The Dream: Starting a weichie.com branch in New York City! Big dream, lots of work… But if I can keep myself motivated, it should be possible.
Last week I returned to New York for a week, but mainly for holiday reasons. Again, this made me super excited about my dream of starting a New York branch for our digital agency. More about the trip in a bit, but I will first get started on the current state of the business and all the preparations that are already made.
The big question. My entire career started in New York. When I was in my first year of university college, I knew I would be doing my final internship in the United States. It did not matter to me if it was New York, Los Angeles, or San Fransisco. In my mind, in our sector (web & tech) the United States is at the top of the industry.
I had sent out emails to literally hundreds of agencies in the States to ask if they’d offer international internships. The internship would be unpaid, so I was simply asking if it would be possible for a Belgian Student to run an internship at their company. Of the 100+ agencies I’ve reached out to, only 5 replied. 3 of them were positive…
Long story short, I managed to get a 6-month internship at a digital agency called Night Owl Interactive. The agency was based in New York City and existed out of a small team of 8 people. After my 6 month internship, I got hired right away and I stayed for 2 years in New York. Because Night Owl Interactive was a small agency, doing big projects, it always intrigued me to start something similar on my own.
During my 2 years at Night Owls, I became very good friends with some of my colleagues. When our adventures ended at Night Owls, we stayed in touch. Some only for social and fun reasons, but with some I continued working. Because I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity my internship and early New York career gave me, I really wanted to work more and more with my New York colleagues.
Belcham US Readiness Program