Legit Fish Company, Boston, MA
My time at Legit Fish (LF), working as an intern within the Business Development arm, has been an incredibly informative and transformative experience. What first brought me to the organization was the important purpose it serves: to make a more efficient, safe, and honest seafood supply chain in the United States. More specifically, Legit Fish is a venture that monitors and tracks the supply chain of seafood, both wild and farmed. By backing our records against the necessary governmental Fish and Game reports, the supply chain is closed in a way that foreign imitators or false weights cannot be inserted. As a lifelong fisherman who has years of experience in the commercial fisheries, I jumped at this opportunity, hoping to learn more about sustainability and fairness both in consumption and environmental protection.
I began work at LF with a dive into seafood suppliers, distributors, and processors. My goal was to identify prevalent
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and how our technology might integrate into these already existing systems. After interviewing tons of employees at a variety of seafood suppliers and ERP providers, I was able to present to senior executives my recommendation on how to create bespoke software for each industry leading ERP system. In essence, my work makes more seamless the partnerships between ourselves and suppliers who would
like to incorporate our technology into their supply chain and ultimate sales engine. I found this work so rewarding
because it has direct correlation with the onboarding of new clients, and the betterment of each node within the dangerously opaque seafood supply chain.
After this initial project, I bounced around different departments, working on social media optimization, marketing, and general strategy; but where I ended up for the majority of my time and where I hung my hat for the summer was on the lead generation front. I created a platform focused on generating new, relevant leads that create a stream of business opportunities for Legit Fish. Working from industry trade show lists and databases, I extracted relevant personnel from target companies, whom I then segmented and contacted via email campaign. Response rates have increased as I have honed my craft, and we are in constant meetings with owners and founders who are interested in our software suite.
In addition to my general interest and respect for the work Legit Fish does, I was further motivated to intern with them to test how viable a career in the fisheries may be. After this experience, I now know that pursuing a career in fisheries management is rewarding and challenging: two qualities I search for in the workplace. I look forward to exploring marine life more during my time at Williams through both course work and extracurricular engagement, and am very excited to tackle these new prospects with the growing toolset I have built from my time at Legit Fish.
Thank you to the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and to Tim and Sally Peterson. Without your assistance, I would not have been able to enjoy this summer experience in the way that I have.