Claudia Ojeda ’13
My Experience
This summer I interned at the Insight department at Endeavor Global. This department generates research on topics related to high impact entrepreneurship and works on creating appealing output mostly to distribute publicly. During these weeks I mainly worked on a project analyzing Endeavor’s top growth entrepreneurs. The project’s objectives were twofold: first, I created a research paper and compiled the findings from 15 interviews to publish them. These insights can be useful both for Endeavor’s entrepreneurs who apply these lessons to help spur their growth, in addition to being a powerful communication tool in supporting Endeavor’s mission. Second, I helped identify internal findings for Endeavor in terms of selecting high growth entrepreneurs and working with them.
I also worked on a smaller project analyzing the results from Endeavor’s annual entrepreneur survey, collaborating with a graphic designer to create engaging materials to be published as the most relevant findings.
I had actually expected to face many more hurdles. I seemed to have a slight stereotype in my mind, thinking that a nonprofit would probably work in a slow, inefficient way, and that I would have problems gathering and dealing with internal data and so on. Well, that didn’t happen at all! Endeavor is an extremely professional nonprofit that aims at operating like a for-profit, which is easy to appreciate while working there.
One of the main challenges I faced was that I started with a very vague idea of my research hypotheses, and since I had to kick off the research and my interviews, I needed to speed up and formulate some initial thoughts to structure my questions. Obviously, new ideas came along the way that I managed to incorporate in the interviews.
Another challenge I faced was a communication issue working with a graphic designer, but that ended up being extremely fun and enriching. It presented some hurdles as I realized I had no idea how to express my ideas into a specific design. I had to develop a totally new communication strategy to be able to make him understand what I needed, and give him feedback in a constructive and understandable way.
Working in the social enterprise sector has a different vibe in the sense that people are not only “working to work.” At Endeavor, you could feel everyone was really excited about the company and the mission, and each of them was an absolute ambassador to the organization.
I also realized that in this sector, in particularly in this company, most people tend to have a solid background in mainstream positions like banking, consulting or private equity. The skills are totally transferrable, and it is a very logical path.
Being accustomed to working in consulting, where the client is always pushing and expecting more and there is huge pressure, I deeply enjoyed the whole experience of working at Endeavor. My relationship with my manager was a perfect balance of hands off with value added contributions from her when needed. I set my own calendar considering the length of my internship and managed the whole process without having to rush for unforeseen events or external pressures which was great. Finally, my report was published on the company’s website and given a lot of exposure through their blogs and twitter accounts, which was definitely nice to see!
