Bootstrapping to $13 Million from the UK: David Lloyd, CEO of The Intern Group (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: The under-21 World Cup became a client of yours and they were offering internships on your platform. You started finding those interns through your platform.

David Lloyd: Exactly.

Sramana Mitra: How did you find these guys as clients?

David Lloyd: That was due to the hustle and determination of my co-founder Joanna Molina. We were all thinking what would be a good pilot. Hosting this event was very big. While it’s not a huge event by the standards in England, this was a really important event for Colombia to be hosting. She went to them saying, “I can bring you some great students around the world.” They were delighted at the idea to get these international talents in and to help improve Colombia’s image to the world.

Sramana Mitra: During this deal that you did, what kind of a pricing model were you settling into?

David Lloyd: The business model was we made a program. The program included accommodation in Colombia, this opportunity at the World Cup, social and cultural events on a weekly basis, airport pickup, and drop off. It included everything that you would find in a typical US university study abroad program. The difference was that it was an internship overseas rather than studying at a foreign university. That was the model. It was a study abroad program charged to the student. We weren’t monetizing on the fee.

Sramana Mitra: How did you navigate to the next set of customers? What was the process of finding your next set of customers besides hustling?

David Lloyd: The World Cup in Colombia showed that the model would work. Another pilot was the Olympic Games, which was a bit bigger. We brought 30 interns building on the 10 that we brought to Colombia. We won a startup competition by Startup Chile. They gave us some money at the end of 2011. That kept us able to keep on our self-financing model.

After the pilot at Colombia and London Olympic Games, I was focusing on marketing to students and building relationships with universities. My co-founders were focused on marketing to companies. It was genuinely very unscientific. It involved email campaigns, phone campaigns, meetings, and networking. We were speaking to all of the companies, universities, and students that could be interested in either hosting an overseas intern or going abroad to have an experience like I had.

Sramana Mitra: The business model was students were paying?

David Lloyd: The business model has always been the same. Either universities pay, partly pay, or the student pays.

Sramana Mitra: In the early days, what part of that business model was gaining traction? Was it the university side?

David Lloyd: If you imagine that we have three people to please – students, universities, and companies – it’s the students who really lapped up this opportunity. That has been the easiest. Universities tend to be slow. Most of them don’t know how to do marketing very well. They’re only now reacting to the demand of the student for overseas internship experience. Companies can be a hard sell to convince them of the benefits that an overseas intern can bring to them.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Bootstrapping to $13 Million from the UK: David Lloyd, CEO of The Intern Group
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