We built the internship platform we wanted to see in Spain.
Behind it was a real problem: students, companies and schools were still managing internships with fragmented processes and disconnected tools. This is how we built Check'n Choose: what we launched, what we validated, and what the journey taught us.
FOUNDED
2020
LOCATION
Barcelona, Spain
MODEL
Three-sided marketplace
THE PRODUCT
A look at the software
We built a functional platform connecting the three agents in the internship process: the student who searches, the company that wants to hire talent, and the educational centre that coordinates and supervises.
Product demo · YouTube · Check'n Choose, 2023
THE PROBLEM
Why this project exists
Unlike regular employment, internships involve three parties: student, company and educational centre. Without a shared tool, the process depends on emails, calls and spreadsheets. The result: missed opportunities, endless admin and students left out not for lack of talent, but for lack of network.
Educational centres
Manage hundreds of students with CRMs or Excel. No visibility on what happens afterwards.
Companies
Rely on schools they already know. They miss talent from centres outside their network.
Students
Only access companies their school already has. Network is everything, and many don't have one.
THE SOLUTION
What we built
A platform where all three agents operate from one place, with independent but connected workflows.
Search & application
Personal profile, access to filtered offers and real-time tracking of every application.
Publishing & selection
Internship offers, application management and direct communication with the centre — no manual coordination.
Management & supervision
Dashboard with students, partner companies, agreements and tracking of every active internship.
Automatic contracts
Automatic generation of internship contracts, eliminating manual paperwork between all three parties.
BUSINESS MODEL
Who pays and why
Check'n Choose monetises the two sides that benefit from network access. Students are the inventory: always free.
SaaS · annual licence
Based on school size and active students. Centralises agreements, tracking and access to an active company network.
Pay-per-vacancy · or subscription
To post vacancies and access talent segmented by school, programme or profile. Basic access is free.
Always free
Access real opportunities and build their first professional track record.
THE MARKET
The opportunity in Spain
This isn't a niche problem. Professional internships are compulsory for most FP, undergraduate and master's degrees, and management is still analogue at most centres.
5,630
FP, undergraduate and master's centres in Spain
1.05M
students doing internships every year
260,000
companies hiring students annually
MODEL VALIDATION
Handshake already proved it in the US
Handshake runs the same model as Check'n Choose — a three-sided B2B2C marketplace connecting universities, companies and students. It raised ~$434M, reached a $3.5B valuation in 2022, and is estimated to generate around $200M in annual revenue. In Spain, that market was uncovered when we started. It still is.
20M+
students and graduates
1,600+
academic institutions
1M+
recruiting companies
Handshake does not operate in Spain or the rest of Europe.
HOW FAR WE GOT
What we achieved
We launched pilots with 2 FP groups totalling more than 40 centres and thousands of students. We validated the connection between students and companies, while the centre module continued to evolve.
What we validated
Product launched in a real environment — complete platform developed and operational for students, companies and educational centres.
Pilot with 2 FP groups — we activated the platform with two educational networks totalling more than 40 centres and real users.
Company–student connection — we validated the flow of opportunities, applications and matching between students and companies.
What we learned
We started with the hardest segment — universities had long cycles, multiple decision-makers and a lot of bureaucracy. In vocational training we found shorter cycles and much faster validation.
The need existed. The incentives weren't aligned — all schools wanted more opportunities for their students, but few were willing to share their own company network.
Getting companies on board wasn't the problem — demand for young talent existed. The real difficulty was activating schools and coordinating students, companies and centres at the same time.
Network effects required real synchronisation — for the platform to work, all three actors had to become active at almost the same time. With a small team, that coordination was one of the biggest challenges.
THE TEAM
Who built it
Check'n Choose closed in 2024. The problem remains unsolved in Spain. Here we share a part of what we built and learned. If you'd like to go deeper, we'd be happy to share more.
Watch demo