InsideSherpa: The Netflix of Internships

InsideSherpa runs virtual internships. Virtual internships are company-sponsored online courses where students complete industry modules. Our AI marks this work and gives students top-tier professional feedback at scale.

The majority of students do not get physical internships at world-class firms. This problem is worse if you are from a rural or disadvantaged background. As a result, thousands of capable candidates never get the chance to gain skills from the best. Their work prospects & potential productivity now forever suffers.

On the other hand, firms want richer, unbiased data, about potential candidates. Getting a diversity of perspectives is also important in a disruptive world. As a result, firms want to reach more diverse students in a cost-effective scalable way.

The future of work is digital. 70% of the work people do at offices is at the computer. This includes work on excel, financial models, email, word, or code. The proportion of this work is only increasing.

On top of this, there will be 600 million new jobs over the next 15 years in developing countries (World Bank). Hence, the lack of computer-focused practical training is a critical unemployment problem.

The future workforce should be able to access work experience at any time and industry. This way they can up-skill themselves on-demand. InsideSherpa virtual internships will help build this world.

InsideSherpa virtual internships will equip every student with invaluable career skills and experiences, as we will remove every barrier to accessing internships. 

Partnering with high-quality companies, InsideSherpa uploads curated virtual internships which combines learning with practical tasks in specific industries. Leveraging AI, every student will receive valuable feedback on work completed.

Bringing the online learning model to the world of internships, InsideSherpa will enable thousands of students to access company-sponsored and curated virtual internships, regardless of their circumstances. Consequently, InsideSherpa will up-skill students with critical professional skills in an environment where university enrolments are growing and internship opportunities are stagnating.

Track the number of students who have their work submitted and reviewed by industry - 85,000 students receive industry feedback on their work by July 2018

Track the jobs students on InsideSherpa get - 80%+ employment rate for students

Track the number of students from rural and developing regions who have their work submitted and reviewed by industry they would not have been able to access from their geographic locale - 35,000 students from rural and developing regions receive industry feedback on their work from top-tier firms by July 2018

We have found the best way to improve the skills of students is to give them actionable feedback. Our secret sauce in our virtual internships is our in-house developed marking AI. We've found a way to identify markers of professional work and flag to students when they fall short. (Think Grammarly but for financial models & client documents).

As a result, we're able to train tens of thousands of students, regardless of where they are or come from. With this technology, a student in rural Indonesia can now get the same training as an Ivy League student doing a top internship.

We currently have 3000+ students on our platform from all around the world. These students come from all around the world and all socioeconomic backgrounds. We talk to our students every day and iterate on our product based on their feedback. As a result, we've found the two biggest things students relate to are video & instant feedback on work. We have incorporated these findings into our product.

As we move forward, we iterate our product based on the feedback and actions that our students take.

People will access InsideSherpa virtual internships on the internet through their computers. We have found that people access our website on their phones, and have made our phone mobile friendly. We are reducing the file-size of our application to make it more accessible to people in developing countries.

We reliably onboard people onto virtual internships through word of mouth, SEO, and social media channels. Partner education institutions also enable us to grow into more remote areas.

InsideSherpa has received $100k AUD in funding from H2 Ventures and we are currently sustaining ourselves with revenue from corporate deals.

The two key limiting factors for InsideSherpa to succeed are:

1. The number of firms, professions and industries running virtual internships
2. Training data of "professional-level work" for our marking AI

Item 1 ensures that we always have skills employers and students want and need. Item 2 will allow us to improve our AI and ensure we give better, more actionable, feedback to our students.

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Our virtual internships are a technology driven, scalable solution to getting work experience. With virtual internships, students from rural India get the same work experience as someone from an Ivy League university.

With the expertise of MIT Solve & it's partners and the Solve network, we accelerate:

• Partnership growth. Connecting with corporates and NGOs to offer more virtual internships
• Technology growth. With MIT's and the Solve's expertise, we can improve our AI & platform faster
• Penetration into disadvantaged communities. The Solve community knows how to scale into the most disadvantaged areas. Learning from this network will enable us to help more people.

InsideSherpa has partnered with h2 Ventures to run our venture capital virtual internship. We have also partnered with the University of New South Wales for our product management virtual internship. We are also working with top law firms, investment banks & accounting firms as well.

We currently don't view any firms as direct competitors.