Almost a year ago, I graduated from the MMS program, eager to apply the skills that I had learned to build a successful career. If someone had told me though, that I would be working with MMS interns less than a year later, I never would have believed it. But I currently have two MMS interns, Taylor Glymph and Ryan Clark, who are working with me to support the marketing efforts of my start-up, Start Smart.

Start Smart is a business development platform which supports small- and medium-sized enterprises in Africa, by encouraging financial literacy. Taylor and Ryan have supported me on a number of tasks. These have included redesigning our logo and overall rebranding, developing an approach to social media marketing and the publication of our first self-titled book, Start Smart. My work with Taylor and Ryan started out shor-term arrangement, but I’ve been so impressed with their work that we’ve decided to keep things going for the remainder of their time at Fuqua. Though the majority of the work has been done virtually, we have had a chance to meet in person and regularly speak over the phone.

Up until recently I had been managing Start Smart on my own, which made it difficult to get everything done, so it’s been great to have some extra hands on board. Working with MMSers has been an amazingly rewarding experience. It’s given me the chance to benefit from their ideas and creativity, and reflect on the fact that not too long ago, I was in their shoes. Additionally, they’ve had a chance to build skills and experience in marketing that I believe will be helpful in their respective careers, once they graduate from Fuqua. Go MMS!