Business Development Intern

About Aladdinmall

• Aladdinmall is building AI-native commerce infrastructure for local small businesses.
• We help local merchants become visible, searchable, bookable, payable, and easier to manage without needing a complicated website, expensive software, or technical skills. Many local businesses still operate through phone calls, Instagram DMs, paper menus, Venmo/Zelle notes, spreadsheets, and owner memory. Their customers may love them in real life, but their business information is often scattered, outdated, or difficult to find online.
• Aladdinmall gives these businesses a simple way to show products or services, communicate with customers, take bookings or orders, and accept payments. Our mission is to help small and micro businesses participate in the next era of local commerce and AI-driven discovery.

About the Role

• We are looking for a Business Development Intern to help Aladdinmall grow its local merchant network.
• This is a hands-on startup internship focused on merchant research, outreach, onboarding, product feedback, and local business development. You will work directly with the founding team and help us understand how small businesses actually operate, what tools they use today, what problems they face, and how Aladdinmall can make their work easier.
• This role is best for students who are curious, practical, organized, and comfortable talking to real business owners. You do not need prior startup experience. We care more about communication, judgment, persistence, and willingness to learn from real customer conversations.

What You Will Do

As a Business Development Intern, you may work on the following responsibilities:

1. Merchant Research

• Identify local small businesses that may benefit from Aladdinmall, including restaurants, salons, beauty studios, food vendors, tutors, repair shops, home service providers, local retail stores, and other community-based businesses.
• Research how these businesses currently present themselves online, including their website, Google profile, Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, booking tools, payment methods, and customer communication channels.
• Build organized merchant lists based on location, category, business type, and potential fit.

2. Merchant Outreach

• Reach out to local businesses through email, phone, social media, in-person visits, or community channels.
• Write clear and respectful outreach messages that explain what Aladdinmall is and why it may help the merchant.
• Learn how to communicate with small business owners in a practical, customer-focused way instead of using overly formal sales language.
• Follow up with merchants professionally and keep track of outreach status.

3. Merchant Onboarding

• Help interested merchants create or improve their Aladdinmall storefront.
• Assist merchants in organizing basic business information such as services, products, prices, photos, hours, contact methods, booking links, and payment preferences.
• Help merchants understand how customers can discover, contact, book, order, or pay through Aladdinmall.
• Collect feedback during onboarding and identify points where the product experience can be improved.

4. Product and Market Feedback

• Test Aladdinmall from a merchant and customer perspective.
• Share feedback on product usability, onboarding flow, storefront design, payment experience, booking flow, and merchant communication.
• Compare Aladdinmall with tools such as Shopify, Square, Vagaro, Yelp, Google Business Profile, Instagram, and other platforms used by small businesses.
• Help the founding team understand what merchants actually need versus what existing software tools assume they need.

5. Growth and Local Market Execution

• Support local growth experiments in selected cities or business categories.
• Help test repeatable merchant acquisition playbooks, including neighborhood-based outreach, category-based outreach, referral campaigns, and student-led local business development.
• Track outreach activity, merchant responses, onboarding progress, and lessons learned.
• Contribute ideas for improving merchant adoption and customer engagement.

What You Will Learn

This internship is designed to give students real startup and business development experience. You will learn:

• How early-stage startups acquire their first users and merchants.
  How local small businesses make decisions about software and online tools.
  How to communicate with business owners professionally.
  How to evaluate product-market fit from real customer conversations.
  How to test growth channels and report useful findings.
  How AI, local commerce, payments, bookings, and merchant infrastructure are evolving.
  How founders think about market problems, customer pain points, and go-to-market strategy.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a college or university program, or recently graduated.
  Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  Comfortable reaching out to local businesses and speaking with business owners.
  Organized and able to track outreach, follow-ups, and results.
  Able to work independently in a remote environment.
  Interested in startups, local business, e-commerce, AI commerce, product operations, marketing, or business development.
  Available for part-time work, generally no more than 20 hours per week for student interns.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in sales, customer service, marketing, community outreach, retail, restaurant work, or small business operations.
  Experience creating content, writing outreach messages, or managing social media.
  Interest in local commerce, SMB software, marketplaces, payments, or AI-driven products.
  Ability to speak another language, especially if useful for communicating with local merchant communities.
  Experience using tools such as Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, Canva, Shopify, Square, Yelp, Instagram, or similar platforms.
  Comfortable visiting local businesses in person when appropriate and safe.

Work Style

• This is a remote and flexible internship. Most work can be done asynchronously, but we expect clear communication, regular updates, and responsible follow-through.
• You may be asked to join occasional online meetings with the founding team to discuss your progress, merchant feedback, outreach results, and next steps.
• Because this is a startup environment, responsibilities may evolve over time. We are looking for people who are comfortable with ambiguity, willing to try different approaches, and able to learn quickly from real-world feedback.

Compensation

• Compensation details will be provided in the official offer letter and may include performance-based compensation tied to valid merchant onboarding activity.
• For students who need documentation for academic credit, CPT, or school internship approval, Aladdinmall can provide an official offer letter and adjust required details based on university requirements.

Candidate Challenge

Selected candidates may be invited to complete a lightweight practical assignment.

For example, you may be asked to choose one local business near you and analyze:

• What does the business sell?
• How do customers currently find it?
• Can customers book, order, message, or pay online?
• What tools does the business appear to use today?
• What problems or opportunities do you notice?
• How would you explain Aladdinmall to this merchant?

You do not need to successfully onboard the business to be considered. The goal is to understand your thinking, communication style, judgment, and ability to learn from real observations.

Who This Role Is For

• This role is a good fit if you want practical startup experience and are willing to work with real local businesses.
• It may be a strong fit if you are interested in business development, entrepreneurship, product operations, local commerce, AI commerce, marketplaces, or startup growth.
• This role is probably not the best fit if you only want a highly structured corporate internship, prefer not to speak with customers, or are uncomfortable with open-ended problems.

About the Team

• You will work directly with the Aladdinmall founding team. The team brings experience from companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Alibaba Cloud, and AWS, with backgrounds in commerce systems, cloud infrastructure, logistics, payments, and local business operations.
• We are building Aladdinmall because we believe small businesses should not be left behind as commerce becomes more digital and AI-driven.