gracious for the network that Professor Rudnick has provided us, generating further leads in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

After our final business plans are due in late April, the last few weeks in May leading up to the finals are dedicated to our second presentations. Based on the quality of the presentations and the final business plans, a handful of teams are then selected to present in the finals, where the top teams (as determined by a panel of judges) will win cash prizes.

Personally, I feel as though I have a tremendous deal to learn from the NVC process. I have never had to pitch to investors and have never been part of a team to develop a business plan. Although I have sold tangible goods in the past, it is so much different to sell target consumers on an idea and service in its infancy. And no matter how much sales experience I've had, it's always difficult to hear "no" from a potential client or customer. As an entrepreneur, I believe that selling skills are critical to have and I know that by participating in NVC, I can improve a great deal.

The NVC process has already taught me a great deal about some of the nuances in building a business and the decisions that are required. What are the implications for incorporating as an LLC or C-corp? How much equity is appropriate for each team member to have? How do we go about finding a lawyer who has sufficient experience with start-ups? These may seem like relatively mundane details, but the NVC process thus far has taught me not to overlook these important steps.

If you'd like to see how NVC unfolds over the next few weeks, you can follow the Polsky Center (@polskycenter) on Twitter and search for the official #ChicagoNVC hashtag.