As students, many are interested in gaining a competitive edge over their peers. Earning while still holding a book in one hand is a dream for most. Letsintern.com is a start-up launched in the 2010 that offers a kick-start for careers.
Run by the motto ‘Start Young’, the portal is an initiative by a group of three enthusiastic 20-somethings, including Rishabh Gupta, Mayank Batheja and Pranay Swarup. It is a platform where all forms of student opportunities (internships, virtual internships, brand ambassadors, volunteer opportunities, tasks and full time jobs) are facilitated by connecting students to companies. Founder and chief executive officer, Rishabh Gupta tells us more.
The idea
“Mayank and I met through an international internship by AISEC, a student organisation. That was the first time we entered the student-corporate space. After moving onto jobs, there came a time when we wanted to create a start-up and Pranay joined our team. Out of the hundreds of ideas that we came up with, Letsintern made perfect sense,” says Rishabh, who studied at Delhi University. Having seen the market at a ground level, the trio recognised a huge demand for internships.
“You walk into any college and start talking about internships, students are instantly interested. Organisations are also interested in cost-effective talent, the same for which they would have to pay 10 times the amount in a year’s time,” he shares.
No one becomes a success overnight. A lot of hard work makes you the best in your field leading you to be successful. And giving the present generation a headstart is their idea. “Mark Zuckerburg started his career at 13. Starting young gives you a competitive advantage and for all those who want to be successful by their mid-twenties, starting in their teens makes perfect sense.”
The market
Earlier, avenues available to students were limited to their networks. Today, they have access to a thousand more. Letsintern.com plays an integral role especially for students from smaller cities like Varanasi or Kanpur. They have access to more knowledge in terms of a wider choice of options and working in other cities or even as a virtual intern. As a virtual intern, you can work from anywhere in the country and at any time.
“When we first entered the market, a major task ahead of us was establishing a connect with companies. To walk into a corporate office and convince them to recruit interns was extremely difficult.” says Rishabh, a former Network 18 employee. So has the market for Letsintern.com changed in the last few years? He says, “As we’re creating a competitive market, the demand for good interns also rises. When we started, only 30 per cent of the total internships were paid. Today, about 82 per cent of them are paid internships.”
In 2012, over 12,000 internships were taken up by students through the platform. This year, the team expects to impact about 50,000 to 1 lakh students. Further, universities and institutions alike are moving closer to companies and integrating internships in their curriculum.
Challenges faced
When asked about major obstacles faced, Rishabh laughs and says, “Oh, tons of them! Being in a space that was in its very nascent stage and hadn’t been earlier explored meant that there was no precedence to follow. Anything that we charged was questioned because there was no established industry norm. To create and justify a revenue model proved to be a difficult task.”
Rishabh also believes that there is a lack of a certain amount of seriousness amongst companies about hiring young talent. He says, “Recently, we received a Facebook message from a big company saying they wanted an intern. An intern is not a vegetable you pick up or someone I can just drop in your inbox. There is a need for a structured process to hire interns. Companies today are warming up to having youngsters work with them. For example, most of the big companies need mobile apps, primarily on the Android platform. Only young staff can help them in this field as Android did not even exist a few years ago.”
The journey
Although the need is greater for students because they feel isolated in a pool of thousands of organisations, there are enough companies today which are interested in interns. Letsintern.com gets requests from around 800 organisations requesting temporary man power every month.
“Internally, we had some big moments as a company. We were elated when we received our first round of investment. Soon after, some extremely talented people applied to work with us. So many people reconfirming our belief gave us the confidence that we were on the right track,” he shares exuberantly.
Letsintern was amongst the top 50 start-ups to watch out for in the year of their launch according to the initiative. Soon after, Letsintern.com was also awarded a grant by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
To make the platform more credible, students are required to upgrade to a ‘premium’ account to get access to unlimited applications by paying `500. Simple screening tests also ensure that the student is serious about the internship. This reduces the chances of unwanted applications and pranks. Marketing, IT, content writing and design are four most sought after internships on the website. Big names like Viacom18, HCL, Madison, WWF, Adidas, PepsiCo and Dell are some of the internships offered on the site.
Commenting on the company’s future, Rishabh says that there’s a lot in store. The company plans on launching a mobile application on Android. “We're planning a a ‘Learning Centre’ soon. There’s a lot in the works, but I am not at a liberty to say more,” he says before signing off.
