1. SoarTriangle Internship Experience
Liza O’Connor
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
150-Hour Experience Reflection

2. Creativity & Entrepreneurial Competencies
Creative competencies:
Created content for social media platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Wordpress
Brainstormed high-level strategy for SoarTriangle’s social media based on long-term goals
Entrepreneurial competencies:
Learned about branding and marketing through mentorship sessions
Learned how to create a pitch deck and presentation techniques
Networking skills
Witnessed early-stage startups grow throughout a three-month period

3. Technical Competencies
Technical skills I learned during this internship include the following:
How to use social media management tools such as Hootsuite
Search engine optimization
Google analytics
Financial valuation for startups

4. Collaboration Collaborated with: SoarTriangle startup founders
Helped create customer discovery surveys
Offered feedback to business plans
Helped work on their marketing strategies
SoarTriangle staff and founding members
Helped create a high-level social media strategy
Attended goal-setting meetings
SoarTriangle mentors
Interacted with mentors at weekly sessions

5. Overall Reflection Key Takeaways:
Overall, the key things I took away from this internship include the following:
Introduction to Durham’s startup community
Since my internship was located in the American Underground, I got acquainted with many different people and companies from Durham’s startup community
Provided networking opportunities with key players in Durham and Duke’s startup community
Learned about different startups in the community
Entrepreneurial skills
Biweekly mentorship sessions taught me about different aspects of entrepreneurship including social media management, branding, marketing, and financial valuation
Pitching
SoarTriangle’s goal was to prepare the startups in their cohort to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists in order to receive funding, so I learned a lot about how to create a pitch deck and how to deliver a pitch.