This summer, I’ll be spending six weeks interning at Totsy.com in New York City and eleven weeks at Amazon.com in Seattle. It will be a great break from school and a great learning experience.

     

Totsy is a private-sales site specializing in apparel, accessories, and parenting resources for moms and their kids (0-8 yrs old) that was co-founded in 2008 by the North American CEO of LALIQUE, Guillaume Gauthereau, and digital media veteran, Christophe Garnier, . Totsy was ranked #36 on Forbes’ 2011 list of 100 Most Promising Companies. Totsy is also a 100% eco-friendly company. Among other things, Totsy plants a tree in Peru in honor of every customers’ 1st purchase. If Totsy isn’t already on your radar, it should be. 

In January 2011, Totsy appointed David Niggli as its Chief Merchandising Office. David was previously the President of FAO Schwarz where he led the introduction of Barbie, Star Wars, Harry Potter, FAO Baby stores, and the full line of FAO Schwarz private label products. At Totsy, I will be reporting to Randall Schmidt, the head of CRM and Analytics. Randall was previously the Director of CRM at Lord & Taylor. I’m thrilled to work with these brilliant retail minds, and to learn how they think about e-commerce. I am also stoked to mix it up with the startup crowd in NYC. 

On the other hand, Amazon (the 800lb gorilla) needs less of an introduction. Amazon recorded revenue of $48.08Bln in 2011 (YoY growth of 41%) and ended the year with 56K employees (YoY growth of 67%). As of this writing, Amazon boasts a $84Bln market cap and a P/E of 134. Amazon has its paws in every aspect of e-commerce and is constantly planting seeds for the future.

During my time at Amazon, I will be working  as a Business Manager Intern in the Softlines category, which includes clothing, shoes, and jewelry. →

I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to work at Amazon and Totsy this summer. I’m looking forward to earning my keep and drinking from a fire hose. Now off to brush up on MySQL.