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Summer Internship Guest Blog Post #16 by Jonah Babitz

Sydney Everett (Staff)
July 10, 2019
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Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

What I’ve Learned So Far at Outside360

By Jonah Babitz (BU ’21)

Hi, my name is Jonah Babitz and I am a rising junior at Washington University majoring in Economics and Strategy with a minor in Jazz Studies. Last summer, I took part in a program based in Tel Aviv where I learned all about entrepreneurship and venture creation. Most of my time was spent visiting start-up companies, talking to founders, and even presenting my own venture idea. I felt the need to keep myself immersed in the entrepreneurial world and decided that working with a start-up would be the perfect next step.

I have the pleasure of working for Outside360 this summer, a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects Hosts and Users through online listings for outdoor recreational activities. They’ve also been hailed as the “Airbnb of the outdoors”. Part of my role as an intern is to focus on host outreach and growth. A lot of my day-to-day is spent on tasks like researching the market to finding potential leads for the company, writing and sending out all sorts of email campaigns to those leads, analyzing data based on reactions to emails using tools such as HubSpot and Drip, and using that data to determine best practices to continue reaching out to customers. However, every day at work looks a bit different. New challenges and obstacles arise quickly that need to be taken care of, and while I have found that to be the most challenging part of working for a start-up, it has also been the most exciting part.

I have made a few significant realizations so far. One of them was recognizing how much time and effort can go into even the simplest seeming task. For instance, I helped create a landing page targeted towards fishing guides who could benefit from using Outside360’s services. The landing page took time to create, was designed with a particular template and filled with content that would be useful to fishing guides located around a specific lake. The page was included as a hyperlink into an email that was sent out and not always even opened in the first place. It then becomes a task to determine how things like the landing page can still be used in other ways to benefit the company and be as efficient as possible. I also realized how beneficial it is to build a relationship with customers even after they sign up for our services. After someone becomes a host on the site and puts up a listing, my boss Murielle makes it a priority to follow up with that host and is available to answer questions, check in, and continue to educate them. That is another huge time commitment but is important because it solidifies relationships and builds trust between both parties.

Being a part of the Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program has been so rewarding. I am surrounded by a community of other like-minded interns and get to work at T-Rex, a place filled with entrepreneurs and start-up companies to learn from. I am excited to keep learning, keep being challenged and keep helping Outside360 grow over the next few weeks!