A following guest blog post is written by William Ahrens, a sophomore at George Washington University (GW) working towards his Bachelor’s of Science in Finance. William is the second GW School of Business student to intern with a startup company as part of the newly launched Venture Capital Internship Program (VCIP).
When I was selected to take part in the Venture Capital Internship Program, I was given a venture placement opportunity through a GW Investment Institute board member, David Asper. Mr. Asper is the Principal/GM of Asper Group LLC, a pre-seed/seed investor. He arranged an introduction to a co-investor in one of his portfolio companies at WXR Fund. Here I was offered an intern role at a fledgling startup in the WXR portfolio. I was enthused to intern at inCitu, a social impact startup fundamentally changing the way populations interact with urban development by putting the future in the fingertips of society through augmented reality. inCitu’s mission is simple and appealing: a city is shaped by the community of people who exist in it, requiring a need for democracy and inclusivity in the urban design process.
I met with the Founder and CEO of inCitu, Ms. Dana Chermesh-Reshef, who offered me an opportunity to further my programming abilities and tackle projects and problems relating to data extraction and analysis. Throughout the summer, I took on projects ranging from extracting data from a wide variety of New York City government sources to blueprinting a relational database for internal business use. Ms. Chermesh-Reshef created an exciting learning environment that allowed me to take on programming challenges I feel passionate about while better refining my skills and abilities.
At inCitu, I worked closely alongside the Head of Product, Mr. Tyce Herrman. Admittedly, I was a bit uneasy when Mr. Herrman first introduced his desire for me to create an internal database of New York City’s urban planning data; however, it presented me with a chance to learn a new programming language. This work formed the cornerstone of my summer and further refined my views of how challenges can become great opportunities.
My experience at inCitu has solidified my desire to work in a fast-paced environment where every task, regardless of how simple or sophisticated, contributes meaningfully to the broader vision and goal of the company — this is especially true at a startup. The sense of accomplishment and exposure to a variety of challenges and opportunities has been a rewarding and defining experience. This fall semester, I’ll continue working at inCitu and in a new product and business development role.
I am grateful to Mr. David Asper for enabling this experience and his continued support of the Investment Institute. Similarly, thank you to the Investment Institute for granting me and other students the opportunity to take part in a program that further supports classroom learning.
To learn more about inCitu, please visit the following social media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/incitu-ar/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inCituAR/
Instagram: @incitu_ar