How theInterna’s recruitment portal saves startups 5+ hours per intern hire

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The Problem

When theInterna’s founder Michael Durante set out to expand his recruitment platform for student internships, he quickly ran into limitations. While he’d built a basic version using Softr and Airtable, it couldn’t handle the workflows required to properly vet students or make it easy for startups to find qualified candidates.

Early attempts to use off-the-shelf tools or other no-code platforms fell short—especially when it came to managing conditional logic, permissions, and multiple onboarding flows. He needed a better way to:

• Collect and validate detailed student information (from student applications)
• Give startups a central hub to browse, filter, and shortlist student applicants
• Automate the application, approval, and hiring process across both sides

That’s when Michael turned to Softr expert Juliana Olarte to rebuild the platform with automation and scale in mind.
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The Solution

Juliana rebuilt the theInterna platform into a two-sided recruitment hub—one side for startups, one side for students—designed to surface qualified candidates, reduce manual effort, and help both parties connect easily.

“We wanted to make it feel simple for students and startups, but that meant the backend had to be a bit more complex than the initial build,” said Juliana. “Conditional forms and filters, custom logic, and Make automations make it all work.”

Here are the workflows the platform automates for each user group: 

For students:

• Streamlined onboarding: A Softr conditional form collects key info (education, availability, work eligibility, etc.), dynamically adapting based on responses.
• Profile management: Students can edit their profile, upload a video pitch, and showcase a “skills portfolio” page with examples of their work. Embedded videos and a progress bar help students complete their profiles and understand what’s expected.‍
• Application tracking: Once approved, students can view internships, apply directly on the job page, and easily discover other internships.
  

For startups:

• Self-serve onboarding: Startups can sign up, create and view their profile, and set up a call for an onboarding session. 
• Intern directory & filters: Startups can browse vetted candidates filters, including location, work eligibility, availability, and education requirements. They can also create shortlists, send personalized messages, and share application links, via Make and Airtable automations.‍
• Internship management: Companies can post new internships by filling out a Softr form. When initially onboarding, they can share the text of their existing internship opportunities and a Make automation takes a company’s text description and auto-populates structured fields for the listing.
  
  

For admins:

• Vetting workflows: When a student signs up to theInterna, Michael is notified. A second notification triggers when a student reaches 90% profile completion, allowing him to review and approve, or select “theInterna-verified” standout profiles.‍
• Automation-driven logic: Make is used to handle student profile creation, onboarding emails, internship visibility (based on plan level), and status updates—reducing manual work significantly.

The Impact

Since launching the new platform, theInterna has onboarded 350+ students and significantly reduced the time and effort required to match talent with internships, saving startups an average of 5+ hours per student internship hire.

Other key results include:

• A 60% reduction in admin time: Automations handle student approvals, internship publishing, and onboarding messages, saving time for both Michael and startups (startups report 5+ hours saved per hire).
  
• Faster launch time: Juliana built the new platform MVP in just one week, with the core functionality up and running ahead of Michael’s initial two-week deadline.
  
• Better student experience: Students say the platform is clear and easy to navigate, and they love the new portfolio feature to showcase skills beyond a traditional CV. More than 90% of profiles reach full completion, thanks to a guided onboarding flow and clear progress indicators.
  
• Built to scale: The system supports multi-user startup teams and includes filters for key hiring requirements like work eligibility, school placement needs, and availability—helping startups quickly surface relevant candidates.

Michael and Juliana are already planning new features, including a recommendation engine to match startups with best-fit interns, a chatbot for onboarding support, and a student resource hub with CV tips, interview prep, and career guidance.

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