The mission of Cobaltix Innovation Labs is to create a continually growing community of innovative, successful business leaders around the world who will move the world forward, and also pay it forward for those who follow them.
This goal will be achieved by bringing innovative interns and fellows with incredible potential in business and technology to the San Francisco Bay Area between their academic and professional lives, and giving them the training and mentoring to positively change the trajectory of their careers.
Fellows will be provided with a customized curriculum that will include instruction, reading and analysis on business topics, shadowing, and a structured mentoring program featuring twenty extremely successful business leaders and highly influential people. Instruction will include business, technology, innovation, professional communication, and ways of thinking common to highly successful people.
Cobaltix Innovation Labs is supported by Cobaltix, a successful high-end business and technology consulting firm in the US.
Fellows will have a workspace in the Cobaltix offices in San Francisco, and will benefit from working alongside and mentoring from some of the incredible people at Cobaltix.
Cobaltix offices are located at a beautiful historic building in SoMa (South of Market), an area known for innovation and incubation of high-tech start-ups.
San Francisco lies 45 minutes north of Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, 3 hours from Lake Tahoe and Yosemite, and a short drive to both the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University. The San Francisco Bay Area is also known for incredible food, a magnet for a wide variety of cultures, and as a focal point for innovation in the world.
Cobaltix Innovation Labs was founded on the idea of "pay it forward." This means, quite simply, that we are looking for people who are exceptional, and will not only benefit from the incredibly fast-paced training they'll receive, but will pay it forward in the future, when they are established and can make the world a better place by helping other exceptional people.
In the next 20 years, Cobaltix Innovation Labs hopes to bring about 150 fellows to the San Francisco Bay Area and propel them forward in their careers and position them to achieve great things. Some of these incredibly talented, bright, and gracious people will undoubtedly help to move the world forward, some in small ways, and likely some in big ways. Their real impact, though, will be felt if some of them are able to propel others forward.
We want to lead the people in this program to be force multipliers and to create an enduring good.
Fellowships can range from 3 weeks to 3 months, depending on circumstances and the goals of the fellow. Cobaltix typically pays for flights, sponsors a visa (where necessary), and provides a computer and cell phone. Sometimes we may help with lodging but help with lodging depends on individual circumstances.
In the first week, we decide on goals—business, career, personal, and life goals. We move to medium and near-term goals. From these goals, we will create a custom curriculum, designed just for that person, tailored to their learning style and with the information/reading that will be most relevant to where they want to be.
For most fellows, the goal will be to start to launch their company (or do something similarly big) shortly after the end of the fellowship. The mentoring and support do not stop with the end of their stay in the US, though. The visit to the US just serves as an introduction and a means of setting up a common language.
Customized reading and one-on-one lectures/conversations on topics that will include business, technology, and understanding of how people think. There will be meetings every week, and the load will be heavy in this area. Fellows will learn more in this period than at any other time in their lives.
It should be noted: This is not for anyone looking to “get funded”. We are not gamblers—we know how to start and run successful businesses. If you want to get rich quick, this is not the way to do it. If you want to start and run a successful company, we can teach you a lot.
The Intern position will combine practical work experience with a learning experience that will include mentoring and instruction in technology, cognitive skills, and business.
We expect a 1-year commitment, and will also take care of the costs and sponsorship of a J1 visa, travel arrangements, US $40,000 in pay, and $12,000 in housing stipend for the successful candidate. The internship is in San Francisco, CA.
In the past, we have been fortunate to have many well-qualified candidates. Grades are not the most important factor for us. A strong base level of technical skills, attitude, work ethic, “smart” and “nice” are the most important criterion in our decision-making process.
We expect that most candidates will have solid skills around PC hardware, Windows, Macs, general troubleshooting, and solid understanding of operating systems. Some Linux and server skills are good to have as well, but the ability to learn these quickly will be equally valuable.
Former interns have described their time at Cobaltix as, “drinking from the fire hose” and have said that they learned more at Cobaltix than the sum of all of their learning before. The environment and culture are great, and the people are both supporting and happy to be mentors (on average the engineers at Cobaltix have 14 years of experience and we only hire the very best people). You should only apply for this internship if this type of learning environment appeals to you.
A few questions here will likely demonstrate what we are looking for:
