Kellogg Food & Agribusiness Club (kFAB) | Afresh - Allison Connell

Can you describe your internship briefly?

I was an intern on the Business Operations team at Afresh during the summer of 2019. Afresh's mission is to build technology to eliminate food waste and make fresher, healthier food available to all. The company is using proprietary machine learning technology to help grocery stores optimize their supply of fresh food to fit varying consumer demand and reduce the amount of food that is wasted due to the mismatch. The company's first product is an app - powered by AI - that optimizes orders of fresh produce at the store level, reducing food waste, reducing stock-outs, and improving margins that are razor-thin in the grocery industry. Afresh is small but growing rapidly. I was one of three MBA interns during my 10-week internship, and full-time MBA graduates joined the company over the course of the summer. My role was to launch the app in early customers' stores. My responsibilities on the ground included training end users how to use the app and integrate it into their daily ordering process, taking their feedback on the functionality and navigation feature of the app and then working with engineers back at Afresh to develop those preferences into priorities of which features should be added or updated and in what order.

Was there room to go beyond the initial setup of the internship?

Yes, definitely. I knew coming into the summer that I wanted to work in areas that were specific to being a start-up. In addition to my core responsibilities, I worked on a variety of ad-hoc projects including sales operations, company strategy, and board/investor materials.

How was the interaction with your colleagues?

Afresh had 15 employees when I started my internship, so it is truly an early stage start-up experience! My manager was the Business Operations lead and actually the first non-technical hire at the company (and had started just four months before me). Besides him, I worked quite a bit with data scientists and front-end engineers on launching, training, and improving the product. All of my ad-hoc projects had me working directly with the CEO, which was a great opportunity to peek into the life of a start-up CEO that includes not only building a business but also growing an organization.

The structure was very flat, both figuratively and literally! We all sat in a single open-space floor plan office, so it was easy to approach anyone and talk about both work and non-work topics, from the CTO who created the AI algorithm to the other MBA interns.

To what degree did the internship provide you with a good understanding of the industry and function? And to what degree did it provide you the opportunity to develop new skills, knowledge (e.g., via coaching or training) or a relevant network inside and outside the company (conferences, touchpoint with relevant people in other departments…)?

I got really excited about the huge opportunity there is for technology and especially machine learning to change how we approach huge, systemic problems such as food waste. I learned so much about both the grocery industry, about software engineering and AI, as well as about the tech start-up space. During the course of my internship, I spent time in places ranging from the (very chilly!) produce back room of grocery stores to headquarters of potential customers to boardrooms of Silicon Valley venture capital firms. I learned how to speak proficiently about both shrink and machine learning algorithms. I saw firsthand how exciting and also difficult it is to pitch a new idea, deliver on a new product, and motivate a growing team while setting strategic direction for a company.

Would you see yourself working there in the long term? Why/why not?

While I decided not to join Afresh full-time after graduation for personal reasons, I could definitely see myself working there long term in an alternate universe. I loved the mission-driven aspect of the organization and how every employee truly believed in what we were doing. It was also great to work with extremely smart, hard-working people on a daily basis. The organization is growing rapidly and extending both internship and full-time offers to MBAs as they scale.

Based on your experience, what advice would you give current students seeking positions?

I would encourage students to be super open during the summer to being flexible with the role description and what projects you take on - don't be afraid to raise your hand to help where it's needed most, or in an area that really interests you, even if it has nothing to do with your original role. Stretching yourself beyond what you think you're supposed to do is where you often learn the most!

Based on your experience, what advice would you give current students seeking positions at Afresh?

First, it's important to show why and how you're passionate about the mission and what drives you to want to work on an issue as big and thorny as food waste. Second, it's critical to show a) how you'll add value based on your experience and unique perspective, and b) that you're willing to dive in immediately wherever needed. An early stage but rapidly growing startup always has more to be done than people doing it - think of it as an opportunity to show your mettle and have an outsized impact at once. The combination can be nerve-wracking but is also thrilling and rewarding.