After years of providing career advice via my website and book, I realized that if I really wanted to make a difference in the lives of young leaders, I needed to go from passive advice to active job creation.  My co-founders (more on them in a bit) and I discovered through hundreds of conversations that there is a chicken and egg dilemma facing most college-aged students: how do you get a job without experience yet how do you get experience without a job?

From that was born Haevn, a for-profit venture designed to offer a high-touch approach in partnering with companies to create paid micro-internships, build professional soft skills, and provide meaningful community. Our goal is to foster a sense of belonging in our members, with a special focus on providing opportunities for students with diverse backgrounds!

If you are a student, no more sending your resume into a black hole, never to be heard from again! If you are a company, no more dreading the heavy lift of onboarding an intern!  With our personalized approach, we make the experience meaningful and seamless for both students and employers.

The secret to Haevn, like in all great businesses, is the power of our #dreamteam! At my most recent CEO position, Lily’s Sweets, I was able to assemble the best team of my career and together we took founder Cynthia Tice’s vision, scaled the company, and recently sold it to Hershey’s. Even though we had a strong macro-trend of reducing sugar and a delicious product line, it was the team that made the magic!

So let me start with my two co-founders who are making the magic happen at Haevn! I met Misa Grenier and Justin Simpkins through Watson Institute, an organization I have been involved with for many years. Both are entrepreneurial, passionate, and energetic with a bunch of intellectual curiosity thrown in. They exemplify the next generation of great leaders! More about all of us here.

Next up, in collaboration with our good friend, Bill Capsalis at Naturally Boulder, we will be launching our first cohort of micro-internships. But Haevn is so much more than the internship as we build skills and create community for everyone who participates. I couldn’t be more excited about rapid-prototyping our business model with the goal of expanding broadly in 2022!

• Are you a student and need experience? Check us out!
• Are you a company and want a great intern without the heavy lift? Check us out!
• Are you a college or university who wants a higher success rate for job placemen? Check us out!
• Are you someone who cares about the next generation of leaders and would like to be a mentor? Check us out!

We’d love you to join our movement—so scroll down on our website and connect today!