Hello everyone! My name is Emily Flores and I am going to be a sophomore at Washington
University in St.Louis. I plan to study entrepreneurship and organization and strategic
management at the Olin business school. This summer I am working with a small business called
Bold Xchange!

Bold Xchange is an e-commerce retailer that makes buying Black-owned brands simple and
thoughtful. Doug Spencer and Danielle Deavans, co-founders of Bold, identified the problem
that Black entrepreneurs are chronically under-resourced and often lack support. In order to
combat this, they decided to help elevate Black-owned products by providing the support of
packaging, delivering, and handling customer service. Recently, they have also partnered with
brands such as The Home Depot, DocuSign, and Capital One to create boxes that would include
Black-owned brands. They have also been published in magazines such as New York Magazine,
Today.com, Apartment Therapy, Delish, and Health Magazine. Doug and Danielle moved to
St.Louis shortly after winning an Arch Grant.

Working at Bold Xchange has provided a fun experience where I have gained much knowledge
on how small businesses operate! I was able to do my internship hybrid style and have been in
St.Louis for about a month working in person. Every day is different when working with a
start-up, and a typical day starts with me arriving at T-Rex, a co-working space for start-ups. I
usually check the social media calendar to start working on what needs to be posted for the day. I
design or find pictures and make sure to run the post’s caption by Danielle. We have also started
to make videos and post them on different platforms. With Doug, I will sit in on some meetings,
mostly with potential brand partners. It is exciting to sit in on a meeting as a summer intern, and
I learn something new every time. I also got to help package some orders at their warehouse and
it was fun seeing the products in person and how the delivery system works. Additionally, I
usually conduct research throughout the day to find more entrepreneurs that can be included in
their network and also more corporate partners that they can plan out gift boxes.

While I am only halfway through my internship, I have learned so many skills that will serve me
for the rest of my life. It has been fun working for Bold Xchange and I am excited to learn more
as I enter the second half of my internship. Stay Bold!