How to Get an Internship in 2026
Getting an internship has never been as easy as it is in 2026.
In this essay I want to share how I landed internships and worked at more than 10 startups, including a YC startup and top agencies in Prague and NYC.
I genuinely believe that in 2026 you can intern at a top-tier startup with zero experience. Here is how.
If you are under 18, start working for free.
I know what you are thinking: isn't the whole point of an internship to earn money? It is. But there is a hack that not only makes it easier to get in, but lands you at a better startup overall, and earns you more in the long run, for one small sacrifice up front.
You might have enough credentials to get an internship at your local clinic, but not at an a16z-backed startup. After a thousand rejections and a hundred offers, I realized you can hack that gap pretty easily.
Work for free. Prove the value. Get paid. It is genuinely the easiest way to climb the career ladder when you are young and don't have the credentials yet. Working for free is an easy value prop, because the founder has nothing to lose.
How to actually do it
Find a startup that genuinely needs help, and do something for it for free. Maybe their website is bad, their logo is weak, their security is leaking, or their marketing is dead. It can be anything where you can prove value and show real evidence that you can ship.
Founders care about only two things from the people they hire:
- 1. Can you get it done?
- 2. Can you get it done fast?
It might take 10 websites or 10 logos. But sooner or later, someone will take you, just for showing up. In my experience, about 2 out of every 10 founders will say yes if your work proves enough value.
Once you are in, the clock starts. Over the next month or two you have to double down. It won't be easy, because startups demand real dedication. But since you aren't getting paid, founders also don't expect much, so every win you deliver lands even harder.
After that period, if you genuinely believe you saved the startup time or money, start the conversation with the founder and ask what they think. If you were good enough, they will usually bring it up themselves.
And even if they say no, you don't just walk away with huge experience. You walk away with a title on your CV that makes the next one far easier to land.
How it happened for me
When I was 15 I wanted to become a founder, but there was a problem: I was an engineer who knew almost nothing about building companies. All I knew was how to build websites. So I asked myself how I could accelerate my own development. The answer was obvious: get inside a startup.
I found 8 CEOs on LinkedIn, sent each a connection request, and wrote: "I want mentorship from you in exchange for my time as a web developer." To each one I also attached a small landing page, a redesign of their own website.
People are happy to help someone ambitious, especially for free, as long as you show up and prove value. My success rate was 6 out of 8. Every one of them was a top-tier CEO at a startup doing tens to hundreds of millions in ARR.
Later I ran the exact same playbook to get an internship at a YC-backed startup. I just showed up and proved my value.
If you remember one thing from this essay, remember this:
Provide so much value that not hiring you becomes the stupid decision.