Why am I an intern and not a partner?
Original Article Title: "Why Am I Not a Partner, But an Intern Instead?"
Original Article Author: Gary, Founder of Base Chinese Platform
I used to be a partner at Mango Labs, but have since left and am now preparing to start over as an intern.
In August 2024, during the summer break of my sophomore year, I joined Eluvio @BlockBeatsAsia as an operations intern, responsible for the daily operations of the Farcaster section. At that time, the articles I wrote included the "Farcaster Top 100 Celebrity List" and a series of tweets about the Base ecosystem (the account was just starting out, but total traffic exceeded a million).
In December 2024, I left Eluvio and joined @MangoLabs_ full-time. At that time, the company consisted of just me and Founder @dov_wo. In one year, I went from an intern to a partner, and the company grew from two people to thirty people—perfectly catching the wave of the 2025 KOL Agency trend.
Thank you, Mango Labs, for this past year of rapid growth. I pulled countless all-nighters, interacted with over a hundred projects, drafted numerous proposals, connected with countless KOLs, wrote many processes, recruited many colleagues, and helped many colleagues. I've planned marketing campaigns for major projects, handled crisis PR for large projects, and organized community operations for major projects—thank you for the encounter, I love Mango Labs.
Why did I choose to give up being a partner and leave Mango Labs?
The answer is because I want to start an independent business. I want to help Chinese entrepreneurs create international founder IPs, with the goal of serving great clients at the level of Meituan's Wang Xing within five years. This is the most suitable business model for me. I am good at conversations, writing, and I love thinking in English. My current plan is to start as a solo entrepreneur, expand cautiously, and plan to settle for a considerable period of time. The most important thing during this time is to "be an intern again."
Why be an intern again? To enter high school with a light load.
Where to intern? At the top podcast company in the United States.
Why go to a podcast company? Because the world's best media professionals are here.
I once wrote a proposition: In the AI era, media leverage trumps code leverage—this is a good era for media professionals.
Another insight is that I believe there are actually many top entrepreneurs in China, but they find it difficult to go international due to a lack of global thinking, which is a limitation of the times. Taking the Crypto field as an example, I believe that there are no more than five Chinese founders who have a clear English Twitter presence, but Crypto projects are born global, and everyone needs to go international. This is even more so in the AI field; everyone has seen Manus' promotional videos—China actually has many more Manus.
The media paradigm is also shifting: Mr. Beast's business footprint is expanding, Joe Rogan scored $250 million from Spotify in one year, Lex Friedman is on the fast track to stardom… Podcasts in the West now wield enough influence to sway elections, yet Chinese voices are almost invisible, with no English-language media truly telling the stories of Chinese entrepreneurs.
I am a Crypto Native, specializing in advising startup founders on intellectual property. Naturally, I hope to primarily serve Crypto Founders, as this is currently my area of expertise. In the future, I will write more.
PS: I do not plan to immediately start a business or internship. After giving my all for a year and a half, my plan is to take a break, see friends, read books. Feel free to reach out to chat (apologies in advance for delayed responses).
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