THE INTERNSHIP COMPANY

This firm is a profit-for-purpose start-up based in Cape Town – coworking space at the Waterfront. Their mission is to eliminate the poverty premium by improving the access to affordable products and services in townships and rural areas and modernizing the retail sector in these areas.

They provide Point of Sales devices to informal grocery stores to enable them to order their stock directly from their shop, at the best bulk prices, and to have it delivered to their doorstep.

Furthermore, they assist companies to access these markets by offering merchandising in-store services and live market data. Particularly interested to assist manufacturers of social products (solar lights, clean cook stoves, sanitary pads, water filters, etc.) to distribute their products where they are most needed.

LOCATION

Waterfront, Cape Town

SIZE OF THE COMPANY

< 5 employees

INTERNSHIP

The intern will be working in close contact and under the direct supervision of the general manager on various assignments. Specific responsibilities will include:

• Assisting the General Manager to develop and launch the main services of the company (price comparison app, delivery platform, merchandising and consulting services – find a more precise description of these missions in annex);
• Business analysis of the existing activities to improve efficiency and social impact;
• Research of new partners and clients; organisation of Lean Startup experiments (training provided to learn the Lean Startup methodology)
• Working with the founder on other tasks according to the intern’s skills, motivation and aspirations.

REQUIREMENTS

• You should combine an analytical and an entrepreneurial spirit.
• You should be motivated by a fast-paced start-up environment and flexible in their work arrangements, be ready to take responsibilities and work under tight deadlines, have experience working in teams as well as independently, and show initiative and pro-activity.
• You should feel comfortable with presenting their work to high executives, as well as organizing workshops with social entrepreneurs, or interviewing informal traders “in the field”.
• You should have a deep commitment to solving social issues and ideally an experience in the emerging world.

More specifically, you will demonstrate the following skills:

• Good written and oral communication skills and ideally proficiency in preparing presentations;
• Strong quantitative skills and proficient in Excel;
• Attention to detail, commitment to follow-through and self-organization;
• Excellent interpersonal skills: within a team, as well as with clients and partners;
• Fluency in English – additional local language a plus.
• Finally, you will ideally have previous work experience (including internships) in a demanding corporate environment (top consulting firm for example), and at least one of the following:
• Work experience “in the field”, or have stayed (for more than 3 months) in a developing country, or
• Personal involvement in social initiatives.

DRESS CODE

Casual at the office – smart casual for some meetings

COMPUTER

You should bring your own laptop with, although you can access some pc’s in the coworking space

STIPEND

No