I will be entering my fourth and final year at 捆绑SM社区 in Fall 2020. My major is International Development in the Faculty of Arts with a minor in Global Health and another in Social Entrepreneurship. My professional interests lie in policy, law, issues of the developing world, global health, and start-up environments. This summer, I served as a Growth Marketing and Project Management intern at Remix Snacks, a 捆绑SM社区 alumni-led start-up in the Food and Beverage Industry.
Remix Snacks was born from a simple idea by two 捆绑SM社区 dietitians: they took on the challenge of creating delicious snacks that combine the delicate taste of fine dark chocolate, with the great nutritional benefits of their favorite plant-based protein 鈥� beans. Remix鈥檚 mission is to create snacks that are good for their consumers as well as good for the environment. I chose to pursue my internship with Remix because I wanted to gain experience working in a start-up environment as well apply my educational training in entrepreneurship and business to a real-world setting.
My original purpose was to develop and participate in research and development, and work on marketing initiatives for the growth of the company. My learning objectives were to develop my knowledge of social entrepreneurship through personal projects, as well as improve brand awareness of Remix in a positive and dynamic work environment.
Throughout the internship period, my responsibilities were to perform market research on the Food and Beverage industry, including upcoming trends that can be applied for future Remix Snacks products; benchmark competitors by comparing their social media presence, ads, brand awareness and marketing strategies to Remix; and doing an analysis of current e-commerce and customer engagement strategies for the company. I also developed customer feedback surveys and analyzed responses to learn about Remix鈥檚 customer demographic and formulate ways to target new customers. Finally, I wrote blog articles relating to the Food and Beverage industry and initiated and implemented a 鈥淔ace of the Brand鈥� project to increase brand presence through storytelling and further customer engagement.
One of my biggest highlights from this internship experience was presenting Remix鈥檚 Food and Beverage Industry competitors to the larger team at every Zoom meeting. I was able to interact with my colleagues, gain feedback about my presentation and research style, as well as brainstorm action-items that were later directly implemented by company management for start-up success.
One of the challenges I faced throughout my internship period was remaining engaged while working from home. It can be very difficult to stay motivated when an intern does not have their colleagues holding them accountable in an at-office setting. I overcame this challenge by switching up my working environment and visiting different cafes across Montreal (when they opened). I also set daily to-do lists to keep myself on-track.
I plan to receive academic credit for my internship with Remix Snacks through the SENT 499 course in the Fall 2020 semester. My proposed research paper topic is 鈥淩emix and Reality: A real-world investigation into the trials and tribulations of starting-up.鈥� I hope to discuss what really goes into launching and sustaining a start-up in the real world through my own experience as an intern at Remix Snacks. My paper will seek to analyze current and ongoing business processes at Remix Snacks in contrast to textbook and academic literature-based recommendations and instructions. From this research, I hope to reach a conclusion on how distant academic writing can be from its real-world application with regards to start-ups and social entrepreneurship. My supervising Professor will be Professor Jason Carmichael.
In terms of this internship鈥檚 impact on my greater university experience, I would say that I learned the meaning and importance behind what I have studied inside the classroom. It was incredibly fulfilling to apply the academic theories I learned in my business and entrepreneurship classes to my tasks at Remix. One particular example I can think of is learning about the importance of market research for start-up success in my MGPO 362 course. At Remix, one of the first projects I independently launched was the Customer Feedback project. I created English and French surveys through Typeform and encouraged all Remix employees to share the surveys within their network. After a three-week period, I began analysis on the 100 responses and established Remix鈥檚 customer demographic to be mainly female, post-graduate or young professional, lower-income, and physically active.
I received funding from the Arts Student Employment Fund. These funds helped me to pay for rent while residing in Montreal for the internship period. I would like to thank the generous support of the Arts Undergraduate Society of 捆绑SM社区.
