It was the month of July when the placement committee of our college introduced us to the process that every student would undergo to get their Summer Internship. There were rumors going around that companies do not prefer candidates with work experience for an internship, you need to be from a finance background to get a good role in a financial firm, it is very difficult to get a good role in a core analytics company and many more. We did not know who to trust and what was in store for us in the future. I am a marketing majors’ student with work experience in the field of IT, thus, I was very clear in my head that I wanted a role that dealt with business development involving majorly sales and marketing. After working for an MNC for about three years, this time I wanted to experience the start-up culture. So, had applied mostly for start-ups that came for recruitment in college.
The preparation for the interview process began by reading the Bible for marketers- Kotler. Reading newspapers and brushing up the basics was a part of this process. I got a chance to intern with The Souled Store in the Business Development domain. The Souled Store (TSS) was formed in the year 2013 by three dynamic personalities; Aditya Sharma, Vedang Patel, and Rohin Samtaney. TSS is an e-commerce website that sells the most varied merchandise. Founded in 2013, and being completely on the online platform till now, TSS has launched its first offline store in Mumbai last month. The Souled Store creates products with incredible designs, ranging from superheroes, movies, TV shows, music artists, standup comedians and many more themes related to pop culture. From the past six years, they have organically grown to be one of the largest online brands in India selling pop culture merchandise, and the number of licenses owned. They have various international licenses namely the Marvel, Disney, Viacom, Warner Brothers, cartoon network, WWE. This list is nonexhaustive and also includes various domestic licenses of the IPL teams-Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, Pro Kabbadi League, Indie music artists, Standup comedians like Kenny Sebastian, Kunal Kamra, Biswa Kalyan Rath and many more.
My 8-week stint with the company gave me a chance to explore the business development domain of the company in and out. I was mentored by the Director, Mr Harsh Lal who heads the Business Development Team and the Business Development Manager Mr. Bhargav Wadekar. Their constant support and guidance motivated me throughout these two months. I noticed stark differences in the working methodologies of MNCs and startups. There were ample opportunities to learn about other domains that existed within the company and though there existed a hierarchy, approaching the founders and the Director was very smooth. My opinions and suggestions were taken into consideration for the existing processes and I was given full freedom to apply my thought process for the new project that I was assigned. I worked on the lead generation reports by conducting market research, sales forecasting and sales budgeting for existing and new clients. Along with this, the other project that was assigned to me was working on the CPS model and getting 4 coupons/gift card companies aboard to start affiliate marketing for TSS. I got a chance to apply the concepts learned in the first year of an MBA in practicality. These two months of my internship taught me how varied are sales and marketing and how often do students get confused between them. It gave me a chance to be a part of the meetings that we conducted with the clients and showed me how good negotiation skills can do wonders in this filed.
Overall it had been an enthralling experience for me. For all those experienced students doing their MBA, let yourself loose and do not believe those rumors. Give your best shot and you will definitely get what you deserve. And yes, don’t shy away from the startup culture. Trust me, it is an experience in itself!
