Challenges from this summer

Finally back in the United States after a great summer full of working, traveling, and experiencing so many new things.  My internship had many challenges, perhaps the most challenging part being dealing with the fast paced work and many different tasks I had to juggle at once.  Working at a startup is a lot of fun and a lot of work, you constantly have to keep up with the work being thrown at you and making sure that work gets done right.  Another big challenge for me was adjusting to Latin American business culture.  There were so many different aspects of communication that were considered polite or the right way in the United States, whereas in Latin America they could be taken as rude.  Luckily my boss was from NYC, so she totally understood the difference and helped me learn how to adjust.

Overall it was a great summer.  I realized that I am a really lousy blogger, so I apologize for that.  If you want to hear more about my 3 week trip around Peru and Bolivia, feel free to shoot me an email.

Leadership and Communication

As part of this internship, I am getting credit from school for working and writing a research paper.  The research paper can be almost about anything, but the department I'm getting credit from focuses on leadership.  Leadership in startup culture is a lot different from the corporate environment, and I think it's a pretty cool concept.  Yes, my boss gives me tasks to do, has meetings with me and keeps me honest about the quality of my work, but she is very hands off.  Startups have limited resources and man-power as it is, and she really can't afford to micromanage everyone.  It makes everyone feel a little more important and more equal in the organization, which I have noticed makes people care about the work a lot more.  Don't get me wrong, she is definitely in charge.  She is just more hands off and a mentor to me than the classic boss I have had in the past.

A ton of the work we do is virtual as well, so the most common form of communication is email.  I like being able to work when I want and where I want, but I work a lot more efficiently in an environment where my coworkers are near me at all times.  It has been a really good experience working more virtually, especially since technology is allowing us to do more and more of that, but I kind of miss working in the office all the time believe it or not.

This is my second to last day of my internship, and my second to last day in Buenos Aires.  Sad day.  Luckily I'm traveling around for a few weeks after, but I'm also ready to go home.  Living in a city all the way around the world has been one of the most awesome experiences I could have hoped to have this summer.

Latin American Business Culture

One of my goals for this internship is to learn more about the business culture here in South America, something that you must learn if you are to work abroad.  In one word, Latin American business culture is chill.  Unless you are a banker, you don't need to wear a suit, business casual is not even required for most days.  Sure, if you go to a networking event or any event like that it might be awkward not to wear business casual, but I don't think anyone would really care.  The work hours here are pretty relaxed as well.  For my internship, I choose the hours I work, and a lot of businesses around here are like that.  Most of my exposure has been to the startup industry, so most people work whenever, wherever they want / need to.  Although people here typically work less hours per week than entrepreneurs in the United States, their work ethic is certainly just as strong.  Working less hours is more due to cultural differences than not wanting to work their ass off.  In reality, a lot of successful entrepreneurs down here do work crazy hours, but most people looking to jumpstart their own gig usually clock in from 35-40 hours a week, if that.  Another thing I have noticed is taking work off is pretty easy, especially when the world cup is playing.  I feel very comfortable in this work environment.  The only thing that I have actually struggled with is that when you email or start a conversation with an Argentine, it is rude to get right to the point.  In the United States, people want emails to be as short and to the point as possible, however here it's rude not to start your email with "¿Cómo estás?".

On another note, VAMOS ARGENTINA.  I'm so happy to be in a country that is playing in the world cup final.  It's going to be awesome.

Also, here is a picture from the obelisco in downtown BA.

The Internship

This internship experience has turned out to be much more valuable than I thought.  It's not because I'm doing more exciting tasks than I thought I would be doing, or meeting more cool people (although I have met a lot); the main value has come from learning about startup culture and realizing that I could see myself working in this world.  I have learned more about startups in the last 5 weeks than I have about anything in only 5 weeks of time.  Startups are really important to Argentina from an economic standpoint.  Their economy has been struggling quite a bit, and there is quite a bit of unemployment.  This has lead to people working for themselves, a lot of times because they have no other option.  It's amazing what this has done for the startup culture here; almost everyone I meet at networking events, startup events, and within my organization have so many great ideas for startups, and they aren't afraid to pursue them.  Although there isn't a lot of funding for startups in Argentina right now, it's obvious that Buenos Aires is becoming more known as a startup ecosystem around the world, and I suspect it won't be long until the amount of Venture Capital funding down here increases significantly.  The startup community really has a chance to help turn the economy around and create jobs for the talented workers down here.  It's no Silicon Valley, but who knows, perhaps with time it will become a tech powerhouse.

My work is awesome because although I have a lot of day to day tasks, some of my larger projects will really make an impact down the road.  I'm working on a market research report that will really give our organization a good idea of what startups struggle with the most, and what we can do to make a difference for them.  It has been an amazing experience so far, and I look forward to making the best of it for the time I have left.

Goals going forward

Walking through town today I realized I have totally neglected blogging, whoops.  The program I am getting credit through has suggested journal topics, so I figured I would write about one as well as give you an idea of what I have been doing.

So, goals for my internship.  I have actually been thinking about it a lot because my internship is largely what I make of it.  I'm not required to work a certain amount of hours (although I have to work at least 20 a week to satisfy funding requirements), but beyond that it can be as little or as much as I make it.  My main goal is to come out of this internship with a good understanding of the following:

1. Startup culture and what startups need to succeed through elementary stages (seed funding, etc)
2. Latin American Business Culture

I feel like that is the most valuable part of the internship here, to learn as much as possible and get work experience that I wouldn't be able to back in the United States.  Besides that, I want to help startups here and the organization I am working for as much as I can by producing the best market research I can (my main project), and working to promote Startup Buenos Aires to my best ability.

My other goal is to be able to communicate in Spanish well.  The vocabulary and the accent is very tricky, but I have gotten a lot better in the 3 weeks I have been here.  I have no problems in stores, restaurants, or even "small talk" with locals.  The hardest stuff to talk about seems to be work stuff, which really sucks.  It's mainly because I didn't know a lot of the startup jargon people use in English, and translated to Spanish is even more confusing.  I'm getting the hang of it though.

Other than that, I have seen a lot of the city by now.  The food here is amazing, and the world cup has been really exciting to watch.  The bars are always packed, especially during Argentina games.  Work here has been way less productive during the world cup.  With games at 1pm and 4pm, work can end at 1pm depending on how good the game is.  Excited for the U.S. game tonight!

Running red lights, food, drink, and my internship

I have noticed that when cars run red lights here, they run it before it changes to green, not as it is changing to red.  It has really thrown me off, and caused me to almost be hit a couple times.  It's probably because the light changes from red to yellow to green, and as soon as the yellow turns on, cars / buses floor it.  You are way more likely to get in a car accident if you start crossing the intersection as it changes from green to yellow than red to yellow.  Such a weird phenomenon, but I have always had a strange affixation with stoplights.  I still believe that I could design a stoplight that was way more efficient for almost any intersection; maybe that will be how I make it big someday.

Over the past week I have ate and drank at some pretty good restaurants / bars.  It's actually way harder to find a more casual place to eat that has quality food than a fancy restaurant here, that is the continual challenge.   Yesterday I went to a beer bar with one of my fellow interns (he interned at Startup Buenos Aires last summer, and now he is studying abroad as well as helping out in his free time).  They have some damn good beer here.

I started really getting to work on my internship this week, and I'm really excited about it.  I'm getting exposure to a lot of things I am very interested in: Market research, consulting based work, startup culture, and networking / educational events for startups.  I'm going to learn a ton this summer.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk around the Northern part of the city, which I have yet to explore.  Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post soon.

It's been a week..

Well first week is done.  I have successfully figured out how to use the subway system, where I can shop for food and get an actually selection (more about that later), and have started to get used to the heavy accent down here.

The subway system is actually pretty nice, just kind of dirty.  There are people trying to sell you things or begging all the time, but they don't seem to bug people too much.  I feel lucky that I am racially ambiguous enough to not attract much attention; I have seen a few very white couples who get a very different treatment than I do.  The only time this is problematic is when they immediately assume I can speak fluent spanish, and start using local slang.  Then I just can't follow; hopefully I will be able to pick up on that.  I do know one thing though, if my Spanish improves as much as I hope from this experience, I will be speaking Argentinian Spanish, which sounds kind of silly to me right now.

I saw a decent amount of the city this weekend: La Plaza del Mayo, La Plaza del Congreso, and many other historic landmarks.  There isn't a lot of "green" space down here, but the parks they do have are pretty nice.  Lots of roads and dirty sidewalks; something to get used to.

I'm starting to get a lot of work for my internship and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  My boss is traveling right now so I haven't met her yet, but I get to meet her sometime at the end of this week or next week.  She seems pretty cool, she was recently named one of the top 100 most influential tech women on twitter.  Anyways, she is giving me access to a lot of networking and startup events, so I will definitely learn a ton from this experience.

That's all for now.  Feel free to shoot me an email or message me if you want to hear more.