This post was originally written on the official inDinero blog, where we talk about our product, business finances, and entrepreneurship.

inDinero is a relatively new company - we've been a corporation for a little over a year, we've been fulltime for only a few weeks, yet we've put a lot of thought into what we stand for as a company. Since deciding to work on the startup as our fulltime jobs, a lot of people have suggested we shoot for early acquisitions, suggest that we build out the ultimate Quickbooks replacement, without putting much thought into what we wanted to do with the company. I actually found it pretty shocking that friends and classmates would suggest flipping the company as quickly as possible for a few million dollars, and they would find it shocking that a quick flip wasn't something that interested us. It's because Andy and I have put a lot of thought into why we're doing inDinero and what we stand for. We know precisely why we're building our company, and every decision we make is aligned with the key motivator for why we're working on inDinero: because we want to have fun. Sounds pretty cheesy, but if you think about it, what keeps you going during times good and bad? The common answer is "the prospect of finding success". Or unfiltered, "the prospect of becoming a millionaire." The problem with that type of thinking is that during gloomy times, you might consider a quick pivot into a completely different business idea. Or some friends I know would just leave entrepreneurship and go into a banking job that's guaranteed to make them rich. But among everyone working here at inDinero (all four of us), we're purely in it for the fun and joy of building a great product. And as long as all of our big "strategical decisions" are aligned with the purpose of optimizing for fun, we know we can't fail. People frequently ask me why I'd want to go into the accounting space. Quick answer is that we're not - we'll always stop short of doing formal accounting, simply because I don't think it's fun. And we won't build comprehensive tax-management features either, because I don't think it's fun. If the company doesn't make as much money as a result, it's ok, because we're fulfilling our core purpose as a company: and that's to have fun.

I probably feel more insane about my company than most entrepreneurs - in fact, I know that I'm 99% more fanatical about inDinero for reasons I'm having trouble describing. I had the stark realization that as long as I continue to build inDinero, I know that everyone in the company is going to have fun, which by obvious logic means that we'll obviously be a successful company. And the true beauty behind that statement is that we've already achieved great success by merely having fun. So in order to be successful, we just need to stay in business. Continue what we've been doing for the past three weeks, but manage to continue this trajectory for the next 60 or 70 years of our lives. This statement holds true for everyone in the company right now. Having massive amounts of fun while building a company also needs to be rationalized. What comprises fun? 1) People, 2) Product, 3) Vision. Having fun while building product is relatively easy - just don't build features that you find useless, and don't build complex accounting features just because people want them. Frequently, there are simpler ways to solve the same problem. I'll describe "vision" further in a future blog post, but I don't think that's immediately important for having fun in an early-stage startup. Which leaves "people" as the most important factor to consider. Among my entrepreneurial classmates at Berkeley and friends in the YCombinator program, I've found that a lot of them have trouble recruiting talent. Finding technical expertise is often considered the most difficult part, with less consideration being placed on culture fit. With inDinero, we quickly brought on two early members - Chris and Borden. The main reason for bringing on more coders so early in the life of the company was primarily because we didn't know how long it'd be before we could find other incredible computer scientists who we would consider family. Consider this thought: you met the woman of your dreams, and she wants to get married soon. If you don't propose now, she's definitely going to leave you. Even if you're not entirely ready to get married, it makes obvious sense that you should marry her. Andy and I made a similar decision for bringing on Chris and Borden - simply put, we wanted them to be family, and if we didn't do it now, we probably never would.

inDinero is actually like a family. We cook and clean for each other, treat each other like playful siblings, work as hard as you'd expect from a group of asian immigrants, and it works out incredibly well. The interesting thing is that many software companies have cultures equally as unique. I've seen other early startups with cultures that resembles that of a fraternity, class project team, united nations delegation, or for the unfortunate business-people-only teams, a fortune-500 company. All startups pride themselves on having a "hip" culture, but the interpersonal dynamics are vastly different from startup to startup. Some people say that your culture is solidified from the first people you hire, but from personal observation, it's usually based on the relationship between the original cofounders. For example, my co-founder Andy is practically family to me, and therefore, our company has been shaped around the idea of being a very cohesive family. While I run the risk of one day contradicting myself, I think it's important to give some tangible examples of what this means going forward: Anyone we involve in the company will feel like family. This includes employees, and even investors and board members. If I wouldn't adopt them into my family (and if the rest of my family doesn't want to adopt them), it's a no go. And this is consistent with our company's purpose of existence, because we'll continue to have massive amounts of fun as long as there's nobody here to crash the party. Based on these thoughts, we've been able to narrow our hiring process down to a single question: do we trust them enough to adopt them into our family? Is it too early for a technically three-week-old startup to be thinking about these kinds of things? Perhaps, but it didn't take us long to come to the conclusion that we were in this for the fun. And it won't take others to realize that they're in it for the money, the excitement, escape, or challenge. As your company grows, continue to be mindful of the original reasons for why you decided to go into business. That way, you'll somehow find certain success.

I recently returned from a Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel, which is a free trip that brings young Jews ages 18-27 to Israel on a 10 day journey to observe history, culture, and current-day industry. It was the most exciting 10 days of my life, and I want to draw some parallels between Israel and software startups. Israelis have incredible passion, resourcefulness, and persistence, and personality traits that resemble a startup that's doing everything it can to stay afloat.

Let's start with passion. Israelis have an incredible love for their country -- something that I've never seen in America in the 19 years that I've lived here. And I think it comes down to one thing: Israelis understand and care about the cause they're fighting for, and that's merely the right to exist. And to take this a step further, all Israelis are drafted into the army. No "normal" person in the states would want to join the army. From my uninformed perspective, it seems like the U.S. Army recruits primarily from poorer neighborhoods, and that most of our country's leadership didn't have the opportunity to serve. In Israel, every political leader has served as a solder, so there's this incredible unity that immediately reminds me of a tech startup. The founding CEO did everything from marketing outreach to coding the core product, and it's understood that the CEO isn't just "making orders." Compare this to a big company, where the CEO may or may not have any technical experience, and makes strategic and product decisions that the programmers don't understand. Reminds me of America...

Next, Israelis are resourceful like no other. Paul Graham from Y-Combinator says being a good startup founder comes down to being "relentlessly resourceful", and Israel was just that. When I visited Tel Aviv, they were celebrating their 100th year of existence. Just 100 years ago, Tel Aviv was nothing more than sand dunes, but the immigrant Jews built it up to being the second most populated city in Israel (after Jerusalem), and is now dubbed "Silicon Wadi" because of its incredible hi-tech scene.

Another great example of relentless resourcefulness comes from the 6 day war: Israel was being attacked by 5 1/2 armies on all sides, and in a fight for their survival, the government raised over $30M from Jewish Americans. In fact, if it wasn't for Israel's relentless resourcefulness, the nation wouldn't be around today. And the same thing applies to web startups: as an entrepreneur, you need to leverage your network in ways you haven't before.

I'll finish this off with persistence. For thousands of years, Jews have been persecuted merely for being Jewish. And at last, they have a country that they could go home to. I compare this to entrepreneurs getting up from failed businesses. Even if things don't work out, you keep on going until you build something that's truly great. Ignore the naysayers, and do what's needed to ensure the success (and survival) of your enterprise. And that's precisely what the Jews did with Israel over the past century.

The past few days have been intense! In a nutshell, I've been looking at an internship -- yes, a JOB with a real COMPANY. It's come to my stark realization that I never thought about working for a company not so much because I thought corporations were dumb, but because there are few places that would allow me to explore my own projects. In other words, I would only work for a company that allowed me to be an entrepreneur within the company. While there aren't many companies with such a culture, I've started to look at a few companies that prosper on having creative and fast moving "intra-preneurs." My partial list includes Ning, Six Apart, PBWiki, and Ustream.

Of course, being that I'm bratty Jessica Mah, I'm super picky with the companies I would want to deal with. Here are my thoughts and reasoning behind the companies I've talked with so far:

1) I'm picky with the companies I interview with, and I immediately look for a culture fit. If anything, culture fit is the FIRST thing I look for in a company. If I'm not going to be happy there, it's not even worth a legit interview. What does culture mean? That deserves a blog post on its own, but it's so crucial for a startup to be fast-moving, communicative, open-minded, friendly, and enthusiastic. If the company has high-walled cubicles and segregated "departments," I have no interest in spending my summer there.

2) I don't accept offers from companies who don't thoroughly interview me. Sure, I think I'm a moderately smart person. However, I want to work for a company where people are brilliant. If the company doesn't bother to test my knowledge and skills, it shows that they don't take hiring seriously. With that said, if I get a job or internship offer from a company that doesn't spend the time needed to test me for culture and knowledge fit, I don't see the company as being good enough for me. Lesson: I only work for startups that make it difficult for me to get in. The next time you interview a "rockstar" prospective employee, keep this in mind.

3) Companies and employees need to give and take equally from each other. In my search for a summer internship, I'm not looking for a big name brand. I want to work for a company that lets me play around with my product management, business, and coding skills. I want to work for a company that wants me as much as I want them. One of the companies on my list offered to fly me out for a visit -- that shows a lot of dedication. It proves to me that the company wants me as bad as I want it.

4) Do programming ninjas talk to the business people? In other words, do the complaints and desires of the users get seen by the people working on the product? Sounds like a silly question, but so many companies (United Airlines among them,) don't have any connect between the customer support people and the executives who implement the changes. With that said, I like seeing companies where coders and business people are in everyday dialogue with each other. I love how Ning's customer advocate team also works in product management -- since they talk to customers everyday, they are more likely to know what changes should be made.

5) Money!!! As you've probably read before, compensation is not my #1 priority. However, it's not something that can be ignored. Living in the Bay Area this summer costs a LOT of money. I'll be paying $2000+ / month in various living costs that include food, apartment, transportation. Then I somehow need to pay off the $5,000 summer tuition bill that Stanford University is soon to send me. The startup scene is competitive -- In most cases, I want these companies just as much as they want me. If they want me to join on board, a competitive offer is definitely in order.

6) Networking, colleagues, and mentors. Last, but not least, I look for any potential to grow my network. I'm looking for executives who are well connected in Silicon Valley and beyond. I'm looking for colleagues who are open and willing to help me just as much as I'm willing to help them. With all of the companies I've applied to so far, I've either personally met an executive there or had one of my friends refer me. Never underestimate the power of a personal network!

With that said, I'll keep you updated with my internship hunt. Now you know the supposedly secret thoughts on what a self proclaimed teen entrepreneur looks for in an internship! Having this summer internship won't slow me down from being an entrepreneur. It's simply a way for me to further my learning -- a way for me to figure out how fast-moving companies survive and grow.

By the time I graduate with my Bachelor's degree in two years, I'll be fully prepared to take on the world with a company of my own.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.