How to Find an Internship at a Healthcare Startup [Part 1]

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Written By: Nick Nguyen | Read full profile

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The issue with 2-year master's programs? You only get one shot at being an intern. Especially if you want to graduate on time and the gig is a full-time summer stint. You might get lucky and find an internship that runs during the school year. But, I never really had that much luck at finding them. And to be honest, the ones I did find, I was too slow to apply for.

So that brings us to that 1 big internship over the summer. I had my heart set to work for a startup. More specifically, I wanted something early stage. I didn’t know it at the time, but this really meant looking for a company that had gone through Series C or D funding. (Stay tuned for a future blog on the different stages of startups.) Essentially, I wanted to work in an environment where I could learn how to grow and scale a product. 

The problem . . . I was going about the search all wrong. Sure, it was cool that I trained my LinkedIn algorithm to show only healthcare startups, suggest posts on founders, and magically stumble upon polarizing opinions of venture capitalists with grim outlooks on health disruption. But my options were incredibly limited. 

I easily sent out over 200 job applications between October 2021 and March 2022. Of those, only 40 were for healthcare startups that I really believed in. Now obviously, the best way to find that hot new startup and ACTUALLY land the job is through your network. But, I just didn’t have any luck with the professors I did know (and to be fair just wasn’t asking the right people).

If I could do it all over again, here’s where I would start: 

1. Find professors who are active investors or board members 

Don’t just stick to your own school’s professors. My mistake was focusing only on individuals in the school of public health. I should’ve expanded my search to people from all the local schools like MIT, Northeastern, and even the other Harvard faculty. And for healthcare gigs, diving into the business and medical schools would've been a smart move. That was a big L on my part…

2. Look who’s going to Healthcare Conferences

I only recently found out about HLTH, one of the largest healthcare conferences around the world. There’s literally a section on their site outlining what startups (and investors) are planning to make an appearance.  It's a quick and easy way for you to see what problems and projects they’re currently working on, especially if they happen to have a keynote or info session. Pro Tip: if you want to look at a specific niche (like community health centers, digital health, AI in healthcare, etc.) find a conference focused on just that. It’ll significantly narrow down your choices. 

3. Venture Capitalists & Private Equity Firms

Big names like Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, and Sequoia Capital might be the top hits in a google search. But their portfolios are really broad, and they’re probably funding the mainstream startups in healthcare right now. Instead, while you’re sifting through the attendees of healthcare conferences, don’t forget about the investors. Fusion Fund, Maverick Ventures, and Rock Health are some cool places to look for early stage companies in healthcare.

4. Accelerators & Incubators

One of the most famous accelerators is Y Combinator. Yes, YC is a great place to start, but not everyone gets in. So where else do they go? Check out if there are any small accelerators or incubators on campus or at partner institutions.  A big one that I learned about during my last year at Harvard was Techstars. See which companies just got accepted and don’t be afraid to send a cold email. Of course, if you have a warm lead, use it. See if someone can put in a good word.

At the end of the day, this is what I would do if I had a do-over:

Pick a niche in healthcare that you actually want to work on. Start broad and get deeper. Health Tech? AI? Prior Authorization? Misinformation? Insurance? Then decide what role you want to have : Strategy? Operations? Marketing? Research? Business Intelligence? It can get overwhelming really fast. But at least you won’t be limited to only what LinkedIn feeds you like I was. 

Tunnel vision sucks. 

But all I can say is you live and you learn. Good luck!