How My Internship Shaped Me as an Entrepreneur Some mind-boggling stories of how these entrepreneurs attained accomplishments through their internships

As the saying goes ‘only heated stone becomes gold’, similarly until and unless a youngster is made to work beyond his capabilities, he doesn’t turn out to becoming a serial professional. An intern in any organization is like a fly on the wall; he is not even an accountable employee but is privy to almost everything happening around him. As a newbie into the office culture, he acquires the expertise, skill-sets and it also helps him to understand his area of interest. Here we go onto some mind-boggling stories of how these entrepreneurs attained accomplishments through their internships!

(This article was first published in the September 2017 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)

Kavin Mittal, Founder, Hike Messenger

My first tryst with entrepreneurship began with travelling to New York, for summer internship at Google. There I met a lot of people who were building applications solely for i-phone users. This inspired me to design the first ever movie ticket reservation app on the i-phone in 2009. It was absolutely a brilliantly designed app and even today, it works and functions really well. 

“MY FIRST APP, DESIGNED DURING INTERNSHIP, IS STILL FUNCTIONAL.”

Greg Moran, Founder, Zoomcar

Prior to setting up of Zoomcar, I had interned with city government of NYC in 2006 for two months, doing research and drafting policies around sustainable development for NYC plan 2030. Having worked with them, I was inspired to working towards urban development challenges.

“MY INTERNSHIP TAUGHT ME RAPID EXECUTION AND WAYS TO BUILD CROSS FUNCTIONS FUNCTIONALLY.”

Naveen Tiwari, Founder, InMobi

The best thing about interning is that you get an opportunity to test your interests and passion, identify what suits you and what doesn't; essentially helping you to explore and experiment. I interned at a few organizations across sectors before taking the plunge to startup on my own. For me, my internships were a time of self-discovery and realization. I believe that internships help you get a glimpse into the culture of the sector. With my intern-'Inmobians', I try to inculcate the philosophy of constant innovation and disruption.

"INTERNSHIPS ALLOW YOU TO UNDERSTAND YOUR INTEREST AND PASSION."

Saahil Goel, CEO and Co-Founder, Kraftly

I did my summer internships with Walmart and Bayer, while pursuing my MBA. Time spent at Walmart & Bayer helped me to combine my theoretical learnings with practical experiences and understand other facets of the business like technology, data, cost analysis and business management. I would like to introspect it as an experience that helped me learn various aspects of business which were earlier unknown to me, making me 'curious'.

"MY INTERNSHIP HELPED ME TO BECOME CURIOUS TOWARDS BUSINESS."