This past summer, I headed south to Sandy Springs, Georgia (about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta) to join Inspire Brands as their Investor Relations Intern.
First, here’s a little bit of background on what exactly Inspire is: founded in early 2018 with Arby’s, in the last 6 years the company has grown to nearly 33,000 locations and folded in 5 more unique brands: Baskin Robbin’s, Jimmy John’s, Sonic, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Dunkin’.

Now a little bit of insight on what exactly I was up to: as a member of the Investor Relations team, our main goal as a department was to accurately and timely express to the investor community how the company was performing. This meant we were collaborating with almost every team in the building, ranging from supply chain to marketing, and treasury to human resources. Additionally, we worked closely with the Chief Financial Officer’s team to help prepare her for any upcoming investor interactions, especially surrounding preparations for our quarterly earnings calls. One of my favorite ongoing projects was to monitor how Inspire’s competitors engaged with their investors, assessing the way they framed their financial performance announcements and reacted to trending questions from the analyst community.
Being able to explore so many facets of how Inspire functioned, and immerse myself in how our competitors were functioning as well, was incredibly helpful as I prepare to shift gears to work on the investor side. Next summer I will be working in JP Morgan’s Middle Market Banking & Specialized Industries group, where this experience will be incredibly beneficial. Now understanding how companies think about phrasing and marketing themselves, as I flip sides to being an analyst, I’ll have such a better mindset on how to monitor and invest in them.
For any future Inspire interns, here’s my advice. Inspire is an awesome place to work, not just because of the free Baskin Robbins I went to everyday without fail or because of the Dunkin’ in the lobby, but for other 2 reasons:

- I’d describe Inspire as a start-up company with Fortune 500 level money. Being only 6 years old with their most recent acquisition in 2020, Inspire is young and still figuring things out. They are attempting to combine 6 different legacy brands, all with different teams, different financials, and well, just different ways of doing things. However, they also have 6 legacy companies worth of money. Because of this they are situated in such a unique spot, between still having the room to experiment and grow, but the money to make that happen in almost anyway they want.
- The people. I know that sounds like a cliche, but it’s true. If you wanted to, I’m sure you could find the time to grab a coffee with everyone in that building. From the intern- exec happy hours, to the young employee resource groups, Inspire really wants to get you in the loop.
From innovating the functionality of Sonic’s drive-thru, to teaming up with WWE for Arby’s summer “Beef Week” promotion, to the Dunkings, no 2 days are ever the same at Inspire Brands and as an intern I don’t think you could ask for anything more!