Business Development & Operations Intern (Reno Connect LLC., Pack Intern, Spring '27)

**This internship is hosted by Reno Connect LLC and sponsored by the Nevada Career Studio and ASUN. 

Students are highly encouraged to complete a 15 minute drop-in or schedule an in-person or virtual 30-minute appointment with a Career Mentor BEFORE submitting an application. Resumes and cover letters that do not meet NCS best practices will not be included in applicant packages to employers. 

After the application period closes in Handshake, the NCS Internships Team reviews the applicants and sends eligible students' applicant packages to employers for them to reach out to conduct interviews and make the final intern selection. Employers will contact students directly if they are interested in moving forward with them as a candidate. 

About Reno Connect LLC: 

Reno Connect is a Reno, Nevada-based venture studio that ideates, incubates, and builds new businesses from the ground up. In 2025, we developed and launched Float Reno, working with the City of Reno to create a river tubing experience for locals and visitors. Our current venture is a purpose-built vending platform for regulated products, where age verification, compliance, and product security are built in from the start rather than retrofitted. We design and manufacture the hardware locally in Reno, develop the embedded and mobile software that runs it, and operate the cloud platform that lets operators run the entire business from one place. 

Our vision is to build ventures in Reno that prove a small, focused team can take an idea from concept to shipping product without leaving town. The company was founded by a technology executive and father of three college students who wants to give students the kind of exposure to strategy, business, and technology that rarely fits inside a classroom. Our culture is small and hands-on: interns sit in on real decisions, own real work across hardware, software, and cloud, and see how the pieces connect as we move from prototype to production. 

Internship Description: 

Reno Connect is a Reno-based venture studio that ideates, incubates, and builds new businesses. In 2025 we launched Float Reno in partnership with the City of Reno, and we are now bringing a purpose-built, connected dispensing machine for regulated products to market. We are looking for a business, marketing, or entrepreneurship student to work directly with the founder on the commercial side of that launch. 

You will help answer the questions every new product has to answer: who buys it, why, at what price, through which channel, and what it takes to make them successful. Your work will span competitive and market research, customer persona and value proposition development, pitch and sales materials, regulatory research for our target markets, and building the operating playbook that lets a new customer run the business from day one. You will take part in real conversations with venues, route operators, and distribution partners, and you will bring your own analysis and recommendations to pricing, channel, and partnership decisions. 

This is a founder-led company, so you will see the whole business rather than one department. You will sit in on engineering, manufacturing, and finance discussions and learn how those decisions connect to the market. The founder is a former technology executive who managed a large corporate internship program and mentors in a hands-on, instructional style. 

The position is a mix of remote work and time at our Reno workspace, with a flexible schedule built around your classes. We provide the tools, accounts, and business materials you need. Ideal candidates are sophomores through seniors in Business, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Economics, or a related program who are comfortable with ambiguity, write clearly, and want to see how a company goes from idea to revenue. 

Duties/Responsibilities: 

• Research and profile competing products and companies, including pricing, features, business models, and positioning, and maintain that analysis as the market changes. 
• Map the venues, route operators, and distribution partners in our launch market and comparable college towns, and build and maintain a prospect database. 
• Develop customer personas and draft the value proposition, pitch materials, and sales collateral for each customer type. 
• Research state and local regulatory requirements for our target markets and summarize them in plain language for use in sales conversations and the operator playbook. 
• Support outreach to venues, operators, and partners, including preparing for meetings, attending calls and visits with the founder, and following up on next steps. 
• Help build the operator onboarding and operating playbook, including product sourcing, route management, and compliance procedures. 
• Contribute to pricing, channel, and partnership decisions with written analysis and recommendations. 
• Maintain organized notes, documents, and tracking in our shared systems, and report progress in weekly check-ins. 
• Participate in engineering, manufacturing, and finance discussions to understand how commercial decisions connect to the rest of the business. 

Goals and Expectations of the Intern: 

• Complete 150 hours of work as an intern (8-15 hours per week, 15 weeks total) 
• Deliver a completed competitive and market analysis, with a written recommendation on positioning and pricing that the company uses in its launch decisions. 
• Build a prospect database of venues, operators, and partners for the launch market, with a documented outreach process and a record of contacts made 
• Produce finished pitch materials and value propositions for each customer persona, tested in at least a few real customer or partner conversations 
• Complete a first version of the operator playbook, including a plain-language regulatory summary for our target markets 
• Present a final summary of their work, including what was learned about the market, what they recommend, and what they would do differently 
• Keep a consistent schedule agreed on at the start of the semester and  
• Communicate proactively when blocked or uncertain about a task, 
• Bring their own thinking to the work rather than waiting for instructions 
• Clear writing, organized documentation, and professionalism in every outside contact, since the intern will be representing the company 
• They can expect direct mentoring from the founder, real ownership of work that shapes a product launch, honest feedback, and a front-row seat to how a business is built 

Required Qualifications: 

• Must be a degree-seeking undergraduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno during the Spring ‘27 semester 
• December ‘26 or earlier graduates are not eligible for the Pack Internship Grant Program 
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to turn research into clear, organized documents and recommendations. 
• Comfort with research: finding, evaluating, and synthesizing information from public sources, competitor materials, and regulatory documents. 
• Proficiency with spreadsheets and standard productivity tools (Google Workspace or Microsoft Office). 
• Professional demeanor and comfort communicating with outside businesses by email, phone, and in person. 
• Ability to work independently on loosely defined problems and communicate progress and questions in a timely manner. 
• Availability of 10–15 hours per week during the Spring 2027 semester, including some time at our Reno workspace and occasional local visits with the founder. 
• Reliable transportation in the Reno area. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Currently enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno as a sophomore, junior, or senior in Business, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Economics, Communications, or a related program. 
• Coursework or project experience in marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, or new venture development. 
• Prior internship, job, or club experience involving customer outreach, sales, or business research. 
• Familiarity with CRM or outreach tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar). 
• Experience building financial models, pricing analyses, or business cases in spreadsheets. 
• Exposure to regulated industries, hospitality, or retail operations, including work experience in bars, restaurants, or retail. 
• Basic design or presentation skills (Canva, PowerPoint, Google Slides) for producing pitch and sales materials. 
• Interest in hardware products, startups, or how technology businesses go to market. 

Desired Schedule for Intern:  

Approximately 8–15 hours per week during the Spring 2027 semester, built around the student's class schedule. We are highly flexible on when the hours happen. The fixed commitments are a weekly check-in with the founder (about an hour, scheduled at the start of the semester) and occasional daytime availability for customer or partner meetings and venue visits in the Reno area, which will be scheduled in advance around the student's classes. Research, writing, outreach preparation, and documentation can be done remotely at whatever hours suit the student, including evenings and weekends. We will adjust the schedule around exams, projects, and other academic commitments; school comes first. 

PIGP internships require interns to complete 150 hours during their internship. It is the intern’s responsibility to ensure this requirement is met.