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Cool view from one of our Sponsor’s office in Boston’s Seaport

After learning about all the operations of the organization I was able to put my marketing skills at work and started with small tasks. I learned the organization’s tone for communication and was put in charge of social media (Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn) and newsletter crafting. That allowed me to get a better understanding of who our customers were, how to reach them and talk to them. I was brought in event programming later on. Some events were part of an already established curriculum we just had to follow. Others we brainstormed and improved based on demand and feedback. Thus we had to bring speakers together in respect to a selected topic and coordinate date, venue and other logistical elements. Once the plan was laid out and agreed upon we would open registration and create content for promotion. We had to create a new page on the website using WordPress, make an Eventbrite occurrence and design flyers and visuals. I took the opportunity to learn new skills and improve my knowledge of graphic design and page layout softwares (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign).

It got a bit dull and repetitive however as I got better at WordPress I was put in charge of a new project: redesigning the website. It had been on the map for more than a year now though the team never found the time or people to do it. As a result, I came in just in time to jump start it. It significantly improved my skills in WordPress, html and CSS. My supervisor signed me up as well for google analytics workshops which taught me a lot about leveraging users data to make marketing decisions.

During the internship, I looked at every learning opportunity through the eyes of a startup founder as I wanted to get more out of it than writing great newsletters and tweets. I attended countless events sometimes up to 3 per week and learned about the whole TCN curriculum. I interacted with successful entrepreneurs from famous and less famous companies in all fields. I made invaluable connections with investors and mentors events after events. My most memorable event was probably during my first few weeks and regarded unicorn companies. I met the founders of Draft Kings and SevOne who gave incredible advice about starting high growth startups and making them into billion dollar companies. The founders started from nothing, failed many times and faced great challenges before getting there.

In addition, I was fortunate to attend pitch workshops with one their sponsor, Silicon Valley Bank and learned how to improve my own pitch. I then was offered to pitch my own startup in front of the board of advisors who gave me feedback. Through that experience I met an entrepreneur who introduced me to John Fanning, founder of Napster who is currently mentoring me on how raising capital. I am also getting advice from a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners one of the biggest VC firms in Boston.

Thomas Chardin

Thomas Chardin

Thomas is originally from the south of France and is currently finishing his BA at Berklee College of Music. He has been involved and supported by Berklee ICE throughout his studies as he launched squid.ai. He loves cheese, wine and Mediterranean cuisine.
Thomas Chardin

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