Bbwood6 - Entrepreneurship Pathway

Things Learned:
-soft skills: collaborating with many ideas to make one successful idea, scheduling through time zones, organization
-technical areas: what revenue streams are and how to create them, how to conduct competitive analysis, how to conduct SWOT analysis, how to produce successful marketing strategies, how to give a quality and concise presentation with a team
-tools: google calendar, G suite, trello, stem away forum

Achievement highlights:
-I was super proud of our week one revenue streams presentation. We were new to the topic; new to each other; and new to the presentation format, but the whole thing turned out great.
-Getting to know my team 1 teammate and collaborating in a way that utilizes all of our separate skills.
-Finding quality competitors for stem away and using them to better our idea and its likelihood of success.

Meetings/ training attended:
7/15 EN meeting 1, 7/16 EN meeting 2, 7/10 sub team 1 meeting, 7/21 sub team 1 meeting, 7/23 sub team 1 meeting, 7/23 presentations week 1, 7/27 sub team 1 meeting, 8/1 sub team 1 meeting, 8/1 presentations week 2, 8/2 EN meeting 5

Goals for the upcoming week:

  • Have another successful group presentation for week 3
  • Email team lead Zery to ask him about his old startups (especially the sports cameras one)
  • Ask good questions and stay engaged throughout our team meetings

tasks completed:

  • Generation of a revue stream idea with team 1
  • Collaboration with team 1 to revise and improve revenue stream idea
  • Organization and scheduling of team meetings through time zones
  • Creation of presentation for revenue streams with team 1
  • Presenting of revenue stream idea to the larger group
  • Conducted research for possible competitors of stem away
  • Completed competitive analysis and SWOT analysis for the competitors and stem away
  • Presented the competitive analysis to the larger group with team 1

Week 3: Marketing

Things learned:

  • Soft skills: communication of ideas, team collaboration when it is hard to schedule a meeting, balancing with other obligations
  • technical skills: learning the basic ins and outs of marketing a product (finding the right groups to target, being cost effective, utilizing social media platforms, taking time into consideration, being creative with ideas), creation of go to market strategy, video production (filming, editing, importing, and exporting), continuing improvement of presentation skills, production of basic advertisements
  • tools: google calendar, G suite, trello, stem away forum, iMovie

Achievement highlights:

  • I was so happy with how our video advertisement for stem away turned out. At the beginning of the week I didn’t know if we would be able to pull it off, and I definitely didn’t think it would be what I had imagined in my head. Hearing how happy Stephanie was with the final product made the time spent very worth it.
  • I enjoyed marketing week far more than I thought I would. I feel like I gained a lot of useful skills this week and learned that marketing might be something I am interested in. Vrinda’s spread sheet social media calendar is so simple but so smart. This is definitely a skill that I will continue to use.
  • As we progress through this internship our team continues to get closer and gain more of a flow. We have started to reached a point where we all know our strengths and utilize them well for the team. Communication has already gotten far easier and within that our ideas for stem away have been able to flourish far more. Our growing comfort with each other has allowed us to challenge each others ideas further which has greatly improved the ideas that we are proposing.

Meetings attended: 8/4 Talk with industry mentor, 8/4 sub team 1 meeting, 8/7 presentations week 3

Goals for the upcoming week:

  • Have another successful group presentation for week 4
  • Talk to Stephanie about the production of a similar video add for all of stem away
  • Keep myself organized and on task to balance with my other obligations this week

Tasks completed:

Week 4:

Things Learned:

  • Soft skills: balancing with a busy schedule, coordination through time zones
  • Technical skills: furthering my knowledge on marketing, learning how to optimize on site and off site SEO, learning how to pick the best keywords and utilize them for maximal exposure, learning how to generate customer surveys to better improve overall experience

Achievement Highlights:

  • I struggled with the concept of off site SEOs. Finally griping this concept and understanding how to apply it was a big accomplishment last week.
  • Every week our team flow and structure continues to improve. We get more efficient and the quality of our work improves. We have learned how to work through time zones and function even when every member can’t attend every meeting.

Meetings attended:
8/13 sub team 1 meeting, 8/13 meeting with Virinda, 8/14 week four presentations,

Goals for the upcoming week:

  • Finish with a strong final presentation
  • Talk to Stephanie about the production of a video for all of stem away
  • Balance my obligations for the week and do not get side tracked moving back into school

Tasks completed:

  • Generation of a list of key words that will optimize exposure
  • Creation of linked in advertisement
  • Learned to optimize on site and off site SEO
  • Generation of customer survey for companies

Final Self Assessment:

Things Learned:
-soft skills: collaborating with a team of individuals with very different backgrounds and skill sets; combining, refining, and perfecting the ideas of several individuals in order to produce the best possible final product; scheduling of meetings through time zones with busy teammates; organization; team work; communication of ideas; balance between obligations
-Technical skills: creation of revenue streams; completion of competitive analysis; completion of SWOT analysis; production of successful marketing strategies; presentation of a concise, informative presentation; grasp of basic marketing strategies (finding target groups, being cost effective, utilizing social media, time lines, creative ideas); generation of go to market strategy; video creation; production of social media advertisements; optimization of on site and off site SEO; selection of key words and utilization of these words for optimal exposure; generation and analysis of customer surveys to improve experience
Tools: Google calendar, G suite, STEM-Away forum, iMovie, Trello

Achievement highlights:
I was a member of team 1 which was composed of four very different individuals, all located in different time zones. Every week we composed a presentation on the weeks topic as it applied to our ideas for STEM-Away. Throughout the five week program we grew close as a team and really learned to utilize our differences in order to generate the best results. During our weekly meetings I gained experience in communicating my ideas to others, understanding others ideas as they communicate them to me, and finding the balance between the ideas that result in the best overall product. Our weekly presentations as a team forced us to learn to how to cohesively present a singular idea without missing important details or repeating things our teammates had already explained. Though I feel that I have just started to dip my toes into the world of startups, I am leaving this internship feeling like I have a quality base knowledge of entrepreneurship. A field that previously felt too big, scary, and unknown now feels like a possible reality for my future.