When I found out this past spring that I’d be a product marketing intern at Facebook for the summer, I was eager to start working on cool projects at one of the most exciting companies in Silicon Valley. I never imagined that in my first week I’d have the opportunity to have an even broader impact by being asked to work with dozens of technology start-ups through the fbFund REV program.
REV is an incubator program for 24 companies building new applications for you on the Facebook Platform, ranging from an application devoted to helping people run errands more efficiently to one that is devoted to finding work for people in third-world countries.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve worked with the companies as they experiment and iterate on the development of new applications and build their businesses— all from one of Facebook’s former offices in downtown Palo Alto, Calif. Most importantly, the environment spurs learning and innovation.
For instance, one of the companies in the program, GeckoGo, is building an application that helps people plan their upcoming travel. While designing the application, GeckoGo’s founders realized they needed to make it more engaging and turned to other entrepreneurs and advisers in the REV program for advice on how to simplify the design of their product and better solicit feedback from users. After a series of changes, people began spending significantly more time with their application. Another company, Frintro, is trying to find new ways to connect your single friends with one another by asking its users to make introductions from their different friend groups.
Together, we have a small community that provides powerful advice and learnings around product development and marketing, not to mention the daily struggles of starting a company.Along with meetings among the entrepreneurs and developers , the program also has experts from all over Silicon Valley visit REV to share their perspectives on building a company — on everything from funding the business and building user-friendly features to giving a good presentation. Many of the topics I’m studying as a business school student at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, like how to run an operationally lean company and how to market your company’s products, were brought to life through the REV program.
I’m constantly surprised by all that I learn from the REV developers and can’t wait for you to try all of the applications. For more information about the products that the teams are developing, check out the fbFund REV website and Facebook Page.
Shaykat, an intern for the fbFund REV program, doesn’t want the summer to end.
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