Josh Brandlen developed skills in new venture development and entrepreneurship with his launch of Elevate Branding.
What was the focus of your internship?
The focus of this internship was to go through the entire entrepreneurship/new venture development process - everything from venture ideation, to brainstorming, venture development, business plan writing, building a marketing plan, pitching the venture, and networking. Our venture developed into a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) branding company for collegiate athletes that want to make money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). We named it Elevate Branding. Our NFTs will be a source of income for our ambassadors (athletes), in which every time one of their NFTs are traded, the ambassador will forever collect a royalty from the sale. Our goal is to acquire a partnership with the NCAA to use college trademarks in our product. That product is an NFT of an athlete, representing their college by playing a classic sport, and entertaining sports fanatics in a new digital way. These NFTs are the new sports trading cards.
What is unique about your situation that influenced your internship selection or experience?
I've been working in the Web 3, blockchain tech, crypto, and NFT space for over a year. Our concept is currently being built in the Web 3 industry, and we're competing to be first to the market. I'm the subject matter expert for Elevate Branding, because I'm bringing my experience from my primary blockchain project that I've been working on since late 2021. With that experience and network that I've been developing called DeltaFlare, Elevate Branding is sure to bring a new sports memorabilia business to a multi-trillion dollar industry.
What did you find most challenging about your internship?
The most challenging part of this internship is everything, including sleepless nights! Launching a new venture is really difficult, time consuming, and intimidating. What I've learned is that an entrepreneur spends most of their time networking, pitching the venture multiple times everyday, and everyone involved in the development must be flexible enough to do a bit of everything. I believe the concept of being an entrepreneur is forever being an intern in even the smallest capacities, because you're always learning from someone.