Bean Team Intern Diaries: Week 1!

What’s happenin’, friends?! As you may know, we (Grace and Eli) are still a part of the community of our alma mater, the University of Richmond, in more ways than one. Our continued engagement on campus gives us the opportunity to meet new students all the time, and paved the way for our annual summer internship program. Richmond has an incredible program, the Richmond Guarantee, which gives students an opportunity to pursue a summer position they’re passionate about, with the support of the University to back them along the way. It’s a huge help for the students to be able to access new experiences and for companies (like us!) that could use some fresh perspectives and extra boots on the ground.

This summer, we’re lucky enough to have two batches of interns, and batch one is underway! We wanted to give you all a chance to get to know them, and get an unfiltered glimpse behind the scenes of what it looks like to be a part of the bean team (a.k.a. the Absurd Snacks crew). Each week, each of our new teammates will write a lil’ “journal”, if you will, documenting their journey and sharing tidbits from their day-to-days helping us build our sweet and salty snack empire!

So… let’s kick it off, shall we?! Can we get a drumroll please!!!! For Kylie, our social media and management intern, and Vir, our sales representative intern!!

KYLIE

My first week with Absurd Snacks was busy but informative. I worked on familiarizing myself with Absurd Snacks’ brand image and socials, while also looking into some competitors and doing a competitor analysis. I learned about Meta Ad Library and Google’s Ad Transparency feature, to identify current active Ads. This tool is incredibly useful to see where each ad is running, if there are multiple versions of the same ad, and when the ad was released. I highly recommend using it to compare how different brands are running paid ads, whether that is more traditional ad focused or more influencers/UGC content. 

In the midst of that, I watched an online seminar from NielsenIQ where I learned about the rise of e-commerce within the snack industry. Did you know that in 2025, brick-and-mortar stores lost 294M snack units to e-commerce? E-commerce sites such as Amazon and TikTok shop are changing the way consumers shop. There has also been a rise in at-home cooking, so recipes on social media are grabbing more attention. 

Speaking of recipes, I just got my Absurd Snack package and I’m excited to try some new recipes, specifically using maple cinnamon. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I am thinking of drizzling some with chocolate or a homemade date caramel sauce. I am also in the midst of identifying some new faces for partnerships, so my social media time has gone way up on my phone. It’s worth it because I can discover new trends and cool people. One of the biggest media headlines this week was Hailey Bieber selling Rhode, her makeup company to Elf Beauty for 1 billion dollars. Hailey will still have a say in the brand, as she will become chief creative officer and be head of innovation. I am personally hoping this makes Rhodes products a little cheaper and I am curious to see what else Hailey will bring to the already iconic Elf brand. 

While I look forward to next week, I am hoping for less rain and more sun, so I can enjoy Absurd Snacks on my back porch. 

VIR

Hey everyone – I’m Vir, a summer intern on the Bean Team at Absurd Snacks! Week 1 was a blast. I dove into a competitive analysis of allergen-free brands and got a crash course in how Absurd positions itself in a market where small differentiators—like “Top 9 allergen-free” or packaging tone—make a big impact.

One of my biggest takeaways was how much language matters. A few strategic buzzwords or small design details can really shape customer perception. I also got a glimpse into the wholesale/retail side of things as I started reaching out to Whole Foods suppliers about restocking our products—scary at first, but super rewarding once I got into it.

Next week, I’m looking forward to digging deeper into customer experience ideas—I’ve been thinking about things like “subscribe & save” bundles, merch drops, or even a rewards program modeled after Zyn. Something that feels fun, not forced. 

Personal Goal: Step out of my comfort zone by pitching at least two new ideas in our team meetings and contributing more actively to brainstorm sessions.

Favorite brands/products: I really admire Graza for how they’ve made olive oil fun and marketable through storytelling, Magic Spoon for reinventing nostalgic cereal with a modern twist, and Liquid Death for completely flipping the script on how water is branded. All three show how a strong brand voice can make even simple products feel fresh and exciting.

Each week, Vir and Kylie will document their learnings, findings, and report suggestions and improvements that the team can implement in the business, Tune in each week to be in the know of what’s happenin’ with the bean team!