(Editor’s Note: Along the lines of Ben’s perspective and commentary on startups and startup culture, Rapleaf intern Max Owen gives us his perspective on entrepreneurship here at Rapleaf.)

After being at Rapleaf for just a few days, the difference and benefits of being at Rapleaf and its culture has over traditional companies, have become quite evident. Everything here moves at a pace that simply cannot be duplicated in big corporations. Having worked at some of the world’s largest multi-national corporations, I can’t imagine going back. Culture elsewhere has always translated into dry, boring meetings with someone you’ve never met or interacted with telling you what your role will be “for the duration of your time here.” Gee, thanks. Can I have that contract back that I just signed?

Everything here at Rapleaf is fresh, new, and done the smart way. For instance, we don’t have ‘HR’. We have Christina, who is more efficient than any company’s heavily resourced and personnel-heavy department I’ve ever dealt with. Direct deposit? Sure, at a corp., it will get done in 3 weeks. Here – 15 minutes. Done, anything else I can do for you? Awesome.

Ahh the ‘corporate’ culture of a start-up – a misnomer really. Nothing too corporate about it; it has more the feeling of a group of college students pouring all their brainpower and efforts into an excellent idea than a workplace. With engineers’ ideas and drawings littered all over the office, making your way around as a business intern can sometimes get you lost in the maze of code, not that unlike the Matrix. Maybe that’s why Vivek mentioned the red and blue pill on the first day…

My fellow business intern Ben and I have been exposed to some pretty awesome moments so far, such as schmoozing at the 5 Year Wordpress Anniversary Party, being thrown at the frontlines of customer service right away and getting to the root of the action, and meeting explicitly with the VP of Business Development and CEO here at Rapleaf to discuss the vision of the company and ideas around this vision (over the course of the summer, I’ll cover some other events that have occurred). Out of the office, we have been exposed to a smorgasbord of events San Francisco has to offer – Union Street Fair, Carnaval, Haight Street Fair, etc. And that’s just the start. In speaking for both Ben and I, from the minute we stepped off the airplane, we knew this was going to be a summer unlike any we had experienced before.

Max will be a senior at Babson College in which he is studying in their prestigious Entrepreneurship program. He is also a captain of the Varsity Lacrosse team as well as a Peer Mentor. Hailing from New Jersey, Max is often known to CWalk or Harlem Shake on request. Feel free to email Max: max[at]rapleaf[dot]com.