Demeter Docs, Entrepreneurial Intern
Junior 2024
During one of my Social Entrepreneurship lectures, I was captivated by a guest speaker, Xin, whose insights on social entrepreneurship and her startup’s mission resonated deeply with me. After the lecture, I introduced myself, and our initial questions quickly turned into a rich conversation that led us to a three-hour coffee chat at Think Coffee right outside of Stern. There, I learned about Xin’s impressive journey from being a Senior Vice President at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking in New York to pursuing a more meaningful path in social entrepreneurship. Having recently shifted my own career focus from corporate to entrepreneurship, I admired Xin’s courage to leave an established career and create a new path. We shared many personal experiences and perspectives during that conversation, and by the end, Xin offered me a summer internship at her startup, Demeter Docs.
At Demeter Docs, I worked directly under Xin, supporting her in marketing, partnerships, and localization efforts. Demeter Docs specializes in documenting the journeys of social entrepreneurs, like Rethink Food’s CEO Matt Jozwiak, who pioneers sustainable food solutions, and Bin Luo of Changing Bio, a leader in biosynthetic and microbial proteins. My marketing role focused on making these long-format documentaries accessible and engaging for the Gen-Z audience. I developed strategies to transform our footage into short social media posts and reels, optimizing them for platforms popular with younger generations. Working closely with Xin, often for 12 hours per day, I learned how to shape business strategies and refine marketing plans, bringing greater exposure to the impactful stories we were sharing.
In addition to marketing, I assisted Xin in building partnerships, meeting with founders and CEOs of U.S.-based startups to understand their missions and explore potential collaborations. My role extended internationally, as I traveled between New York and China to foster connections, especially in Shanghai and Beijing. In June, Xin and I returned to Shanghai, where we met with leading figures in China’s plant-based protein industry to discuss how Demeter Docs could be a pioneer in this field. Localization was one of my most significant responsibilities, as social entrepreneurship is an established concept in the West but relatively new in China. Using my background and NYU Shanghai’s unique positioning, I worked to bridge this cultural gap, spreading awareness through student communities and social media on platforms like Douyin and Red. This experience allowed me to act as a strategic marketer, brand launcher, and multicultural communicator, while Xin’s mentorship had a lasting impact on my journey in entrepreneurship and personal career development.
