Introduction
I met Mrs. Manisha Gupta at the youth Dublin class during my freshman year. I was an assistant at the youth class, and her daughter was a student in the class. We got to know each other well. Soon, she mentioned an idea she had in her mind, one she wanted to convert into a business. I told her of my interest in the field of business, and I also liked her idea. It was the start of a solid relationship, both business and personal.
The Idea
WishExpress aims to strengthen the relationship between a parent and a child. It provides an online service in which both the parent and the child get what they want. The parents state the chores, tasks, or simple desires that they want their children to fulfill, and attach a value in "stars" of completing that task each day. The children do the tasks and redeem the stars, which are worth 10 cents each. The children accumulate stars towards prizes that have been approved by the parents. Both the parents and the children are happy! Previously, her colleagues and she had been engaging in hour-long sessions with families, improving their relationships on a personal basis. However, because of the increasing demand for their service, they decided to make everything an online process.
Inception
Manisha came to me with a proposal near the end of freshman year. She knew of my interest in business, and she told me that her colleagues were looking for a teenager to become a Youth Adviser to the company. They needed someone whose age was close to the children their online service would target, and someone mature enough to provide relevant and helpful feedback to a company that would improve its quality for the children. Although they were looking at two other possibilities as Youth Advisers, Manisha presented the opportunity to me as well because she believed I could contribute to the company well.
Beginning
After some more discussion with Manisha, an initial meeting in which I presented ideas for the company, and a final meeting with everyone who was a part of the start-up, I was in. I started attending weekly meetings on Thursdays, and viewed firsthand the process a start-up company has to go through to work.
The first lesson I learned is that deadlines are mostly hopeful aspirations and are not set in stone. The site optimally should have been up and running within a year, so I assumed that by the winter of my junior year, WishExpress would have an operational site. As time went on, I learned the most important lesson: rarely do events occur according to our plans, and only patience can ensure the success of even the most brilliant ideas.
Internship
A feature of the website was proposed, named the ParentLab. It proposed a database of biographies of famous people in every career or passion possible. However, the biographies focused on what those famous people did as children to get where they did. The purpose of the ParentLab was to present work ethics and positive traits that parents want in their children through the use of the children's role models.
Manisha and Phillip, the co-CEO of the company, decided that I should develop this feature by myself. I started developing biographies of many role models of today, including Steve Jobs, Mickael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Michelle Obama, and Hannah Montana. Once I have gathered enough, the ParentLab development won't take much time.
