Social and Cultural Immersion: The weeks are starting to fly by. I began week 3 by exploring the city and eating the best pizza I’ve had so far at Pizza e Mozarella! We ended this week with our trip to the Alps where we participated in an adventure park in the trees, admired the views of Monte Bianco, and hiked up to Arpy Lake. It was very relaxing to escape the busy city for the day. One of the many great things about Milan is how central it is and how easy it is to travel between cities and countries. Returning home from the Alps, we were surrounded on the metro by soccer fans on their way to watch the Inter Milan vs Manchester City championship game. It was so special to see the entire city gather, and restaurants put TVs out for everyone to watch. I am so grateful to already have experienced so much and am so excited for what the upcoming weeks will bring. Maybe I’ll find a better pizza (unlikely)!
Class on Corporate Social Responsibility: This week in class we viewed the documentary “The Corporation” which discussed the potential pathological pursuit corporations have. I found the marketing strategies highlighted in the film fascinating, specifically undercover marketing. Companies will, for example, pay for a doorman to stand with boxes displaying their company label. It is then assumed people will see these boxes and think the products must be worth looking into. I had personally never heard of this strategy but am interested to see if I will be able to notice it moving forward. Another marketing strategy discussed was targeting children and its ethicality. Marketers can recognize that targeting children is manipulative but continue to do it to build a long-term consumer base. In the end, corporations seek profit and evidently go to extreme, arguably immoral lengths to achieve that profitability.
Internship in Milan: Entering the third cycle of Startupbootcamp at Fin+Tech, Sophia and I have begun contacting potential investors as well as organizing data on the startups. Throughout the week we have been creating ‘one-pagers’ which are short descriptions of startups to be presented to partners and investors. These ‘one-pagers’ include items such as differentiators and startup status. It is interesting to see the unique ways in which companies are innovating fintech and insurtech software. Additionally, we have been sitting in on calls with startups listening to their pitches in preparation to soon host our own calls. Hearing directly from the founders of these companies about what they do and why they do it has opened my eyes to so many products and services I don’t think I would’ve ever known about.
