This summer I have been working for Capital Innovators, a St. Louis-based company that provides top-ranked accelerator programs, venture fund management, and corporate innovation. I was introduced to my boss, Frank Hopper (program director for CI), through personal connections within the St. Louis Entrepreneurial Fellowship. What interested me most about Capital Innovators was that, while it is not itself a startup, the firm works with, and is deeply involved in, the growth of their startup portfolio companies. I knew this would be a both great learning experience and a rare opportunity to get a unique look into the inner workings of the startup world. 

To my surprise, Capital Innovators had eight other interns working this summer alongside me, many of whom were from Wash U as well. CI’s fall cohort was approaching and our first task as interns was to perform outreach. Our goal was to find as many startups as possible, contact them, and encourage them to apply for the accelerator program. In total, we reached 1000+ companies, a few hundred of which ended up applying. 

Once the application deadline closed, we shifted our focus towards specific company-based projects. These included marketing, application data work, advanced diligence, deliverables, site upgrades, and community engagement. Interns were assigned to specific groups (mine being marketing and deliverables/site upgrades). My group, which focused on the deliverables/site upgrades, helped create a brand new resource portal for CI portfolio companies with updated information, tips, and guidelines focused on funding, pitching, sales, prototyping, and other counsel. My group working on marketing helped create social media posts on Instagram and LinkedIn, wrote informative weekly blogs, created a daily tip-sheet, updated the company newsletter, and worked on lead generation. I enjoyed writing the blogs, in particular, because they were open-ended, allowing us to choose from topics of interest within the accelerator/startup field. 

More recently, interns were asked to review the submitted applications and provide both summaries and scores based upon a variety of factors. We judged the legitimacy, professionalism, upside, and progress of the companies we were reviewing. This was the most enjoyable part of the internship for me as it put me in the judge’s seat and challenged my ability to appropriately rate the performance of the 80 startups I was assigned to. Reading the applications was inspiring and motivating for me, as I could see how hard many of these entrepreneurs have worked to establish themselves. It certainly increased my desire to start my own company in the foreseeable future. 

The leadership team at Capital Innovators used interns’ suggestions to help narrow down the applications to the top 25 startups. The next stage is live video pitches, during which these top 25 companies will present to the founding team and will be peppered with questions. Interns will be a part of this process as well, observing and taking notes throughout the pitches. Ultimately, only 8 startups will be chosen for the program and will receive $50,000 in seed funding. 

I have enjoyed all of my work thus far and am excited for what is to come. This has been a great learning experience for me and I thank my boss, Frank Hopper, for being so involved and supportive along the way.