The Beauty and Intimidation of Beginning Work at a Startup by Andrew Kerpel

Interning with Guidde as a TAMID Fellow was the best opportunity I could have hoped for this summer. But my romanticized anticipation for the upcoming months did not last long. As a marketing manager at a startup, producing better results seems to always be within reach; whether it be getting one more lead or engaging with a larger audience. This concept of boundless improvement is both a blessing and a curse. I’m always motivated to outperform my previous self.

But, in most moments of reflection at the end of the work day, or week, or month…the satisfaction of what I had done well soon turns into scrutiny over what I could have done better. Finding the balance between these two perspectives has been not only one of this summer’s greatest challenges, but also most revelatory lessons.

Crossing Paths With Guidde

For me, Guidde is synonymous with enablement; and that enablement is for individuals as much as their organizations. Before Guidde and I officially matched for the internship, they asked me to create a video playbook. I remember my first experience with the platform being intuitive. As I began navigating their platform remotely, the physical distance between us felt like less of a limitation than ever; Guidde’s service enabled me to authentically showcase my personal and professional interests, thereby demonstrating how fit I would be to work with the company—all from a different continent. Once I interacted with the service, it didn’t take long to understand how their vision can transform countless industries, and save each one countless hours.

However, from a marketing perspective, the difficulty emerged from the disparity between my understanding of Guidde when first hearing about it, to my understanding after actually using it. The innovative potential only really clicked in my mind after signing up. To promote this product meant understanding the incentives necessary for people to voluntarily engage with it for themselves. Otherwise, what good is Guidde’s potential value if no one discovers it? This challenge has been the lifeblood of my marketing ambition, from day one through the present.

Variable Marketing and The Freedom to Experiment

Working to harness the power of the algorithm can sometimes feel more like poker than chess, but it’s still satisfying to watch seemingly usual content reach an unusual amount of new viewers. Who knows why our first TikTok gained 400 hundred views in its first hour? Who knows why one youtube short has 0 views, while the next video posted an hour later today is already in the triple digits? Even though there’s a lot of luck in poker, strategy still helps. Following the right accounts on our small but mighty Instagram has led to a 1300% growth in followers over the last four days (going from 10 to 140+).

Although these numbers are still much closer to the beginning than the end goal, the noticeable impact each campaign has had on traffic to Guidde’s website is sufficient motivation to keep moving forward. I’ve been fortunate enough to leverage my perspective as a student and experiment with how our service can be applied to the educational domain. Guidde For Students, with its more than 20 registered users, is still in its early stages, and its vision may never fully come to fruition. But the opportunity to take risks of this kind will inevitably contribute to success—whether it be just in the form of lessons learned, or monumental achievements as well.


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Professional Serendipity

Despite this internship being my first ever, I struggle to imagine a more ideal work environment and support system. In contrast to many of my Fellowship peers, whose companies retain hundreds of employees and many bureaucratic layers, I hold a wider range of potential influence—for better or worse. Each of Guidde’s 15 members share greater individual responsibility for building upon the groundwork laid during the last two years since the company’s founding. By having a seat at the table, even as a summer intern, I feel a close connection to the team’s ambition and unified mission. As silly as it sounds, the unstoppable force of internet trends opens the possibility that a single TikTok I post reaches the most eyes on our product ever.
But through that same power, I could also inadvertently misrepresent our company, significantly hindering its trajectory, to the same extent a viral sensation could benefit it.

When dealing with rapid social media outreach, the sky may be the limit—but there’s not much of a safety net either. The presence of real stakes makes me all the more grateful for such wonderful guidance from my mentor, Moran, in addition to the welcomeness, generosity, and confidence everyone has shown me in and out of the office. Each day spent with these colleagues replaces my anxiety of embarking on a new project with excitement, and an eagerness to continue learning.

Until next time, here is some of my work on Guidde's social channels:
LinkedIn
Facebook
YouTube
TikTok
Twitter
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