The LEARN Startup Crawl
With every new cohort, we organize a unique mini startup crawl. You’ve heard of a pub crawl – same principle just replace bars with startups. Sometimes, they even provide beer! We love to use this as an opportunity to showcase some of the different companies that we partner with to offer internships to our students. This also might be one of the first times a student has actually set foot in a startup office, and we find that it is incredibly valuable to see the different atmospheres that are available. In this way, students are better able to decide what kind of a company they will be best suited to work for.
It’s also a fun excuse to get familiar with networking and see some friends at nearby offices! We usually set aside an afternoon when our students are about halfway through their program to visit 4 local offices. Last week, we started with the dog-filled offices of Zeeto, where they specialize in monetization of registrations. Zeeto is known in the startup community for their impressive list of perks, which includes onsite chiropractic, massage, haircuts, an in-house chef, and a liberal bring-your-dog-to-work policy! We also got to visit with two or our recently-hired alumni, Vivian and Bulgan!
From Zeeto, we walked just a few blocks to Symphony Towers to pop into the offices of LoanHero! In their own words, “LoanHero provides better financing options for consumers purchasing goods and services including furniture, home improvement, auto repair, and elective healthcare.” LoanHero’s co-founder, Kristin Slink was kind enough to invite us in and give us the grand tour. They have been in this location since June and Kristin informed us that they worked hard and decorated the office on a stunningly low budget of $5,000! Another of our alumni, Mina, has been with LoanHero for a short time, but was able to give the Delta class some great tips.
Our next stop was Zesty.io – where they have created a web content management system cloud platform! They, too, can boast of an in-house bar and dog-friendly office. Here we had the chance to hear from many of the developers, one of the co-founders, and another alumni (Hi, Kim!). We got some interesting perspectives from the current team of developers and were surprised to learn that someone at Zesty has an extensive history of working in the circus arts!
Our final stop of the crawl led us back to Symphony Towers – Taphunter! Taphunter enables consumers to see what their favorite local bars have on tap. Since 2010, they have been connecting people + delicious beverages, and have a beautiful office that they moved into just last year. Our students loved the opportunity to meet with the dev team and discuss important topics like what their day-to-day looks like & even got to preview some passion projects they’ve been working on in their free time!
We are so grateful that each of these companies took the time out of their day to invite us into their spaces & show us a little bit of what life is like for them. The startup community in San Diego has the wonderful quality of being inviting, while still being incredibly productive & we are so honored to be a part of it!