During my internship at Meridia, I supported the go‑to‑market strategy for a supply chain traceability platform designed to help agro‑commodity companies comply with the EU Deforestation Regulation. My work focused on building scalable sales operations systems. I created an AI‑driven discovery call app that generated persona‑based agendas and questions. I designed automated lead‑generation workflows using n8n, Zapier, Apollo, and Clay and refined sales playbooks for major accounts. By equipping the sales team with sharper tools and processes, I contributed to Meridia’s mission of empowering smallholder farmers and ensuring sustainable sourcing. My efforts expanded Meridia’s reach with partners like Ferrero and ICE CoT and accelerated adoption of solutions that include smallholders in global supply chains while meeting climate and sustainability standards.

My studies in political science, psychology, and entrepreneurship provided a strong foundation for this internship. From political science I applied knowledge of international policy frameworks, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation, to understand the regulatory context driving demand for Meridia’s platform. Psychology helped me think deeply about buyer behavior, which I incorporated into sales processes and platforms. My entrepreneurship minor equipped me to design lean, scalable workflows for an early‑stage sales operation. This interdisciplinary grounding allowed me to approach problems holistically: I built technical automations while ensuring they matched the team’s workflow and the market’s regulatory realities. Translating classroom insights into practical GTM strategy gave me confidence that my training can be applied directly to mission‑driven business contexts.

One challenge was balancing complex AI‑ and automation‑driven workflows with the limited bandwidth of a lean startup team. Designing the discovery app required structuring large amounts of untagged information into a retrieval‑augmented generation framework. I also had to integrate multiple tools (HubSpot, Apollo, Clay, Zapier, n8n) into a coherent system without overloading sales reps. Another challenge was deciding when to innovate and when to rely on existing systems that could scale more reliably in the short term. While I was eager to build AI‑powered tools, I also had to recognize when simpler HubSpot workflows were more practical. Striking this balance taught me to weigh creativity against operational efficiency and to prioritize solutions that meet current needs while laying groundwork for future innovation.

This internship provided hands‑on experience at the intersection of sales operations and technology in an impact‑focused startup. On the technical side, I learned to build and deploy AI‑enabled workflows that make lean sales teams more effective. On the strategic side, I gained insight into how compliance‑driven markets like the EUDR create opportunities for inclusive solutions that benefit smallholder farmers. Perhaps my biggest takeaway is that operational efficiency can be a lever for social impact. By sharpening Meridia’s sales processes, I was not just optimizing revenue but helping accelerate adoption of a solution that expands land rights, climate resilience, and livelihoods for marginalized communities. This reinforced my belief that innovation in business operations, when aligned with a strong mission, can drive both financial and social returns.