From the Gridiron to Madison Avenue

Written by Kyle Driscoll, #WakeEntrepreneur and Summer Intern

As a native of Long Island, it has long been a dream of mine to work in New York City. Ever since I was a kid I’ve envisioned myself living that prototypical fast paced New York commuter lifestyle. Thanks to SnappyScreen, that dream has become a reality for eight weeks. For the next eight weeks, I will be working under Kristen McClellan as SnappyScreen’s Business Strategy Intern. As a former football player for Wake Forest, I am no stranger to a fast-paced lifestyle. Juggling a full WFU academic course load while playing football forces you to work efficiently and make the best use of your time. Those habits will not change this summer.

I chose to pursue an entrepreneurial internship because I love variety and I wanted to wear at least a few different hats. No day in the life of an entrepreneur is the same, and hopefully no day in the life of an entrepreneur’s intern is the same either. Entrepreneurs typically wear many hats. One or a small group of individuals are often responsible for finance, operations, marketing, sales, and every other aspect of an entrepreneurial venture. As an intern here, I will be able to catch a glimpse of every aspect of SnappyScreen. I hope to make a large impact quickly.

While I am excited to make an impact at SnappyScreen, I am equally as excited to learn as much as I can from this experience. I have an invaluable opportunity in front of me to learn from a woman who built a company from scratch and I plan to take advantage of every insight and piece of information I can learn from her over the next eight weeks. Professor Dan Cohen at the Center for Entrepreneurship often refers to Kristen McClellan as the “toughest entrepreneur he knows,” so I am excited to learn what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Hopefully some of Kristen’s grit and perseverance will rub off on me.

After a quick tour of the office on our first day, we hit the ground running on our first project. The other interns and I have been tasked with planning a beach-day event hosted by SnappyScreen with the goal of promoting the brand to the public, receiving as much media and press as possible, and increasing our social media following. Throughout my entrepreneurship classes at Wake Forest, we have learned tactics for determining target markets and finding creative ways to reach those markets. This project will allow us interns to apply the guerrilla marketing techniques and other techniques to bring attention and excitement to our SnappyScreen event.

As a former student athlete, I have developed leadership skills and a superior work ethic. I have no problem taking a leadership role in a project when asked to do so, and SnappyScreen will receive my absolute best effort every single day. Entrepreneurs typically juggle multiple projects and deadlines at once, so the time management skills I have acquired as a student athlete will help me succeed in this internship as well.

My economics major has given me great analytical skills. I work well with large data sets and after the many research projects and papers within my major, it has been engrained in me to always pay meticulously close attention to detail. I have developed superb critical thinking skills and am a great problem solver. The marketing tactics and other lessons learned in my entrepreneurship minor will be of great use for this internship as well. I understand the importance of reaching out for consumer feedback and taking that feedback seriously. I know that any great product must be continuously ideated to meet consumer needs. I know that every risk an entrepreneur takes must be calculated. I couldn’t be more excited to apply these skills over the course of the next eight weeks!