Role
I helped design Intern With Ada. This is a contributing role, not a product I own — the program is Ada Raimova's, and she runs it.
Problem
Startups stopped hiring juniors. The entry-level roles that used to convert ambition into a track record largely disappeared, and what replaced them was certificates and course badges — things that prove attendance, not capability. For a 16-to-23 year old in Türkiye or Central Asia, there is no obvious first door.
They stopped hiring juniors. So I built another way in.
Why it exists
Because the thing that gets someone hired is evidence, and evidence only comes from shipping something under a deadline someone else set. The program's whole argument is a single line: the work you ship is your new CV. Everything about how it runs follows from taking that literally.
Solution
A three-month internship for early-career builders, working directly with Ada on real problems — idea validation, MVP strategy, founder programs, community building, AI prototyping, and go-to-market testing. The work is described honestly as ambiguous, collaborative, and close to the problems that matter, because that is what the first real job actually feels like.
Applications are rolling and reviewed personally. Cohort 04 onboards in September.
My contribution
The site's job is to make an unfamiliar offer legible in one screen: what you do, who you do it with, and what you walk away holding. I worked on the design that gets someone from "what is this" to "I should apply" without a paragraph of explanation in between.
Outcome
- First cohort completed; one intern moved into a job, several finished the program, and some stayed on working with the team.
- The program has run continuously since, with cohort 04 onboarding in September.