Leap
| Name: Lauren Nazarieh
NYU affiliation: Arts and Sciences NYU status: Undergraduate |
Did you enter last year?: No
Do you have any teammates?: No How many, including yourself?: |
Concept Name
Leap
High Concept Statement
“Bumble for student interns” and “Instant networking opportunities for interns to make the most of their summer internship experience”
Status Quo
Summer interns coming into large cities have a finite amount of time to build lasting professional networks with their peers. Interns want to meet students across various firms and have the opportunity to connect on a less formal level than LinkedIn and a more industry-specific platform than Facebook. There is a need for a networking application that allows interns to not only connect with like-minded students outside of their immediate social circles but maintain relationships after the internship is over.
Competition
Our indirect competitor is Bumble Bizz, a feature within the highly used dating app Bumble. It allows you to expand your network by swiping left and right on other professionals however, the user cannot select specific industries or age ranges. Bumble Bizz is also overshadowed by their very popular dating feature and is not seen as a professional vehicle for building industry-specific networks. LinkedIn is a great way to connect with professionals you have already met through other events and networking channels but it is not used to meet new professionals virtually. Facebook serves as a very informal social media platform that does not focus on professional development. There is a need for an application where interns can foster virtual relationships with other similar aged professionals and enhance their networking capabilities during their short working experience.
Solution
Our application will serve two purposes: (1) virtually link interns by specific industries and cities across various firms and (2) foster those relationships through in-person meetups and online interaction after the internship is over. Building these networks with fellow students is highly valued by interns because it is very difficult to expand beyond your immediate social circle in new cities and a limited 10-week internship. Firms and universities do a good job in creating opportunities for students to meet older professionals but there are extremely limited resources for inter-intern relationship building. There are so many benefits in creating a strong intern network for future career development.
Revenue Model
The planned monetization strategy is a mix of in-app advertising and a monthly subscription. Our goal is to accumulate a sizeable user base of summer interns and gather information when interacting with our application. Then we will sort this data and sell to app publishers who will provide us revenue to place targeted ads in our application. Later in the future we hope to switch to a subscription revenue model where they will have a limited view of the application, but to access the matching process and participate in the forum they would have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $6.99 a month which is feasible for our targeted demographic.
Which platform would you like to launch your app on?
iPhone
Which category best describes your app?
Social Networking