Why I chose an Entrepreneurship Internship

Written by Clement Estampes, #WakeEntrepreneur and Summer Intern 

My name is Clement Estampes and I am a junior at Wake Forest, majoring in Economics and minoring in Entrepreneurship. This summer, I am interning at P.S. Snacks, a company founded by Wake Forest alumna, Nikki Azzara. P.S. Snacks sells organic and edible cookie dough made out of unconventional ingredients. While my position for the summer is Field Marketing intern, I’ll have many sales responsibilities as well.

I previously worked in the food industry during an internship as a Sales Coordinator Assistant at BWR Group two summers ago. This experience sparked my interest in working in the food sector. The opportunity to intern at P.S. Snacks is very exciting because the position offers a lot of freedom on how to operate. I have the opportunity to create some of my own projects to work on to build brand awareness for P.S. Snacks in New York City.

I chose an entrepreneurship internship because I wanted my work to have a positive impact on the company. Last summer, I interned at a large corporation where I had to work at a desk all day and I did not feel like the work I did had a meaningful impact on the company I worked for. In contrast, this summer, I get to travel around New York meeting people and building relationships with customers, store managers, and distributors. I also feel that my work at P.S. Snacks has a direct impact on the company that can be observed through an increase in sales and brand following.

I believe that I can bring a diverse array of skills to my internship. My previous work experience in the food industry taught me practical sales techniques and provided me with the tools and knowledge needed to work alone in the field doing this type of food sales job. I personally love P.S. Snacks cookie dough and the concept of healthy sweet snacks. I am passionate about entrepreneurship and am excited to apply the skills that I have acquired through past work to this internship.

The main project that I am currently focused on at P.S. Snacks is outreach. I email, call, and visit as many stores as possible to schedule demos, or see if the store wants to start carrying P.S. Snacks products. I have to create opportunity to drive sales and build brand awareness through events, demos, partnerships and collaborations. My responsibility is to be an advocate for the brand and initiate, orchestrate and execute sampling events that share the P.S. Snacks brand mission with as many potential customers in NYC as possible. The best aspect of this is that I get to travel around New York City and discover new places almost every day. Another project I am responsible for involves data analysis. I analyze data on P.S. Snacks’ shipping costs and wholesale costs in order to find more efficient ways to develop the e-commerce platform for P.S. Snacks.

What I’m most excited to learn during this internship is how a small startup operates in comparison to a large, established, corporation. I hope to take what I learned from this experience to perhaps create my own company one day and use the tools I gained to make it successful.