Kaitlyn and Midhushi at the entrance to the UK Nations & Regions Zone, UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit at the Royal Society.
I worked part-time at Midlands Mindforge throughout June, where my main project was helping build out the website's resources for founders. Going in, I knew I liked venture capital, I could code a little, and I'd always had an interest in design. I didn't expect to get the chance to use all three in the same project.
I'm a second-year Management student at the University of Warwick. This year, Warwick Enterprise, the university's innovation division, ran a pilot internship programme pairing students with startups. Alongside time spent with our companies, we had weekly Monday workshops covering everything from professional skills to design thinking and networking. The creative thinking session was one of my favourites, since it really drove home how differently people think. One activity gave every table of interns the same six pieces of LEGO and asked us to build a duck. No two tables built the same one; everyone saw and approached it differently. It's a small thing, but it stuck with me, and it helped me see how valuable my own outsider perspective could be to the company.
I'm one of three interns at Midlands Mindforge this summer, each working on our own project and each writing about our own experience, so this is just my side of it. My main project was helping develop resources for startup founders, breaking down the key elements of the venture capital process. The team gave me real ownership of the project, along with the support to actually run with it.
The work pushed me beyond what I'd learned academically. Earlier this year, I took a venture capital module, one of the most interesting classes I've taken, and building these resources let me put that knowledge to real use. I also liked that the founders reading them might be at a similar starting point to me. I am only in my second year of studying business, and they are people who have never formally studied business but need to understand it quickly.
The process itself ran in stages: choosing which topics to dig into, finding credible sources, writing the content, then "vibe coding" it into HTML for the website.
The research and writing felt familiar, but the vibe coding was completely new. Last year, I took an introductory programming module that I found interesting but genuinely difficult. I came away from it unsure of my coding ability and not really enjoying it. Using Claude to help design and build the website turned out to be a completely different experience. Vibe coding felt far more intuitive, and I actually enjoyed it.
One of the most memorable parts of the internship was attending the Global R&D and Science Investment Summit on behalf of Mindforge. Midhushi, the fellow intern I worked alongside, and I spent the morning helping check people into the venture and spinout zone. Later, Mindforge's founder, Lisa Smith, encouraged us to actually talk to the spinouts, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the day. I really enjoyed hearing directly from founders about the technologies they were building and their enthusiasm for the cause.
We also got to meet the wider Mindforge team and some new faces from Midlands Innovation and Forging Ahead. The Midlands Innovation reception that evening was its own kind of special: Lord Patrick Vallance announced that Midlands Mindforge was entering its active investment phase.
Looking back, this internship gave me far more experience and confidence than I expected going in. Getting to see first-hand how fast-paced a startup really is has only deepened my interest in entrepreneurship, and reinforced that this is the kind of environment I want to keep working in.
I'd especially like to thank Chloe Hall, who gave us genuine ownership over our work, answered every question, and even came up to campus so we could work together. She made me feel like my ideas actually mattered, and that made all the difference.
Kaitlyn Faulkner — Summer Intern, Midlands Mindforge