Shopping for work clothes in Salerno, Italy

Author: Brooklyn McCally | Major: Marketing | Semester: Summer 2023

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Dock3- The Startup Lab in Rome, Italy. Toward the beginning of my internship, I worked with 13 different startup companies. The startup companies put together presentations to pitch to investors and I was asked to listen to the pitches and identify areas of improvement. In addition, I researched different possible competitors for the 13 startup companies. Later on, I took on the task of creating a PowerPoint presentation for Dock3. In the future, this business presentation will be reviewed by venture capitalists and partners. The content of this presentation aims to convey the business model of the new company Dock3 is developing. Toward the end of the program, I worked on the optimization of the Whova app for our DemoDay.

Working on the Whova app and managing it during our DemoDay was a memorable learning experience. DemoDay is the final Dock3 event where all the startup companies pitch their presentations and business ideas to real investors. This is a large event with over 200 attendees. To ensure that this event ran smoothly Dock3 decided to partner with the event coordinator app Whova. I was given the task of designing and managing this application. That included communicating constantly with the app creator to remove and add features to the app to make it easier for users to navigate. This improved my ability to identify potential problems and come up with effective solutions.

My biggest contribution to the app’s final creation was developing the voting service that determined which startups would receive funding from the investors. In addition, I had to categorize over 200 registered individuals and check them in during the event. Before and during the DemoDay event I constructed and sent out beneficial reminders and instructions to the participants. I valued this task the most because I contributed to the success of the biggest event of the program.

Checking in all attendees at Dock 3’s DemoDay event

After DemoDay Dock3 began focusing on how they were going to succeed with their new company. I was assigned the task of researching other startup programs within the European Union. I carefully sorted through dozens of websites noting down which startup programs would make acceptable future partners. I’m beyond grateful that I was able to contribute not only to Dock3 but to their future company as well.

I’ve never done an internship before so I did not know what to expect from this experience. I assumed I’d be assigned simple tasks that required minimal use of my skill set. Thankfully, I was wrong. Dock3 challenged me every day and poured into my professional development. When I was asked to help create the business model for Dock3’s new company I was beside myself. My advisor treated me as an asset which pushed me to perform as one. In the beginning, when I was asked to critique the 13 startup pitches and presentations I was intimidated. I felt that I had nothing to offer these esteemed talents who could start their own company. I had done nothing close to anything as impressive or respectable. However, after researching the components of an effective business pitch, business model, and minimum viable product I began to feel more prepared. I spent my days off work reviewing the tutorial videos the startup founders had to watch before completing their presentations. The more I researched and dove into my own learning, the more confident I began to feel. Toward the end of the pitch rounds, I noticed an improvement in the depth of my questions and feedback.

One of my professional takeaways was that confidence goes a long way. I worked with a few individuals who spoke very clearly and confidently and in return they were always given respect and attention. However, I noticed that the majority of that respect stemmed from others assuming they were correct because of the infliction in their tone. I struggle with speaking confidently, especially in a large professional setting but I’ve seen how crucial it is in the business field. I’m going to work hard to establish more infliction and power in my tone.

What I learned about myself is that I also struggle to force myself to network and make connections in an uncomfortable setting. After many of the startup pitch days everyone would network, and exchange contacts but I frequently found myself avoiding introducing myself to others. Over time I started to recognize how important it is to connect with those around you in a work setting. I pushed myself outside my comfort zone and started making those connections for myself. This change has given me the opportunity to work with one of the startups on their social media.

After the completion of this internship, I feel driven to develop my own startup company in the future. Reviewing the different business pitches taught me a few of the key factors that are necessary in a business pitch. This includes being able to create traction, identify a problem and why your company offers the solution, and how to develop a minimum viable product. In addition, I was able to observe what team-building skills help company founders work together effectively and solve conflicts. One of the startups that was geared toward real estate caught my attention because I’m a real estate agent. In the future, I would like to be able to develop my own startup company in the real estate industry because of this internship and my current knowledge. Before this internship, I didn’t consider creating a company an obtainable career option. However, after observing the startup program during my internship I now feel inspired to challenge myself.