The Journey Continues
Final Thoughts on my Semester in San Francisco
The Semester in San Francisco Program
For the past four months, I participated in the SSF program where Northeastern students can get a taste of entrepreneurship in the heart of San Francisco. The courses provided offer in-depth learnings of the startup process and help bring your ideas into fruition.
I took the three following classes, Entrepreneurial Startups, Hi-Tech Marketing, and Entrepreneurial Finance. Furthermore, for my fourth “class,” I decided to work at an internship with a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm called Sure Ventures.
Course Learnings
My Entrepreneurial Startups class taught me about the beginning steps of how to ideate and validate my ideas through the customer validation process. This process further takes you to product-solution fit and then product-market fit to create a sustainable foundation for the startup.
Then through my Hi-Tech Marketing course, we learned how to market and sell utilizing digital marketing like SEO/SMO, email, and social media. Furthermore, we got exposure to Google Analytics and how to analyze website traffic data. This helps us further promote and sell our startups on a variety of sales channels like B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.
With the Entrepreneurial Finance course we learned how to fund the startups through a variety of sources like venture capital, private equity, angel investor, and even bootstrapping (if possible). The course structure enables those aren’t number people, like me, to understand the entire funding process for startups.
To tie it all together I was able to see my learnings from my courses in action in my internship. I sat through startup pitches with the general partner of the firm and saw how founders present their ideas and business plans. Also, I created a marketing strategy and developed content, which I learned from my marketing course.
Looking Back
I remember getting an email a day after I landed in San Francisco, that our program would be remote for some time until health restrictions were lifted. I thought to myself and wondered if this experience would still be worth it.
Although, I made it back to my home city, Boston, and didn’t get the opportunity to meet my professors in-person. I got to meet the other students that were part of the program in-person and developed a friendship that I hope will last far beyond college. I thought this remote experience would be quite lonely, however, it brought those of us that were far from home, closer than ever.
While I currently write about the end of this semester, I keep thinking back to the first few weeks, where I wrote about my first impressions of the SSF program in a blog called, The Beginning. I realize the amount of personal growth that I have developed in such a short period of time.
Before arriving in SF, I set a few personal and professional goals, which were to expand my network and make as much connections as possible. Another one was to learn to be more independent since I never lived far from home at such an extended amount of time. Lastly, it was to learn more about marketing a startup, since up to this point I only learned corporate marketing. All in all, I feel like I truly was able to achieve all these goals. I was able to network with other students, faculty, and guest speakers. I became more independent and even learned how to cook since I didn’t have any dining halls nor mama’s cooking near by. Lastly, I furthered my marketing major knowledge right before I graduated and increased my marketing skills as I carry on with my job search.
Looking Ahead
I’m half-way through my senior year of college with a total of 2.5 years of work experience in my field of studies; I can say that my college experience wouldn’t have been complete without this SSF program. I’m very glad and grateful that I was able to attend this program before I ended my studies at Northeastern. I just wish it was better marketed so I could have learned about this program sooner. As I look ahead to graduation, I’ll remember this amazing experience and look forward to applying all that I learned to my career in marketing. As cliché as it sounds, the journey doesn’t end here, the journey continues.
Want to learn more about the SSF Program?
If you’re a Northeastern student studying business, you can learn more about the SSF program here. Don’t wait until your senior year to attend like I did, do your research and apply now!
