Five Things to Expect at a Startup

Jared Feldman is the Founder and CEO of Canvs, the technology platform created to measure and interpret emotions. As a student in the Entertainment, Media and Technology program, Feldman completed a reverse mentorship program with media executives at Time Warner. In mentoring these executives, he identified a huge gap between the questions people had and the tools available to answer them: none of the tools on the market were capable of providing insight and context instead of raw, complicated data. Canvs started with a mission to fill that void by providing insight and context around how people feel towards content. Jared has now grown Canvs from a small social media startup to a multimillion dollar company supporting clients like HBO, NBC, CAA, UTA, and more.

We sat down with Founder and CEO (and NYU alum) Jared Feldman to find out what makes working at a startup such a unique experience and how Canvs adds their own unique spin to the classic startup culture.

1. Autonomy – At a startup, independence is the name of the game. Looking to have ownership on a project and take it from start to end? As an intern or in an entry level role, there are few places that offer you the opportunity to be able to truly run with a project. There’s no other place you’re able to do that at a intern or entry level position than at a startup.

2. Holistic view of the industry – At startups, you (or your colleagues) are regularly interacting with investors, clients, and partners across a variety of touchpoints. There’s no better way to get a sense of how your industry comes together or what kinds of technology they’re prioritizing than by being on the ground floor of a great company. At Canvs, we work closely with traditional media companies like NBC — while also interacting with entertainment companies who are working to redefine the industry, such as BRaVe Ventures.

3. You wear many hats – At any startup, working outside your comfort zone is the norm. Sure you might work on a given team but any job description you receive at a startup is only the start of it. You can go from working on a powerpoint that will be presented to the board of directors at a multi-million dollar company to ordering pizzas. That dichotomy is what makes it exciting.

4. Responsibility – There’s no place where being a team player is more important than at a startup. At Canvs, we all work across team, and the employees that work best here are the ones who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. No task is too big — or too small — for anyone at a startup. While the old adage is true that we’re all in this together!

5. Cool Perks – Most startups are known for their cool perks. At Canvs, we pride ourselves on our company culture. Between beer-on-tap, endless snacks, and monthly company events, you’re bound to have a fun alongside your coworkers. We’ve previously gone bowling, kayaking in the Hudson, and even ‘Escaped’ the Room. We really mean it when we say that ‘we work hard and play hard.’

Canvs focuses on the emotionality of social media content. They analyze social media content and identify those that contain emotions in them so networks, agencies and the like can take these emotions to inform their marketing, advertising, and production decisions across a multitude of touchpoints. Canvs has been featured in a number of leading publications including The Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Atlantic, The LA Times, CNBC.com, Mashable, and Ad Week’s Lost Remote.

Still looking for an internship for academic credit this fall? Visit NYU CareerNet and apply for marketing and customer success internships for the Fall 2016 semester Job ID 1040396 and Job ID 1040110 at Canvs.