How Saanvi Pandey, 18, Is Transforming Internships for Indian Students with Binternz

Entrepreneurship

India

18 Years

I am Saanvi, 18 years old and the founder of Binternz.

Binternz, a self-made name, means “Interns from Bharat”. This platform is one-stop for every student who dreams of standing out from the crowd when it comes to CV. We are not just informing students about internships but we are also providing them a way to crack them.

Binternz curates and shares handpicked internship opportunities tailored for students across India so you never miss out on what could shape your career.

We help you crack the internships through peer-to-peer guidance where you can ask people who have already interned at your dream companies about all the insider knowledge.

I was 17 when I started. I started Binternz with nothing at all because I am not just building a business but rather a legacy that needs to continue.

"I didn’t just walk away from a bad internship, I decided to create internship opportunities for others."

What inspired you to start your own business?

Binternz was a trauma response. My 12th just got completed and I was ready to start my career. As they say, If you want something from your heart, then the whole universe tries to get it for you, I found an internship via LinkedIn as a Social Media Management Intern. 10 days into it, I realised what was happening.

- I was expected to call 100 people in just few hours
- There were no specific timings of internship (I was expected to pick up calls even at 10:30 PM)
- Reach out to clients, something that should not be expected from a Social Media Management Intern
- All this work for a piddly amount of 400 rupees a month.

The moment I got to know about the stipend, formulated a formal message and left.
I decided to look for internships. In my mind it was “If I have to work this much, I would rather do it for a brand”.
I started looking for internships and in the process I realised what if I do it for everyone else too. Basically, share my findings with everyone. That’s how Binternz came to life. It is a self-made word, meaning “Interns from Bharat”. We started as an information platform and are continuing as a startup with our unique services of providing mentorship to aspiring interns through interns who have already worked at their dream companies.

How did you turn your idea into a business?

It's all because of LinkedIn that I could start my business. Besides God, it was LinkedIn who helped me with everything, from building my ideas and giving it a sky to building me.

Once we started, we focused on two things to get customers. Constant posting on LinkedIn and circulating the message in college groups. No fancy ads, no metrics, no other online presence.

What is your average monthly revenue?

We are just getting started with our services and are excited to see how it goes. We recently held our online event Binternz Baithak. A one day event was held where we provided our services for free. We opened just 50 slots, in order to not overburden our mentors. After a brief market research, I realised we can expect 30 students on board. In order to get these many people, we released the forms 10 days prior.

Binternz defied my own market research and just 2 days before the event we had over 50 registrations. It might be very small to others but for me, it felt like the world, the exact validation I needed for my idea.

How are you doing today and what plans for the future?

Honestly we are working on a lot of things, and right now, things are working all fine. I believe, one of the major things I am missing out on is confidence because of which I am not able to stand on a podium to pitch my idea. This has resulted in me losing out on a lot of opportunities but continuously working on it.

What advice would you give to budding founders?

Take that leap of faith. The idea you have thought of 50 times a day might make you the headlines of the newspaper.
Build your personal brand. Most of your customers will come through you. Post consistently, leave the fear of being called "embarrassment".
You can either live your dream or live with regret.

Where can we find you?

Book Recommendations

‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom