To everyone who is reading my story, Hi my name is Kriti and my story is about how I accidentally landed up in an internship at Pay1 and ended up having the most amazing experience of my life.
For most of my peers back at my B-school, their internship stories began once they started working at their respective companies. However mine began much earlier. In fact it started the very same day we were at the college, sitting for the Summer Internship Recruitment Process for Pay1. All of us applicants had something in common, we were all nervous and anxious about the process but at the same time also eager to crack the internship process and get a chance to work in a start-up firm.
I clearly recall, as I was summoned by the HR for the interview, my anxiety had peaked and yet somehow I was maintaining my calm. However, just few minutes into my conversation with the HR and all my anxiety melted away. The HR’s demeanour and the calm in her voice had a soothing effect on me and as she explained to me more about the firm and its work I felt more convinced about wanting to work for the company.
When I spoke on the call with the Chief Financial Officer in the next round of my interview, he explained to me various domains that would be available for me to work for while testing my financial and technical knowledge and the opportunities I would be available with if I am selected as a part of the team.
Once selected I was overjoyed to be working in a start-up. I was a fresher and even though I had interned in a company twice before, start-up was still something to look forward to.
Before we even officially started our work, I was given a task to create a brief presentation about the present start-ups in India in the field of micro finance. This helped me understand the domestic market and its players very well.
On the first day of our internship, I was introduced to the team I would be working with for the next two months and my mentor who also happened to be the CFO of the company. To be honest, when I first met him, he seemed like a very intimidating busy man who would be difficult to approach for any sort of help. However, when he called us in his office for briefing us about our work and domain, he was the most humble, generous, wise and approachable person in the organisation, which was quite a relief given the fact that we had to work under his mentorship for two months.
At the end of the first week of our internship, we had a small orientation ceremony. Now what made this orientation different were two things, first, all the vertical heads and the CEO along with the HRs and the interns from all the departments were present for this ceremony. And second, instead of the usual HR introducing us with the company, all of us interns were instead asked to introduce Pay1 and what do they look forward to working as a team member at Pay1. This made the orientation more cordial, warm and personal.
In the first two weeks, our mentor, instead of assigning us with projects to be done on the very first day, he gave us the liberty to explore and understand how Pay1 actually works, the customers it serves and the existing market players, and discuss our findings with him so that he could assign us daily targets on the basis of our research and at the same time gauge the depth of our understanding. Post the end of two weeks, he assigned me with building up a business model for their upcoming product in the Micro insurance market.
Now I had never built a business model for a product and market so niche, which is why this opportunity intrigued me. One because it was challenging and two because I had the flexibility to share my ideas and learn from different verticals how microinsurance market actually worked.
The next one and a half months at work were exceptionably enjoyable and full of learning every single day! Every morning I would come to work and learn something new about the start-ups around the globe working in the insurtech field and their success stories and attempt to study their business models to understand their implications in India. Parallely I would study how a typical Indian insurance consumer behaves and the challenges faced by companies to sell insurance.
In the last one weak, with the assistance and guidance provided both by my mentor and the Chief Executive Officer of the company, I was able to develop three different business models for the company to further build upon. The framework so developed was flexible enough to be adopted for any other product to be launched in the market as well.
At the end of two months, I was not only successfully able to culminate my project with fruitful and measurable results but also was proudly able to contribute something valuable to the firm. Pay1 provided me with a family and taught me not only not only to grow individually , but also to grow together. To learn, share, develop and build harmony. This internship opportunity was a beautiful experience that would cherish and value for long.