Blog | HONK

This past summer I was fortunate enough to intern at Honk. It was quite the journey, I had a great summer dabbling in all business functions at a tech startup, seeing firsthand how all the pieces work together. I met a lot of great people and was thoroughly impressed with positive workplace atmosphere, as I enjoyed coming to work each and every day.

First Day @ Honk |

7:00 AM - Still in bed. Didn’t have to start until 10:00 AM. (Winning!)

10:00 AM - Came into the office and met with CFO (Jordan). I am working under him for the summer in a variety of capacities, ranging from market reporting to preparing materials for decks. (No coffee runs!)

12:00 PM - First team lunch, this is where I formally met the entire team. No doubt a ton of moving parts in a fast paced startup, these monthly meetings are used to ensure all team members across all teams are in-the-know about updates and changes. Communication is KEY. Also, lunch is DEE-LICIOUS.

4:00 PM - I am finally added to the Honk Slack channel and thus officially feel like a part of the team.

Sales Exposure |

A large part of my summer consisted of working closely with the sales team - Eddie, Tyson & Kacey. I researched and established promotional material for pitching to new and existing clients in order to expand Honk’s operations.

9:00 AM - Tasked with acting as a translator on a call to a french speaking municipality. This is the first time I have used my French Immersion education in over 5 years. Whoever said you didn’t need French in Toronto...you wrong, friend.

11:30 AM - The sales team meets to discuss sales strategy and funnel planning. My job is to update Honk’s internal database or take notes to keep the team on track.

Sales & Customer Support/Operations reppin' the new Honk gear.

Operations / Marketing Exposure |

Another large aspect of my summer was working with the operations team and creating informational dashboards to keep clients informed and happy, as well as working closely with our marketing manager, Rachel, to help with our marketing efforts.

10:00 AM - Meet with Mia or Kacey to determine if any existing clients need reporting and to discuss deliverables.

10:15 AM - Annoy the dev. team about various SQL functions, which I learned over the summer.

11:00 AM - Rachel has me draft our varying press releases, and make edits. Honk is growing like crazy this summer - I have a huge funnel of releases to dabble at.

3:00 PM - Finish the dashboard and present the findings to either the sales team or Mia. Occasionally, this data is used for marketing purposes or for press releases.

Summer Social |

8:00 PM - Arrive at Rec Room. Food is abundant and we have received tokens to play arcade games as well as participate in a virtual reality game of Ghostbusters.

10:00 PM - Kacey is exhibiting considerable talent at live Karaoke, and I am very full from all the delicious appetizers.

11:00 PM - Jeremy is now evoking some inner Gord Downie on the mic and everyone at Honk is impressed with his hidden talent.

11:15 PM - I have just beaten Tyson, Eddie and Andre at the football oriented arcade game. Riding a high (this may have been the highlight of the internship, not gonna lie).

12:00 AM - I have been gifted the team’s tokens and was able to make a big purchase of Dots Candy and a flashlight. All in all - a great night!

Final Thoughts |

I now know more about the parking industry than I ever thought possible. My friends continually asked me throughout the summer “how is the parking space?”. Jokes aside, it’s been super interesting to get a deep dive into how an industry that is typically an afterthought in the day-to-day lives of most people, can be as complex as it is. And how technology can really transform such an old fashioned space.