Interns and Internships

I have always been surprised by the amount of people who need each other but can’t see a way to find each other. This is the problem that online marketplaces try to resolve, some do it good and some others fail to work because they don’t gain the attraction of both suppliers and customers.

With this post, I would like to introduce you to a new marketplace that attempts to connect people looking for internships at local Startups and Small businesses and Startups looking for Interns.

Why is this needed?

I was looking around and noticed that while most large corporations have many ways to reach out to students or anyone else looking for internships – Small Business and Startups don’t have that same advantage or resources. This affects both the Startups and people looking for internships with interesting Startups or Small Businesses.

With the above in mind, and with the help of free tools from Microsoft’s BizSpark program and some HTML/CSS + AngularJS I was able to launch a website to help Startups find Interns and Interns find Startups. The name of the site is InternsAndInternships.com.

Below is one of many responses I got from my post about Startup Interns on Facebook. I liked how Ryan Joy (Microsoft Developer Evangelist) immediately figured out why a site like this is needed.

What are the next steps?

The Interns and Internships website has already help a few people find internships with local Austin, TX startups. My goal is to keep it free and as demand increases automate the matching process with an algorithm instead of matching Startups with Interns manually as I currently do. This will allow both parties to have better chances of finding each other, and it will prevent me from becoming a bottleneck for such an important service.

Here are a few of the emails I’ve received since launching this website last October:

“Thanks for the introduction and providing such a top-notch service.” ~ Daniel Stone

How can you help?

There hasn’t been any marketing or PR about this service, just a few posts on Facebook and Twitter – and now this blog post. If you are someone who can help spread the word, please do. Startups, Interns and myself will appreciate it very much.

Also, if you have any ideas or feedback about the idea, the site or anything else, please share it with me.

Another way you can help with this project is by donating to help with some of the costs related to running the website.

Cheers!