Start Me Up

Keep in mind that the Australia program started in 2018. It's new and you should expect a few bumps in the road. However, my biggest tip is to be open minded when it comes to anything from the people you live with, the community work space, your company, and the culture. You'll take more away from your internship if you don't go in with your eyes wide shut. Don't be afraid to ask questions or try new things!

It's a pretty typical work day of Monday through Friday 9-5. You can walk or Uber to work under your own expense. Work is at the community workspace, where you work with your founder. Most week days, there are seminars, startup pitch series, networking opportunities and small presentations you can immerse yourself in right after the work day.

I was mostly afraid of failing in the startup world. My experience was solely social media, website design, blogging, operations management and customer service. With no experience in startups, I forced myself to go in with a positive mindset that I could achieve whatever I wanted to learn. I just had to work at it every day and ask as many questions as I could. My startup loved that I asked so many questions because it kept us all on the same page.

Personal tip for packing: know your wardrobe and expect anything. You may have an invite to attend a gala with your founder or you may have a company activity to go on a hike. It's best to be prepared and don't be afraid to ask questions. I attended an opening event with two of my house mates and on weekends we'd do different activities. Some were nice and others were casual. The point is, make sure you bring the right attire because you don't want to network in your gym shorts.

Working for Start Me Up has allowed me to meet so many new people in the space of a few months. Our interns come from all over the world and it’s been amazing to get to know them during the course of the internship. Start Me Up has also opened up my eyes on just how vastly interesting the tech world is, and how attainable it actually is instead of being completely intimidating.

Working with a small but amazing team I get to learn more of the inner workings of the company and learn about what makes it work. The founder is also a very good team leader, making sure our job is always interesting and a great learning experience. Over the past few months I’ve honed in more confidence in my networking skills, as well as expand my knowledge on the tech start up and social enterprise world a little more every day.

One of the interns I had supervised in the October cohort is a girl from NYC who did a blockchain internship with Start Me Up. She did such an amazing job that she was hired after her internship had finished and was asked to represent her company in a UN conference in Geneva, only a month after she left Bali.

I would have a hard time choosing between Bali or Queensland, but I think it’d have to be Bali. This sort of internship opportunity would have been perfect when I was still in university as the element of travel and start up sound really incredible to me. Bali is so different from the rest of Indonesia, and I feel that an internship here would open up so much more opportunities for me to immerse more into the start-up and entrepreneurship world.

Being able to network with so many fascinating people from all over the world in a place like Canggu is also amazing - somewhere that’s both very international and innovative while still surrounded by nature and very rich culture. I would also love to do Queensland simply because of its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. Weekday working in Brisbane and weekends diving the GBR? Sign me up!

I have never heard of anything like Start Me Up before; the fact that we offer opportunities for remote internships in really cool places such as Bali, Australia, and Thailand already makes it very unique. This is reflected by the excitement of so many of our applicants on their interviews - that there’s simply nothing else out there quite like it. Instead of completing internships in big corporate offices - our interns get to do it in a tropical co-working space working by the pool and going surfing or go for a rice field Yoga on their lunch breaks.

We have a small but very lovely team with excellent communications. I’m especially proud of my team whenever we’ve reached the end of a cohort and all the interns have had an amazing time both on their internship and their stay in Bali.

There are many factors in being a successful company; however, with so many options, information and offers floating around online - there’s nothing more important than trust and to be reliable. A successful company needs to start by delivering great service, being innovative, focused, as well as being personal and honest. I feel that part of Start Me Up's success have been because of the personal attentions that the team give to the interns in order to ensure a good experience for them.