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Have you ever lost a more or less valuable item? I guess you did because on average a person loses 1.24 items per year. In my last 21 years on this world I have lost multiple umbrellas, bags, the matching watch to my first school bag and an earring I inherited from my great-grandmother. Whilst an umbrella is easily replaceable, the earring wasn’t. And I wasn’t lucky because although I retraced my steps and called every lost and found office there is, the earring remained lost.
Once a year, Frankfurt School invites multiple (regional) start-ups into Frankfurt School to present their company to all of our students. This is a unique chance to get to know the young companies but also to get inspiration to founding your own start-up. During my first year studying the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Frankfurt School I got more and more interested in the process of creating your own company. This is why I attended the Frankfurt School Startup Night and had a chat with many interesting people.
For our summer break I was looking for an internship and thought that I’d get most out of it if it is “all hands on deck” (like it is in a start-up). It came down to two options: Emma-Mattress or Have-it-back. I knew Emma-Mattress before the fair because we’ve had a talk by the founder Max Laarman a few weeks back. He told us more about his founding process, the company’s journey and their attempt to increase sustainability. Have-it-back on the other hand didn’t have a physical product. They developed a software which works with artificial intelligence to automatically match lost items with found pieces. This software is now used by Fraport and many other airports worldwide.
On my way back home I forgot my bag in the subway. Luckily I was able to get it back through the RMV lost and found office. I took it as a sign and decided to take the internship at Have-it-back. And I can definitely say that it was a great experience. Especially since I was “only” a first year student and was still able to take on sole-responsibility projects. For example, I developed a new sales strategy, worked on a project to determine the fixed and variable costs of a physical “store” and helped improving the software to make it more intuitive.
Markus Schaarschmidt (founder and CEO) was totally flexible and extremely supportive. Have-it-back was only a team of three, but supported by two interns over the summer! I would recommend these kind of internships to everyone.
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