Start-Up Internship | Launch · Eckhaus Admissions Consulting

Why an internship

Most students reach college having read about the field they think they want. This is eight weeks inside it, working on something a start-up needs, with a founder or senior team member as your mentor.

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See the career from the inside

Find out what the work involves before you commit a major to it.

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Build something that exists

A market report, an app, a model, a strategy. You finish holding the thing you made.

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Evidence for your application

A specific experience and a tangible outcome give your essays and interviews something concrete to work with.

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A network, starting now

Your mentor is a founder or senior team member, and that relationship outlasts the eight weeks.

No prior experience in the field is required. Students are chosen for being hardworking, ambitious, and genuinely interested in the work.

What you'll build

Every internship is organized around one project the company needs, defined with your mentor in week one and delivered in two stages. Recent examples:

Health tech

Competitor analysis

For a company scaling nursing homes, mapping the competitive field it was moving into.

Non-profit

White paper

For a San Francisco non-profit working in mental health.

Machine learning

Customer churn model

Predicting churn for a Y Combinator-backed e-commerce company.

Media

Marketing campaign

Built for a Series A media company.

Fields you can work in

Tech & Deep TechFinanceMedia & JournalismEngineering Machine Learning & AIConsultingMental HealthFashion Health TechEnvironmental ScienceNon-profits

Host companies

Students are matched to a company based on the field they want to work in. A few of the companies that have hosted interns, and the founders who mentored them:

Tech, Media

Billion Dollar Startup Ideas

One of the largest generators of start-up ideas anywhere, reaching over 850,000 people. Led by Michael Bervell, an HBS MBA and Microsoft alum.

Healthcare, Tech

JuneBrain

Remote monitoring in ophthalmology and neurology, built on a patented wearable eye-scanning device. Led by Dr. Samantha Scott, a Stanford, USC and NIH alum.

Finance, Tech

Fintech Launch

Closing the gap in financial products across the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia. Led by Kevin Junker, a Cambridge, Google and McKinsey alum.

Healthcare, Tech

IPMD

Rebuilding patient experience with AI, and a part of start-up programs run by Google Cloud, Nvidia, AWS and IBM. Led by Min Lee, a UC Berkeley alum.

Mental Health, Tech

SoftenMind

Affordable mental health care for people in Vietnam, delivered through its own digital tools. Led by Hanh Ha, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee alum.

Tech, Non-profit

Fair Opportunity Project

Free college application guidance for 63,000 public educators, covered in Forbes and the New York Times. Led by Luke Heine, a Harvard and Y Combinator alum.

The eight weeks

Two deliverables, each presented to the company. Your mentor meets with you every week, and a Launch program manager keeps the whole thing on track.

Meet your coach and define the project

You and the company coach agree on what you're building and what finished looks like.

Start the work

Working the project with your coach alongside you.

First draft

You finish a first draft and review it with your coach.

Present the first deliverable

You present it to the company.

Define the second deliverable

You meet the company mentor and set the next piece of work.

Build it

Working the second deliverable with your company coach.

Finalize

Last revisions, with the presentation in view.

Present the final project

You present the finished work to the company.

What you finish with

Every student completes the program holding four things:

A real project: the work itself, done for a company that needed it
Work experience: eight weeks inside a funded start-up
A letter of completion: issued by the company
A letter of recommendation: written by your mentor at the host company

How it works

Application

Your student fills out an application form that covers their field of interest and what they want out of the eight weeks.

Shortlist

Strong applications move forward for placement.

Placement decision

Students are matched to a company by the interests they named, usually within two to three weeks.

Approve the match

Your student sees the company and the mentor before anything is final, and can ask for a different match.

Start the cohort

Cohorts run in June and July for the summer, and in September, December and March through the school year. Students can start earlier on a rolling basis when the timing calls for it.

I stay in the loop

I can see the project, the meeting notes and the ongoing updates, so what your student is building gets worked into their applications rather than sitting off to the side.

Work inside a start-up.