Level UP Internship Overview

• # of Teams: 1
• Interns Per Team: 2 (interns can be from different schools)
• Time Commitment for Each Intern: half-time (20 hours/week)
• Total Project Length: 4 weeks

Project Overview

We are building a brand-new approach to consumer marketing that does not currently exist "in the wild". Having said that, there are a number of existing companies that have products or services that cover a portion of what we are building, and other companies that have announced adjacent projects that have not yet launched.

It is critically important for us to have a better understanding of each of these companies, what features and benefits they offer, who they are owned by, who the founders are, what their launch status is and what their funding status is. This will impact both our development plans as well as our fundraising direction.

Objective

We hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current and potential competitors in or adjacent to our space and how we can differentiate ourselves through our product/service offering, and our messaging.

We will give you access to organizational assets to support this project such as personnel, brand collateral and more. We will suggest names of potential competitors to get you started. We will provide you with a pre-built Excel model to use as a starting point for your matrix of features/benefits.

Phase 1 Details

This phase of the project will include:

• Spending time with our team to understand at a high level what we are working to build;
• Doing research to identify companies that currently offer competing or adjacent products/services or are reputed to be launching shortly; and
• Doing a deep dive to understand each of those companies, including their ownership structure, founders, funding status, development stage, corporate partnerships/customers, target audience, revenue model and features/benefits.

Phase 2 Details

This phase of the project will include:

• The creation of a matrix identifying features and benefits shared across the companies and those that are different, and listing the characteristics of each company; and
• A narrative summary of each such company with supporting materials (which could include a SWOT analysis, website screenshots, quotes from articles, app screenshots, etc.).

Note Regarding Phase 1 / Phase 2

This project has 2 related Riipen posts: "Level UP: Competitive Analysis (Phase 1)" and "Level UP: Competitive Analysis (Phase 2)". This was done so that the 2 interns could work either at the same time or sequentially. If 2 interns are going to work at the same time as a team, they can both apply to this post (Phase 1). If 2 interns are going to work sequentially, they can also both apply to this post. If a single intern would like to apply to complete the entire project, that student should apply to BOTH this post (Phase 1) and the other post (Phase 2).

Level UP interns will have access to company personnel for company information, ongoing feedback/guidance and Q&A. Background materials and document formats will be provided as appropriate/required.

The primary point of contact for interns will be one of the co-founders of the company.