During my summer at Thimble as a Tamer Center for Social Enterprise Fellow, I worked on creating a pricing strategy for the product launch. I analyzed customer surveys with more than 3000 data points to create this strategy. This included cleaning up the data, creating visuals, and conducting a WTP assessment. I also supported the formulation of the go-to-market strategy and researched potential partnerships for the soft launch at the end of the summer. I assisted the financial team in market sizing and cleaning up the financial data. I also researched and cataloged all the data used to support the market forecast data. My work was directly related to the organization’s mission to create needle pain solutions for the world. The company was soft-launching one of its products at the end of the summer and my research contributed towards the smooth working of the launch. The company also aimed to raise funds in the future. My work in the financial model directly helped towards that. Thimble's motto is to provide needle pain solutions with compassion and I believe that my summer supported the company to be closer to that mission.

I applied courses from my core as well as electives during the entire internship. I applied the WTP analysis model from the Microeconomics class to create a pricing strategy and then double-checked the findings using a profitability model that I learned how to create in my Finance class. I managed a team of 4 for the small business consulting club and supported a start-up. This experience helped me contextualize the business problems effectively and come to a solution. I used my Leaders’ Voice course to present my findings with conviction. Professor Sandra Matz’s Managerial Negotiations and LEAD class helped me navigate calls with potential partners and third-party vendors. I used the concepts I learned in Professor Angela Lee’s Foundations of VC class to create financial forecasts and make amends to the VC deck. In Professor Lee’s class, I assessed a startup from a VC investor point of view and it was great to use that skill set while creating pages for the VC deck of the company and preempt questions that could be asked during the presentation

I worked at Thimble while I was 7 months pregnant. Therefore, I thought I would face a lot of logistical issues. However, the founder Dr. Manju Dawkins is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She was super understanding of my situation and gave me a lot of support throughout my internship. She had regular check-ins with me to understand my goals and helped me achieve them during my internship. I also needed to work on certain projects independently without much steering from the founder as she was wearing a lot of different hats. This gave me a chance to be creative and come up with solutions that were different than expected.

Working at Thimble was one of the most incredible experiences of my time at Columbia Business School. I have always wanted to build a social enterprise in the long-term and Thimble gave me a blueprint of how to run a company with compassion with a mission of promoting compassion in the world. It was an invaluable experience to understand the intersection of healthcare and the software industry. I pursued this opportunity at the Tamer Center of Social Enterprise because I wanted to work in a start-up environment, use my skills from my MBA classes in a practical setting, and create a difference. Working at Thimble made me realize that I enjoyed working in smaller companies a lot more than I thought I would. I loved that my work had a direct impact on the bottom line of the company. My analysis would directly steer decisions related to pricing, marketing, and fundraising for the products. This gave me sense of accomplishment as well as pride that I was creating a difference. I feel confident going into my post-MBA life that I will be able to excel in a work environment where I feel challenged and I will be able to make a positive impact.