More than eight months ago, Maria Paula Caicedo joined the bsurance team as the Business Development Intern. Maria Paula comes from the second most biodiverse country in the world, Colombia, and came to Vienna to study in the WU Vienna Master program in Strategy, Innovation, Management, and Control to pursue her dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
To cover insights after internship completion, we spoke to Maria Paula, covering her learnings and a glimpse into her everyday life at bsurance.
How did you learn about bsurance?
I learned about bsurance at Entrepreneurship Avenue an event organized by my master’s program and WU Vienna, aimed to encourage students to start their entrepreneurial journey and get inspired by other startups while participating in the job fair or seeing pitches. Specifically, I saw bsurance at the job fair and was quite interested in the company’s background and internship offered in Business Development.
What sparked your interest in joining bsurance?
One of the main reasons I was interested in joining bsurance was the industry I am familiar with – Insurance. The reason behind such interest is the fact that one of my parents works as an Insurance lawyer. And the technological side of the industry has sparked my interest because that’s not what you expect from such a traditional sector. Another factor was that I wanted to work in a startup. In the past five years, I have worked in the Finance sector in a company still in the growth phase. I really enjoy the startup culture and the fact that there are many projects to do and opportunities to learn while the company is evolving.
While working in the startup, your contribution is very valuable and present compared to companies that have been in the market for twenty years. That was my motivation to join the bsurance team.
What were your expectations before joining bsurance?
To start with, I knew the internship was in Business Development, which was a different area from what I have worked in so far. I expected to learn more about how Business Development works for the startup and what strategies and approaches are used to grow the company from scratch. My expectations have been fulfilled, and I have learned more about the day-to-day activities of the dynamic startup. Besides, I wanted to explore the InsurTech industry, as I was not very familiar with it, and I learned a lot.
What did your day-to-day internship role consist of?
My day always started with a team’s daily call, which helped me understand what projects other colleagues are working on and how the company is operating. In the beginning, I was focused on competitor analysis, analyzing organizations and competitors in the InsurTech Industry – searching for market similarities, things that could be improved, and developing an extensive overview of competitors all over the world – that was very interesting!
Afterward, I focused mainly on content development – first, support in proofreading, content editing, and, after some time, being in the lead of content development by myself. Then, for the rest of my internship, I was mainly part of the digital growth team, where I worked with objectives like lead generation via content and social media, responsible for newsletter and content marketing plan.