My Experience
I worked on multiple issues related to Business Development, such as analyzing potential new markets in Latin America and Southeast Asia (the company’s main geographical focus) by researching ocean shipping and customs databases. I performed a competitive analysis with the objective of determining the best way of developing lines of revenue by researching other competing firms in the B2B wholesale space and their business models. Our biggest competitor in this space is Alibaba.com, so much of my efforts were concentrated on understanding their success as a company and as a business model. In addition, I came up with a few ideas to improve the visibility, communication and look of the products that we were selling on our website by designing an internship program in Indonesia and Vietnam in which regional university students would be hired to visit textile, clothing and furniture factories and take professional-grade photographs of our products. At the same time, this would provide employment and professional experience to local students in small cities and rural areas. Finally, I worked all summer long on the financial model of the company, which was necessary in order for us to raise Series A financing and to prove that our revenue model was executable.
I used a lot of the skills that I had learned the first year during my internship. My strategy class was very useful when looking at some of our competitors who were very successful, and in understanding what exactly it was about their business model or production processes made them successful. From my two marketing courses I learned valuable information that enabled me to recommend solutions to some of the competition issues that we faced with Alibaba.com and the other major players. Although marketing wasn’t my focus during the internship, I understood that if we wanted to gain market share we would have to improve communication with our main clients – Southeast Asian clothing and furniture wholesalers. To this end, I did a lot of research with Google Analytics and AdWords in order to develop an online advertising campaign. Finally, my accounting course was especially useful, since one of my main responsibilities was to develop the financial model.
The biggest challenge I faced at TigerTrade was the lack of structure and defined responsibilities that I felt in comparison to previous jobs that I’ve had – especially at large corporations of financial institutions like JP Morgan. I was used to working with very specific instructions, training programs, and defined responsibilities. Working for the first time at a startup, I struggled a little bit with developing my own goals, and since I was working on multiple projects at once, prioritizing the importance and urgency of each project. In addition, I (along with another intern) was the only MBA in the company, and so felt some lack of guidance and coaching when it came to some of the quantitative analysis that I had to do. It was a part of the challenge that I actually ended up enjoying, because I had to rely on myself to be correct and accurate. In addition, a lot of the initiatives I carried out at TigerTrade I had to come up with myself – which is really the reason why the company decided to recruit MBAs, but in the beginning it was challenging.
All in all, I had a very positive experience at TigerTrade. I learned a lot about the startup world and even more about the positive effects that a seemingly straightforward, for-profit business can have on developing countries. I discovered that there is no disconnect between the two, and in fact, now believe that some of the most efficient solutions in the Social Enterprise sector will come from companies that have a symbiotic business relationship, like that of TigerTrade and Southeast Asian local factories and manufacturers. However, I also learned that as a company starting out in a space dominated by a massive competitor (Alibaba.com in our case) it is especially difficult to acquire market share and to provide strategic advantages. In addition, unless you raise a major round of capital, it is hard to develop long-term plans, and raising money isn’t easy when everyone compares you to your larger competitor, even if your business plan is different. I have now come to appreciate the value that operating for a major Social Enterprise/non-profit that is well funded (such as the Clinton Foundation) can have on communities.
