3 Internships Available with Wildly Profitable B2B Software Company (Zannee)

7 points by chrishaum 14 years ago | 9 comments

Hi Hacker Newsers!

With summer here already and your friends off interning at Google or Twitter, some of you may be worried and frustrated about not having an internship of your own.

Perhaps none of your summer plans materialized. Or you didn't decide that you wanted an internship until it was too late, and now you're stuck.

Well, here at Zannee, we've still got open internship opportunities for this summer! If you are reading this, then you may be an ideal candidate!

By interning with Zannee from now to the end of August, you can:

- Gain real-world experience helping to develop products for a successful B2B software company.

- See Lean Startup principles applied first-hand.

- Get to build your sales and marketing mindset as you learn from Dane Maxwell (founder of Zannee).

- Possibly get university credit for the internship (depends on the university, but we'll help in any way we can).

Please note that the internships are unpaid.

We are looking for interns with skills in two main categories of web development:

- Frontend design and development. (Relevant skills: HTML/CSS, Javascript/jQuery, Photoshop/sketching/mockups, a good design sense).

- Backend architecture and development. (Relevant skills: Python, Django, Amazon Web Services, some familiarity with Linux).

It's fine if you currently only have experience with some of these; we'll give you opportunities both to reinforce your existing skills, and to learn new ones.

Even you are interested but aren't a technical person, still contact us - we'll discuss your skills and interests and see if there are other ways you could contribute and learn.

Interested? Please contact the intern coordinator (a.k.a me, Chris), at chrishaum@gmail.com.

massarog 14 years ago |

Companies always say that unpaid internships are a way for people to gain experience and knowledge and build up their resume, but the way I see it, it's just a way for a company to get free work. As a former college student (recently graduated) the last thing I wanted to do was work for free during my summer when I had bills, tuition, and rent to pay.

chrishaum 14 years ago | |

It really depends on your career goals and the length of your outlook.

If you need to pay bills (now!), then an internship like this obviously won't work for you.

On the other hand, if you have a long-term mindset, and aren't in need of immediate cash (if you're living with your parents for the summer, for example), the knowledge, skills, network, and experiences you could gain this summer could have a HUGE, measurable impact on your ability to provide an income income for yourself through a B2B software business.

It's not for everyone, though. It's not high-tech. It's not flashy. It's not Silicon Valley.

It IS for someone who wants to learn - from an expert - how to build a profitable lifestyle business.

chrishaum 14 years ago |

Yes, I can see how you would see it this way. Heck, even I did, until a few weeks ago, when I a) began working (unpaid) for Zannee, and b) read Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Here are just a few thoughts about why I made this request as I did:

We aren't forcing anyone to take an internship with Zannee. This isn't slave labor - no one has to work for free against their will. If people don't see the value in an internship with Zannee, they won't take us up on our offer. No harm done!

We are looking for students who are trying to expand their education, who want to take their own entrepreneurial and programming educations into their own hands. We will give them enough structure that they can feel supported as they learn and improve their skills, but not enough to constrict them - we keep it flexible and give them significant autonomy.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad teaches that to be wealthy, you should not work for a wage; instead, you should work to learn - to gain skills and knowledge that you can apply in building your own business (your "business of you"). No, we aren't paying, but this is a profitable company selling B2B software online. If you are a young entrepreneur who wants to learn how to successfully ideate, implement, market, sell, support, upsell, and grow a B2B software product, what better opportunity could there be?

Remember how I said above that I myself am working unpaid? That wasn't a typo. I thoroughly believe that Dane has the knowledge, skills, and experience (obtained through intelligent hard work and lots of practice in his business) to help a mature, driven student with entrepreneurial desires and programming skills learn how to start and grow a successful B2B software business. That's why I flew out to Des Moines, Iowa, all on my own dime, leaving my friends and the wonderful restaurants of New York City, to work for Dane - for FREE - for the summer.

You might think that Dane is taking advantage of me, but I disagree. It's a win-win situation. He gets free labor to help with growing his business. I get access to invaluable knowledge, skills, and one-on-one time with a successful entrepreneur, not to mention access to his network of entrepreneurs and businesspeople! It's a big win for both of us.

For students (or non-students even - I could care less) who want to have their own profitable B2B software business, this really is the chance of a lifetime.

fezzl 14 years ago |

Pay them something, for goodness' sake. Our startup barely made a dime, and we still pay them something that is more than a stipend. It's basic respect.

chrishaum 14 years ago | |

Is it? What were you trying to teach them? That they'll continue to earn a wage from their employer, even if the employer is unprofitable?

akavi 14 years ago | | |

Yes.

That's part of the employee-employer relationship: The employee continues to receive payment for their work so long as they are employed.

This is the inherent trade-off of being an employee, which you as a founder should be aware of: that one (largely) gives up the chance for high return at high risk in the form of equity for the guaranteed return of a salary.

People are speaking out in this thread because many students don't _realize_ that the work they produce has value, and that they deserve to be compensated for that value. Yes, there are situations where the supply of experience in the form of internships is sufficiently low and the demand is sufficiently high (this is true in many creative professions), but it is extremely unusual for that to be true for programmers.

jccodez 14 years ago |

wildly profitable, unpaid, :-(

akavi 14 years ago | |

Yeah, I noticed that too.

Maybe I live in a weird bubble, but I've never heard of an unpaid programming internship.

chrishaum 14 years ago | |

These are not necessarily incongruous. [See my comments above].