A Summer of Student Innovation: 39 Interns Delivered Startup Impact
Writing software, creating sales funnels, and building data rooms. That’s just a sample of what our interns got their hands on this summer.
Our inaugural Innovation Internship Program, which connected dozens of diverse Central Ohio students with promising startups, recently concluded with rave reviews from both students and startups. The program was designed to help prepare young talent for jobs in high-growth, technology businesses, as well as to build entrepreneurial pipelines for startups. Ultimately, we hope that these interns will catch the bug and either become entrepreneurs or seek careers in a startup or other entrepreneurial environment!
A Determined Launch: Internship Talent Is Key to Central Ohio’s Innovation Strategy
“I learned about working on projects with a team and how it all comes together.”
With more than 50 colleges and universities and an active student population of more than 130,000 graduate and undergraduate students, Central Ohio is talent-rich.
The original 2020 launch plan for our Internship Program was to achieve twenty-five internships in high-growth startups. Instead, interest exploded, and our first cohort closed with thirty-nine students from a half-dozen different universities with fifteen Ohio startups hiring interns.
The original plan was also to have interns working with startups on-site, with ongoing events at Rev1 Labs to facilitate networking with peers, other entrepreneurs, and Rev1 staff. Instead, it was the summer of Zoom, virtual conferencing, and telecommuting.
Remarkably, the interns and startup companies didn’t miss a beat. The response from Hannah Kenney, an intern at Aware, was typical. “I have been completely remote. I was onboarded remotely, at the office only twice, once was to pick up my laptop. Remote work has been ten out of ten.”
Together Interns and Startups Delivered Remarkable Impact
“They brought so much life and sunshine to the company, especially in such a dark time.”
Columbus is home to a thriving startup community and innovation hub. Continued success depends on the availability of talent, including individuals trained in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and business, including finance, marketing, and management.
The 39 Innovation Interns wrote software, revamped web sites, and improved processes benefited the bottom line in measurable and sustainable ways.
- At 3Bar Biologics, interns in biochemistry and biological engineering working on-site at the company’s location at Rev1 Labs, became highly proficient in bench testing and data collection.
- At Agile Ultrasonics, one of the interns, also an entrepreneur, participated in Rev1’s Customer Learning Lab.
- At Aware, an aerospace engineering intern formed a cross-functional team with a data analytics major to create a business development model for sales.
- At BeeHex, an industrial systems engineer wrote the software and helped with the analysis to achieve last-minute corrections to a vibrating 3D printer part.
- At Converge Technologies, a finance and accounting intern will continue as a program manager on an extensive Air Force project and an accounting assistant for the company and a senior in aerospace engineering became fully functional in CAD and other engineering tools.
- At Deep Lens, an intern studying molecular genetics worked with experts to research and deliver findings to the executive team on natural language processing.
- At Food Forest, an intern helped build backend shopping cart features as the pandemic created explosive demand for the company’s ordering and delivery services which connect food sources to those with food insecurity.
- At GhostWave, an electrical engineer updated company marketing and technical sheets.
- At Health Plan Data Solutions, interns built a data room for financial and funding projects.
- At Nanofiber Solutions, an accounting intern at became QuickBooks certified.
- At Print Syndicate, the design intern analyzed trends and contributed designs for marketable products that allow customers to express who they are.
- AT Protein Capture Science an accounting intern at developed databases about customers, competition, and potential partners.
- An RxNXT, an intern-led sales outreach project, doubled the expected lead generation goal.
- AT SHARE, interns rebuilt sales funnel and pipeline, produced exponential growth in leads, reworked the web site, built a social media program and generated huge returns, and helped shift HR filing systems from paper to electronic.
- At Ubihere, an electric engineering May graduate from OSU redesigned a carrier board for a smart camera system.
A second Innovation Internship Cohort Commences in September.
“Their level of professionalism and understanding of business problems was amazing.”
These startups are doing incredible and complex things that are impactful to the world around us. This internship program connects outstanding students to those startups with amazing results.
Learn more at https://www.rev1ventures.com/internship-program-for-startups/. Rev1 is continuing this program into the fall, spring, next summer. View and apply for fall internships here.
