Meet David Lopez, junior at CU Boulder studying Business with an emphasis in Real Estate. He is also the CEO and Co-founder of Internalyze, an online education platform working to help community college graduates break into tech by teaching them the sales skills they need in order to succeed.
When he came to CU and was first introduced to the world of entrepreneurship, he didn’t hesitate to dive in. Learning all that he could, meeting with mentors and using all of the resources available to him - he wanted to see all that entrepreneurship in Boulder had to offer.
First Venture...
David had launched a venture prior to this endeavor where he learned the importance of market timing. This first venture acted as a trial run and helped him realize the importance of the things that makes a business successful.
At the end of his freshman year, he found himself looking for internships and discovered that it was a lot harder than it should have been, especially for minority students. Wanting to make this transition easier for everybody, he decided to launch Internalyze, which was initially focused around helping college students find internships.
A New Path
After being unable to find a scalable business model, they officially pivoted in February of this year. David decided to transition Internalyze into an online education platform that is co-developed by the same companies that will hire their graduating students. Companies will partner with Internalyze to develop education and training that is specific to their hiring needs, while students can benefit from increased hiring chances and a more applicable skill set in a much shorter period of time.They are targeting community college graduates who don't have the means to transfer to a 4 year institution or anyone who is looking to make a career change who may have been let go due to COVID-19.
Internalyze now offers a 15 week program to bring individuals quality training with industry best practices. The first twelve of the weeks are focused on the sales skills and fundamentals while establishing connections with their partner companies. The students are able to then choose which company they want to work for and then finish the last three weeks of their program training specifically with that company.
And even cooler? Students don't pay until after they've been hired.
“No tuition and no debt. We only succeed if our students do.”
Internalyze focuses on holding themselves to a higher standard, so students will only be paying once they secure a job making $40,000 or more. From there, those students will pay just 10% of their income for three years.
NVC Participants
Internalyze participated in this year’s New Venture Challenge and made it to Round 2. Being a company that is only one month old, it was a great run. They appreciated the opportunity to compete and to find unique ways to work on their vision.
Market Timing
In light of recent events, many universities have made the shift to online learning. This has given Internalyze the opportunity to capitalize on their idea that,
“You don’t have to go to a 4 year school to be successful.”
Right now, this team of ten (6 engineers and 4 business students) and their motivation is one of the things that keeps the company moving forward. As a mission driven team, they truly want what's best for their students and to make Internalyze work in its new remote setting.
Remote Work
Step by step, they are working to grow their company beyond CU. David mentioned how much learning from industry professionals has been extremely helpful in this time. One of his classes, New Venture Creation with Brad Werner gives students a framework of the correct way to make a business sustainable and scalable.
Continuing to move forward, David wants to help other students reach their full potential.