WEBVTT

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Sabina, Chelsea, and Jenny are
co founders of box Fox, a premier

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gifting company on track to do six
million dollars in revenue with no outside funding.

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Their story begins a few years ago
in an apartment in Venice, California.

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They were three girls with full time
jobs and a dream to combine new

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technology with one of the oldest gestures
in the book, gift giving. Fast

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forward three years and they've got a
bustling warehouse, an amazing team, and

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the same dream. Sabina Surrey,
co founder in CSO of box Fox,

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is originally from the Bay Area,
and she earned her bachelor's degree from the

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University of Southern California. Prior to
co founding box Fox, Sabina worked in

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brand strategy, where she gained a
deep understanding of consumer behavior. Her obsession

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with trend spotting when it comes to
new brands and products that enhanced lives shines

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at box Fox. At just twenty
eight, she wears many hats, running

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the company's corporate gifting arm, discovering
new brand partners, in concepting new ways

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to constantly better box Foxes online retail
experience. Today, we'll hear from Sabina,

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who walks us through the box Fox
journey to a millie. A million

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in sales, a million in revenue, a million followers, or a million

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in funding. To amass one million
of anything is a major feet and that's

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why we're highlighting women who have done
just that. You'll hear from women who

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have made their mark, impacted lives, blade trails, and amassed a millie.

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So my dream job as a kid, I was actually always thinking that

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I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was obsessed for trendspotting and kind

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of following designers and you know,
magazines, and I would always clip different

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pieces of fashion out from magazines and
had all these vision boards and inspiration boards

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on my wall of my bedroom.
So that's kind of what I thought I

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wanted to do as a kid,
and I think that definitely, you know,

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plays a role in what I do
at Boxbox, which is still kind

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of taking inspiration from the world around
me, being inspired by what is going

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on in culture and bringing that to
our company, even though it's kind of

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in a different way. So Boxbox
originated in November of twenty fourteen. It

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was really impossible for us, being
recent college graduates, to send kind of

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an elevated care package to a friend
who was actually hospitalized and she's you know,

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totally fine now. And that was
kind of the inspiration for the company

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was we realized that there was really
no service that allowed you to curate something

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very elevated and meaningful yet still personal, you know, and ultimately utilitarian,

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So something that wasn't going to just
be flowers, but actually have products that

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our friend would be able to use
in kind of her healing journey. And

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that was kind of the aha moment
of this doesn't exist. We know we

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can build this in a really beautiful
way, in a way that is a

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really great user experience, and so
we kind of pulled our you know,

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our ideas together and started drafting a
business plan around our kitchen table in Venice,

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and that's kind of where boxbox originated. We launched November seventh, twenty

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fourteen, just in time for Christmas, and you know, have kind of

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been hitting the ground running ever since. So for us writing the business plan,

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we knew it was going to be
important. We knew that that was

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kind of going to be how we
were setting the foundation for the company.

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So we did a lot of research
into what other business plans looked like we

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always say, you know, the
magic of the Internet allowed us to start

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this business. So any question we
had anything that we wanted to find out,

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we could google, truly, and
so with business plans that was no

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exception. We googled, We kind
of figured out what components there were and

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kind of had that structure. But
from there, you know, we really

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allowed ourselves to iterate beyond kind of
the four walls of what a business plan

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should be and really tried to make
it as creative and kind of big picture

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as we knew we needed it to
be to create this kind of vision for

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the company. But I think in
general there is a lot of kind of

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limited thinking in terms of how you
can start a company. I think you

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just have to start somewhere. So
for us, business plan felt official,

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It felt like a good starting point. It felt like a way that we

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were going to all hold ourselves accountable
to something that didn't yet exist. So

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a business, you know, until
you have any tangible assets, it's just

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an idea. And so the beginning
was definitely how do we make ourselves accountable,

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how do we put this idea to
paper, how do we kind of

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think through some of the consumer side
of it and the market and can the

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pricing strategy, distribution model, all
of that type of stuff. But ultimately,

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I think a business plan the way
I see it as kind of an

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accountability plan. So you're saying,
we're all bought into this, we all

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believe in it, and here's kind
of the ways in which we think it

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will work. You know, from
the beginning, we said our kind of

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view on funding is if and when
we reach a point where that becomes a

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necessity for us, we would always
be open to it. So we've never

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necessarily said no, absolutely not,
that's never going to be for us.

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We actually see it as like a
really big kind of testament to what we're

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doing and something very positive because we've
been able to scale organically at a very

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steady pace that is sustainable for our
business and we are profitable, so we're

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in kind of the lucky position that
we don't need kind of to be have

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this cash injection in order to kind
of scale us to where we want to

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go. We feel very comfortable with
the pace that we're growing at and honestly,

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we feel like it's been serving our
loyal customers well from the beginning,

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so we've never kind of done something
just to make a profit because we are

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accountable to sort of like a third
party, or we've never kind of bought

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customers to make you know, to
just make our numbers, but people that

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aren't actually you know, believers and
advocates for the brand. So that was

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kind of from the beginning, we
said, we want to do this as

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authentically and organically as possible because that's
the kind of brand that we want to

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be building and that we were looking
for when we first started this company,

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and we never want to straight away
from that. With that said, you

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know, we would always be open
again if and when we reached kind of

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a fork in the road and said
this is the only way we can go

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in order to reach more people or
kind of do this this initiative that we

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know is going to benefit our customers
in a huge way. That's when we

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would kind of open up that door. But we've really so far been in

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the lucky position that that isn't really
something that we need to go after.

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I think for us, it was
several moments we always kind of call them

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like pinch me moments, or these
times where we're like, wow, this

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you know, this is never what
we thought was going to happen. I

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mean, we always believe this was
a huge opportunity, a great idea,

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something that needed to exist in the
world. But of course when you're building

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something, you never really know exactly
how it's going to how it's going to

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go. And so for us,
probably one very pivotal moment early on was

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in February of twenty sixteen, so
we had been launched for a little over

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a full year. We actually were
featured in tech Crunch, and so for

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us that was a huge moment because
you know, we aren't necessarily your traditional

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tech company. We don't have a
super techy product, and you know,

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like we're not a staff platform or
something like that. We have unconventional backgrounds,

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we're all female. So I think
having that kind of validation to be

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like, we have this great concept
and it's being recognized by a publication that

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we all really regard very highly,
that was a really cool moment that led

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to a ton of other opportunities.
Shortly after, we met some really great

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people, and at the same time, during that time, we were actually

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doing a pop up store at the
Grove shopping Center in Los Angeles, and

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that was also another kind of moment
where we were like, this is such

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a great way to bring our product
to customers kind of test what's working.

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We learned so much about kind of
our inventory and our product flow and all

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of these different things from bringing our
product offline, and so those two were

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probably really big moments for us early
on that led to a lot of other

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things. But I think, you
know, the best thing and probably the

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most exciting part about having a business
of your own is hopefully those moments are

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going to kind of keep happening and
you're going to keep surprising yourself as to

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all the things that you can achieve. When an entrepreneur or a company reaches

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a certain level of success, everyone
wants to know what's the secret sauce and

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what's in it. So Sabina shares
with us what she thinks makes of the

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differentiating factor for Boxbox. I think
it's definitely a collective superpower. Chelsea,

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my co founder, and Jenny and
my other co founder, and I always

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talk about the fact that the three
of us are so similar, but we

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are also so different. So I
would say similar in terms of kind of

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our values, our taste, the
way that we kind of look at brands

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and the brands were into the products. Brandto our aesthetic vision is very similar,

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and I think that's very important.
You know, as we build this

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company. On the flip side,
I would say, our kind of skills

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and what we bring to the table
is very different, and so that has

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translated into our roles really nicely.
So Chelsea really brings the creative vision to

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the company. She's really responsible for
the aesthetics, the photography, and the

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marketing in general. Jenny is so
detail oriented. She's always thinking about kind

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of the day to day operations and
kind of how we hire, how we

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run the inventory, how we run
the actual warehouse, and our fulfillment teams,

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and our finances and our projection.
So she is very much made for

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that kind of role. And I
am very big picture. I'm always thinking

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one step, you know, one
step in the future, if not five

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years in the future. And so
when you bring those kind of skills together,

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you have a really nice mix of
different of different ways of banking.

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And that's allowed us to grow our
business in different ways at different times and

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also allows for a lot of kind
of healthy debate because all of our priorities

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are a little bit different in just
the right way to allow for the company

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to kind of move forward and make
some strategic decisions at every juncture when we

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were first launching, So that that
day in November, the night before,

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you know, we were so excited. We stayed up all night and we

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emailed literally everybody we had in our
in our like email lists, in our

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network, our rolodexs, and so
literally told every single person pretty much we

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had ever met, about our company, our concept. We had one photo

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that we could share and just kind
of did a little right up in a

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blurb, and that was just literally
guerrilla marketing. We were like, we're

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just gonna tell everyone, We're gonna
blast this, and you know, that

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was a sizable amount of people,
because you know, when you combine the

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networks of three people, you're gonna
you're gonna reach a decent amount of folks.

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So that was kind of one fun
tactic that we did at the beginning.

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We also when we were trying to
build our initial product offering, we

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did a lot of in person research, which was just really fun. We

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went to a lot of local boutiques
and kind of shopped around at different items

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and you know, kind of touched
and felt items which was the our initial

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product research. Now it happens in
a very different way, but that was

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really fun and um, you know, we bought a lot of samples.

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We tested different packs and within the
box samples that we were getting, so

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we were like obsessive about raping packing
in a certain way. So that was

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that was another kind of unique tactic. We also did beta test our initial

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site with friends and family to work
out any kinks, which I think is

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always really important because obviously you want
to launch something as you know, the

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minimum viable product, but it still
should be obviously functioning and great. And

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we also hired PR pretty early on, so we had a PR, a

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PR freelancer I would say about within
the first year of launching. And that

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kind of went against a lot of
the advice we were given because a lot

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of people said, if you're investing
in PR, you're not necessarily investing in

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the product, and all of you
know, you're always going to get a

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million opinions to which you kind of
have to to know what to filter and

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what to listen to. But I
think with the PR piece it really did

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help us. Because we were a
small business, we knew that we needed

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to get our name out there.
We wanted to be kind of featured in

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gift guides and bye you know by
publications that would give us kind of that

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credibility. So pr was important for
us early on, and I think that

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really that really moved our business forward. At the beginning, we had to

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reach out to every single brand we
wanted to work with, and we heard

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a lot of nos. So,
you know a lot of people said,

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we've never really heard of you.
We don't want to work with another box

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company, even though we aren't subscription. That's kind of where their heads went.

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You know, we're not sure we're
the right fit. We don't really

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know if we're in line with your
customer profile that you're envisioning. So we

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did hear a lot of nos at
the beginning, in addition to you know

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a good amount of yeses. So
that was encouraging. But you know,

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it was very much like we had
to really knock down doors to get the

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brands that we knew were going to
help us build this company and that we

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knew we would want to buy as
customers. That has changed because we actually

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get tons of inbound you know,
requests from brands now to be considered for

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our box. So it's or for
our platform, which is actually really amazing

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because it allows it's a testament to
kind of what we're building. But I

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think it really allows us to have
our finger on the pulse of so many

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different awesome brands that we might not
have heard of otherwise. We're always very

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open to hearing from brands. So
you know, we love small brands that

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are just up and coming. We
obviously, you know, the big brands

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that our customers love. We want
to make sure that we're carrying a good

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array of those. So we say
it's like that mix of big and small,

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which makes us really unique. But
it's definitely changed because it's less us

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kind of seeking out these brands and
a lot of the brands coming to us.

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With that said, we definitely do
a fair amount of our own kind

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of products seeking. So we'll go
to gifting shows, you know, on

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occasion. We don't go to every
single one, but we we do go

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to gifting shows. We also travel
very frequently just in our personal lives,

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and so we've brought back a lot
of brands from travel. Australia is a

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really big one. I've gone to
India a few times and brought things the

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suppliers that way. So we definitely
feel like the travel component gives us a

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unique edge and kind of bringing brands
that again our customers might not be super

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familiar with, but we're happy to
introduce them too. So a little bit

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of a different process, you know, But there's nothing like getting a sample

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and kind of being able to look
and feel look at and feel the product,

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because ultimately that we test every single
thing that we put on our site.

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I definitely think that there is something
in the don't take note for an

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answer, and so I think that, you know, again, so many

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people kind of are so focused on
reasons why something can't work, and I

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feel like we live kind of in
culture of like we're always very like contrarian

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and we're trying to like debate whether
you know, something should exist, and

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we're trying to deconstruct ideas all the
time. I mean, how how frequently

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do kind of go to a dinner
with somebody and they have a great idea

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and they share it with you,
and then you know, the dinner table

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says, well, somebody else has
done that, or if if someone else

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hadn't you know, if how how
has someone not thought of that before or

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how is that even that unique?
And so I think in general, not

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taking no for an answer and not
looking for reasons why something can't work and

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actually looking for the confirmation of why
something will work and kind of having that

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sense of tenacity and being very resilient
is really important. And I think that

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that's just for me been the biggest
thing. I think. Again, there's

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everybody goes through challenges and stumbles,
and I think always kind of realizing like,

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Okay, just because I'm in this
moment and the world is telling me

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know or somebody is telling me no, that doesn't mean that I can't move

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forward, and then I'm not going
to kind of find a way through this.

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So it's kind of just it's pretty
simple. But I definitely think having

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that kind of attitude and keeping that
perspective is really helpful for me as a

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business owner. Once you experience significant
traction and huge growth within your company,

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the assumption is that you haven't made
but there will always be things in business

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that we'd rather not have to do. I think entrepreneurship has really been glamorized

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in the media recently, and I
think that it's definitely something that you know,

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the media loves to cover, which
is amazing, but there definitely are

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aspects that are not as fun.
And so I mean, there's a million

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things I can think of that I
don't necessarily want to do in a given

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week or month, but we have
to do one is right now top mind.

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We're going to have to move warehouses
in about a month, which is

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actually very exciting because we're growing our
current warehouse. But what that means for

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me is, you know, working
an entire weekend helping load up our moving

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trucks, helping box up inventory,
helping unboxed and unpack and set up a

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new warehouse. So there's a lot
of physical labor involved when you have a

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business with actual products and inventory.
Again, you know, not something that

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we were thinking about when we were
writing a business plan from our kitchen table,

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but it's just kind of a reality. I think when it is something

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that you love, even the things
that you don't want to do as much,

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don't feel as bad like you really
do. You can find joy in

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them. You can find kind of
the willingness to do them because you know

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ultimately what that means, again,
me having to move for a weekend and

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kind of set up this warehouse and
do a lot of physical labor. That

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what that really means is our businesses
growing and we're able to provide the service

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to even more people, and we're
going to have that much more of an

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efficient warehouse with that much more inventory. So again, trying to find the

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deeper meaning allows you to rise above
it. But definitely think that there are

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things that come with entrepreneurship that aren't
as fun as you know everybody might think.

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Our growth has been pretty steady,
so nothing that kind of ever derailed

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us or felt unmanageable, which again
I would attest to the fact that we

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don't have any like outside cash injections
that force us to scale very quickly outside

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of what we are necessarily like feels
right to us, so very lucky in

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that sense. But inter growth,
I mean, we've always kind of hired

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and added people as we've seen a
need for them. So we won't necessarily

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hire somebody until we're sure of what
that person's day to day role and how

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they fit into the overall structure of
the company is going to be. So

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right now, you know, we
were actively hiring for fulfillment. We have

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a really good sales and marketing kind
of team, and so those are kind

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of the two sides of the business
that have experienced the most growth. I

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think in the next phase of growth, we're probably going to look to expand

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a little bit on our tech side, a little bit more on our operations,

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So those are kind of like where
we're looking to invest next. But

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I would say growth has always felt, you know, as much as it's

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been challenging at times, and sometimes
I would say, especially Q four is

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crazy for us, it can feel
a little bit overwhelming, it also has

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always kind of felt like we're right
where we need to be. I think

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great leaders one thing is definitely vision, So having kind of a vision and

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a plan for how things are going
to go in the future. I think

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seeing opportunities where other people don't is
really really important. I think a great

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leader can do that very well.
I also think clarity, So another thing

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with great leaders is that they know
how to focus on the task at hand

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while still thinking five steps ahead.
So it's like, how do you balance

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kind of this great deal of focus
and clarity and productivity with this vision for

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the future and how you you see
things playing out, you know, far

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far into the future. I also
think that great leaders are really bold,

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and so they are willing to take
risks, willing to kind of take a

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gamble, whether that's with a hire
or a partnership or you know, just

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in any in any facet of business. I think that great leader really do

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know how to take a calculated risk. Of course, they need to kind

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of what the consequences might be and
do a little bit of evaluation there before

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just acting brashly. But having the
kind of courage and the boldness to do

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something a little bit different in a
way that it's never been done before.

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I think that not only helps move
the business forward, but it's inspirational to

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everybody kind of below them, which
is really important for leaders. My most

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important thing is like having a morning
routine, so I think really helps keep

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me kind of focused and grounded from
the beginning of the day. And if

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I don't get to do my morning
routine, I always kind of notice a

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shift in my day and it's not
exactly where I need it to be.

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So for me, that's waking up
at you know, getting eight hours of

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sleep, which I know is crazy, but I need that and so I

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found that, and then I really
like to either meditat or journal in the

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morning, I like to work out, I like to you know, eat

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kind of a healthy breakfast, and
then you know, get into the office.

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I don't like to check my email
first thing in the morning. I

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like to wait about an hour because
I usually have something more important and kind

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of need to set myself up in
the right headspace instead of reacting to everything.

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I am kind of being, you
know, setting myself up for those

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conversations that I need to have and
the things that I need to answer.

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So those are kind of some small
ones. And then I think at the

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office, I'm a big list maker, so I'm really into making lists,

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kind of setting goals for the week, but also daily tasks and seeing how

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those tasks fit into the larger goals. So you really again it goes back

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to the whole vision but clarity ideas, so making sure that the vision is

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the goal for the week, but
the clarity is how how can I get

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five things done on Monday that are
going to help me get to the bigger

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goal that I set for this week. So kind of you know, those

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are probably the big ones. And
then also just a general balance is really

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important. So I am very committed
to my personal relationships and whether that's friends

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or family. I think it's very
important to make time for the things that

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really feed your soul. And so
with that, you know, making time

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for those people, having those phone
calls to catch up with people, you

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know, grabbing drinks or a happy
hour or dinner with somebody you care about

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every couple of days. I think
it's it's really important to kind of maintain

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your relationships and know that anything you
do outside of work that's kind of helping

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you become a more well rounded person. You're going to bring that great energy

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into work and it's going to make
everything flow a lot better. Success for

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me looks like going home at the
end of every day and feeling like I

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gave it my all. So that's
kind of for me like a day to

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day marker of success. I think
it's not about achieving everything on my to

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do list, but it's did I
kind of put in the effort that is

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just going to propel me forward?
And can I be proud of the day

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that I've lived, Because ultimately every
day adds up to your life, you

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know, So that for me is
success kind of on a day to day

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scale. I would say, if
I'm just measuring my own level of success.

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It really is tied so deeply to
my happiness, and so I think

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that success for me looks like being
happy in the role that I'm in and

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knowing that I'm contributing positively to my
community, you know, the world we

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live in. That is the only
thing that really matters to me on a

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success standpoint, which is again why
I think for us building this type of

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company that is so gratitude, you
powered by gratitude, and really we get

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to see and witness all these beautiful
relationships between people every single day, we

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really do feel like we're in this
very lucky position. And I don't think

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you can ever say, oh,
you know, we're successful, because I

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think it's just a constant pursuit of
that idea. But I do feel like

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I am happy with the fact that
this is the type of company that we've

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been able to build, and I'm
proud that this is kind of what we're

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putting in the world. So I
feel as successful as I can feel right

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now, knowing that you know,
I'm not at the end of any journey,

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but I'm just kind of going through
it. I'm a Yana Angel,

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and thank you for listening to a
Millie produced by Mazie Media. If you

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00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:48.880
enjoy this episode, you can subscribe
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354
00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:52.319
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355
00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:57.200
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