Venture Studio (Startup Incubator) Intern (New York) - Summer 2027

About the role

Join DESCOvery’s venture studio in New York for a summer 2027 internship exploring and building technology-driven businesses. You will research a market, interview customers, identify and validate an opportunity, develop a product thesis, build and test a prototype, and present recommendations to the team.

Responsibilities

• Research industry structure, market size, competition, emerging technologies, and existing solutions within a specific market.
• Interview prospective customers and industry participants to understand workflows, pain points, and unmet needs.
• Evaluate opportunities based on market attractiveness, customer need, competitive landscape, and technical feasibility.
• Translate insights into a product thesis and build a working prototype or proof of concept.
• Test prototypes with potential users, incorporate feedback, and refine underlying assumptions.
• Present research, prototypes, conclusions, and recommendations to DESCOvery team members.

Additional Opportunities

• Spend approximately 15% of the internship independently exploring a self-selected business or product idea.
• Shadow DESCOvery portfolio company leaders across product, customers, hiring, strategy, and operating decisions.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, engineering, applied mathematics, data science, or another technical field.
• Demonstrated technical foundation and interest in building through projects, prototypes, startups, applications, or technical products.
• Show commercial curiosity and interest in markets, customer needs, business models, and technically feasible products.
• Comfortable moving between customer interviews, market analysis, coding, and prototype development.
• Able to navigate ambiguity, determine what needs learning, experiment, and translate insights into tangible outputs.
• Strong analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills, with notable academic and extracurricular achievement.

Preferred Background

• Familiarity with modern software development, artificial intelligence tools, LLMs, APIs, Python, JavaScript, or TypeScript.
• Experience with startups, entrepreneurial projects, hackathons, research, or other zero-to-one environments.

Compensation

• Monthly base salary of $13,000, plus overtime pay and a competitive sign-on bonus.
• Travel coverage to and from the internship, with furnished summer housing or a $10,000 housing allowance.
• $3,300 stipend for self-study materials and $4,000 stipend for personal technology equipment.