Interns & Volunteers

 

Introduction

Helping run a local StartUp Academy chapter is a fun and rewarding experience. You will have the opportunity to meet with members of the startup community, from first time entrepreneurs to successful CEOs, and develop an understanding of the company building process.

 

Getting Started

It's good to get an understanding of the Institute. We recommend that you read the About page and the FAQ. Before getting started, it is important to carefully review the intern agreement (shown below), which you will need to sign and send to StartUpAcademyGermany@gmail.com.

 

Download

 

 

Intern Responsibilities

SA Interns will assist in two main areas: (1) Pre-Semester Recruitment, and (2) Semester Operations. 

 

 

Before the Semester

Before each semester begins the main goal is to promote the semester and recruit applicants. SA Interns will help in the following pre-semester activities:

 

1. Promote the Recruitment Events

The most important thing to do before the semester begins is to help promote the public recruitment events, which can be seen on our curriculum page. To promote the events, you should do the following: 

 

Reach out to local entrepreneurship or professional organizations that have large lists of potential applicants - such as Meetups, associations, events, or co-working spaces, to inform them of upcoming free events and to encourage them to promote these free events to their members using this email template: Event Partnership Pitch (be sure to edit before sending). 

 

2. Logistics

You may need to provide assistance in planning and running the recruitment events, if needed.

 

 

During the Semester

For each semester there are 15 Training Sessions, which can be seen here. Interns assist in the planning and operations of these sessions. 

 

Training Session Types

There are four types of sessions that are explained and outlined below.

 

 

1. Orientation Session

This is the first session of every semester. The goal of this session is to manage the expectations of the enrolled Founders about the amount of work in the program and the hardships of being an entrepreneur. Details of the session are below:

 

• 5 Min Director Welcome The Director asks everyone to sit in their respective Working Groups.

• 30 Min Founder Introductions Each Founder states their name and one sentence about their background.

• 90 Min Program Orientation The Director provides an orientation of the program. Sample slides and videos are below.

• 30 Min Question and Answer The Director answers questions about the program.

• 30 Min President Selection The Director requests that all Working Groups meet and elect a President using any means of their choice. The President selection is very important to the Founder experience of the program, so they should take this seriously.

• 2+ Hours Drinks Celebrate the kick off.

 

 

2. Mentored Sessions

11 of the 15 scheduled sessions will follow a Mentored format. In Mentored Sessions, three seasoned CEOs or founders of fast growth technology companies deliver 20 minute presentations on a company building topic. The Mentors answer questions from Founders in a panel format, and the Mentors listen to, rate and review the business pitch of Founders in a 'hotseat' format. The details of the session are below.

 

• 5 Min Director Welcome The Director should emphasize the Working Groups need to be meeting once or twice weekly, and that everyone is responsible to keep pace with the Assignments. The Director should use a projector to show http://fi.co/homescreen as the background to the session at the opening and after Mentor presentations.

• 30 Min Working Group Reports Each Working Group President should stand up for a couple minutes and quickly outline the key positive highlights and the key negative setbacks that they face in their two Working Group meetings.

• 30 Min Hotseat Set 1 Between 5 and 10 Founders get up in front of the room and present their business to the Mentors. Mentors then rate the presentation from 1 to 5, holding up a rating card and inputting their specific score on the review page (Directors will know the URL). Mentors collectively give up to 10 minutes of verbal feedback per pitch. Rating results are available privately for Directors via their dashboard and publicly at http://fi.co/leaderboard. Before the Mentor Idea Review, the Founder is given 1 minute to pitch on the hotseat. After the Idea Review, the Founder has either 3 or 5 minutes, depending on the preference of the Director, and it is requested that the Founder use slides.

• 20 Min Mentor 1  

• 20 Min Mentor 2  

• 20 Min Mentor 3  

• 15 Min BREAK  

• 30 Min Mentor Q&A Three Mentors sit together in the front of the room and answer questions from the Founders.

• 30 Min Hotseat Set 2 Between 5 and 10 more hotseats (see above).

• ... Working Group Meeting Any remaining time should be used for the Working Groups to meet, and Mentors should be encouraged to roam the room and get a quick update from each Working Group.

• 3.5 Hours (session) TOTAL  

• 2+ Hours Drinks This will help foster relationships between Mentors and Founders and has a significant impact on the quality of the program.

 

 

3. Review Sessions

2 of the 15 scheduled sessions are the Mentor Idea Review and the Mentor Progress Review. In a Review session, all Founders present to a panel of Mentors to receive a multivariate rating on their business, as well as detailed verbal feedback. 6, 9 or 12 participating Mentors are broken into groups of 3, and the Founders are divided equally by the number of Mentor groups. So, if there are 30 Founders and 6 Mentors, two Mentor groups will be formed with 15 Founders pitching. Co-founders pitch together.

 

• 5 Min Director Welcome The Director explains that this is the critical juncture in the program where the strong Founders are invited to continue and the weak Founders are invited to re-enroll in a future semester.

• 10 Min Pitch Group Formation The Director breaks the Mentors into groups of 3 and the Founders into groups of 5 to 15 individuals. An individual, possibly an intern or a Founder, is designated to be the timekeeper in each group. Mentors are instructed to use the review technology to input their feedback scores.

• 20 Min Pitch Batch 1 The first set of companies present to the Mentors. For the Idea Review, each company is given 3 minutes and a pitch deck is optional. For the Progress Review, each company is given 5 minutes and a deck is mandatory. Mentors have up to 15 minutes of total feedback, and time is kept by a designated time keeper.

• 20 Min Break  

• 20 Min Pitch Batch 2 The second set of companies present to the Mentors.

• 2+ Hours Drinks This will help foster relationships between Mentors and Founders and has a significant impact on the quality of the program.

 

 

4. Graduation Session

Graduation is the last session of the semester, and the session is open to Founders, Mentors, investors, past Graduates, current and future Sponsors, Partners and other significant players in the local startup ecosystem. The goal of this session is to have all graduating Founders present to a group of local angel investors and venture capitalists. The StartUp Academy will mail the Director graduation certificates with a special gold seal to present to the Graduates at the end of the session.

 

A panel of three or five investors are formed in the sesssion to score the presentations on a 1 to 5 scale and provide feedback on the ideas. The scores are tallied at the end of the Graduation to rank order the companies from best to worst, and this scoring is emailed to startupacademygermany@gmail.com, since the top local Graduates to receive prizes and other benefits.

 

• 60 Min Investor Socializing Investors arrive and socialize with the graduating Founders.

• 10 Min Director Welcome The Director says a few words to welcome everyone to the Graduation and thanks the Mentors, Sponsors, Partners and Founders.

• 90 Min Founder Pitches Founders are given a five minute pitch with a presentation deck. A panel of either 3 or 5 attending investors is formed to evaluate the pitches on a 1 to 5 scale.

• 30 Min Keynote Speaker (Optional) An ideal Graduation keynote appeals to both entrepreneurs and investors, such as a prominent local venture capitalist.

• 30 Min Graduation Ceremony The Director says a few words about the experience and hands out graduation certificates provides by the StartUp Academy. A sample PowerPoint deck is available below.

• 2+ Hours Drinks Party!!!!!

 

 

Required Materials

There are a number of items that you will need to bring to each class:

 

 

Printed Materials

The following are the printed materials that each intern should bring to the session:

 

Attendance Sheet (2 Copies - just in case)

Guest NDA Agreement (50 Copies)

Mentor Agreement (30 Copies)

 

 

Audio Visual

The Institute likes to record and upload Sessions for Founders to watch offline. The recommended option is to use a digital video camera and then upload the files to an online service like Vimeo, embedding them on the Course detail page. The recommended hardware is below:

 

CAMERA: Kodak Zi8

MEMORY: Sandisk 32 GB

MICROPHONE: Rode VideoMic Directional Shotgun

MIC BRACKET: Sima SLB-M Video Bracket

TRIPOD: Lightweight

USB Flash Drive (For storing and transferring Mentor PPT presentations)

 

 

Helping Out

 

Session Logistics

Prior to arriving at the hosting location, either arrange catering, or confirm that it is being provided by the hosting partner. Catering may not be applicable to all semesters, however.

Before the session begins, place the score cards (link to copies) on the desk at which the Mentors will be seated.

Close all entrances to the venue, except for one. The intern should sit at the one entrance with the attendance sheet and verify that each person attempting to enter the room is either a mentor or a currently enrolled founder, and should note attendance status on the sheet.

Keep NDAs handy for guests who may be attending.

As Mentors arrive and settle in, ask them for a copy of their presentation, download it to the USB flash drive, and provide technical assistance with setting up their presentation.

As it is determined which Founders will be in the Hotseats, assist them in setting up their computer/presentation.

Note the Hotseat scores and keep them for our records (these should be posted in the session area below the videos).

Once the session is over, pack up all supplies and delete any added files from the host computer (if applicable).

 

 

Recording Session Video

When recording the sessions, in order to ensure consistency in video and audio quality, we recommend doing the following:

 

Set the videocamera on the tripod on a stable surface located no more than 15-20 feet from the front where the mentor will be speaking.

Make sure that the camera is plugged into a power source or has sufficient battery, and that the memory card has sufficient space.

Verify that the camera quality setting is on 720p.

Point the directional microphone towards the mentor and ensure that the volume is set to +, the power is on, and that that the battery is functional.

Adjust the lighting in the room in order ensure clear video capture that is neither too dark or bright.

Capture both the mentor and the presentation slides in the frame, such that the content on screen can be read clearly.

Stop recording in between mentor talks and capture the hotseats and Q&A segments as well.

 

 

Uploading Files

After each session, you will need to upload the videos and presentation files to Vimeo and Scribd, respectively. The special upload link is formatted as follows:

http://FI.co/information/upload?password=FI-Access&sid=[INSERT SEMESTER ID NUMBER HERE]

The directions for Vimeo are as follows: log into 1 of 6 accounts with username: "videox@Founderinstitute.com" (where x is 1,2,3,4,5, or 6) and password: "Institute1". Upload the video, click on the "privacy" tab on the left and then "hide the video from Vimeo". The file should be named "[Location Code] [Date] [Topic]: [Speaker]," like "PAFI March 17 Orientation: Zicherman." After the video has been uploaded to Vimeo, post it to the FI site under the proper course.

The directions for Scribd are as follows: log in with username: "Founderinstitute" and password: "institute1". Upload the presentation, go to the file, then click "Share & Embed", and set the width to 500. Copy and paste the embed code.

 

 

Encountering Problems

 

If you encounter any problems along the way or have any particular questions that need answering, feel free to contact intern@founderinstitute.com.