Summer Internships have ended

Last month, LegUp Health's inaugural Summer Internship Program came to an end. We "employed" (and I use this term loosely) 6 non-paid interns this summer after sifting through 30+ applications.

Our interns represented top universities including Yale, Duke, UNC, and MIT. And they were from states all over the country (U.S.). Below, I have included a picture of the interns. As you can see, it's a diverse group:

Our interns worked on projects ranging from "building a go-to-market plan" to "creating an explainer video" to "designing a client education course." Their work was valuable and will contribute directly to immediate or future efforts at LegUp Health.

If you'd like to review the program we offered, here is an overview in a Google document with links to each of roles we offered and filled. Please note that I may update this document based on learnings for next Summer. For the time being though, this is exactly what we offered and delivered on. Feel free to repurpose this for you own use or offer feedback.

One intern has become a paid team member
One intern, who is a rising Junior at Yale, decided to take a "gap year" away from college due to COVID-19. As a result, she's joined LegUp Health as it's very first paid team member. She'll be helping me ramp up LegUp Health's marketing efforts for the rest of 2020 based on her work on the go-to-market plan project during her internship.

A few learnings based on experience and feedback from the interns:

1) It was an incredibly rewarding experience. For up to 12 weeks, I met weekly with each intern to coach and mentor them through their project. The internships were self-guided, so I encouraged each intern to follow their curiosity to wherever it led them. As they progressed the project, we collaborated asynchronously (non-real-time) via Google Docs, email, and Slack. Founding a startup can be a lonely journey. I learned internships are one way to make it less so.

2) Some of the projects were too broad in scope. For a couple of interns, this meant they did not completed a "final deliverable" for the project. I learned this final deliverable is VERY important for the intern. It gives them something to show and tell their family, friends, and potential future employers. Next summer, we will ensure all internship projects result in a final deliverable for each intern.

3) We didn't maximize intern-to-intern relationship building. As a result of the weekly meetings, I was able to develop strong one-on-one relationships with each intern. However, we did not invest sufficient effort in helping to facilitate meaningful relationships between the interns. While we did do a group "show-and-tell" at the end of the program, we did not do enough early on to facilitate relationship-building. I learned that the relationships interns build with each other have the potential deliver more value than the internship project itself. Next summer, we will ensure all interns have an opportunity to develop one-on-one relationships with each of the other interns.

4) We underestimated the time offering an internship program would take. I thought it would take a few hours per week, but it ended up requiring 1-2 full work days each week of time. I learned mentoring and coaching interns take a significant amount of time. Next summer, we will consider reducing the number of interns we take on to account for this.

5) Internships are a special kind of hiring funnel. I did not expect to hire one of the interns when we offered this program. But, as you can we, we did. I learned an internship (paid or nonpaid) is a low-cost way to "test" a working relationship with someone. This can be applied year round. Going forward, I'm going to be more liberal with my consideration of short term internship projects and more conservative with consideration of long term hires.

Overall, the program was a success, and I'm glad we put the effort and energy into making it happen. I look forward to cheering our former interns on as they continue to pursue their academic and professional interests.

I'm happy to answer questions about the program or share additional learnings or details if that is helpful to one anyone.