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Assembling Blue Apron: Matthew Salzberg

Posted by Anna Scott

· Saturday, December 9th, 2023

· 2 Comments

Every day, people have to plan what to eat for the week. Some may enjoy meal planning, but most find it tedious. People must consider daily activities and food variety, and then shop for the ingredients. When Matthew Salzberg and his friends created Blue Apron, they provided an opportunity for people to skip the tedious task.

Matthew Salzberg and his friend Illia Papas knew they wanted to start their own business. In 2011, Salzberg quit his job at his investment firm associated with Silicon Valley while Papas quit his software engineering job. They raised seed money with the help of friends and family. After exploring a few ideas, Salzberg and his partner settled on the food industry.

The founders loved cooking but found it to be time-consuming to find reliable recipes and ingredients. They wanted to make cooking more accessible, but they lacked the connections in the food industry to realize their dreams. Matthew Wadiak, a family friend, soon remedied their problem.

The company shipped its first Blue Apron box in August 2012. The box contained exact measurements of farm-fresh ingredients and detailed recipe sheets. With word of mouth and social media marketing, Blue Apron quickly grew. By 2015 the company ships over 5 million boxes a month.

2015, however, also brought a wave of challenges. Bad publicity caused them to lose investors. Competitors like HelloFresh also began taking customers. Blue Apron experienced massive layoffs and closed a warehouse to battle the investment troubles. The 2020 pandemic saved the business by providing more customers. Blue Apron acknowledges the pandemic numbers were an anomaly. To retain customers the company focuses on innovative recipes and marketing.

Matthew Salzberg noticed the inaccessibility of cooking and wanted to fix the problem. Though the company has suffered since launching, Blue Apron retains customers because of its innovative recipes. Matthew Salzberg credits the company’s ability to launch to the multi-disciplined founding team.

“We were very deliberate in assembling a team that we thought was complementary and would work well together … It allowed us to divide and conquer a lot more easily in the early stages and have access to different networks and access to different information.”

Or The History Of Blue Apron: How They Became One Of The Most Popular Meal Kits | Food Box HQ

2 Comments

Categories : Cooking, delivery

Piecing Ideas Together: Collage Coffee and Art House

Posted by Anna Scott

· Friday, November 17th, 2023

· 5 Comments

Many Grove City College students may be familiar with Collage Coffee on Grove City’s Broad Street. They may know Collage’s delicious variety of food and beverages, including coffee, tea, sandwiches, and pastries. Customers may not know the popular coffee shop was founded by Grove City graduates Joe and Emily Funte.

Neither Joe nor Emily graduated from Grove City with a business degree. After graduating with English and Music majors, the couple decided to stay in Grove City. They thought about opening a coffee shop and a storefront became available. Their church’s need for a space to meet and knowing some artists who wanted to display their artwork gave the couple the final push to open Collage Coffee and Art House.

In 2017, Joe and Emily opened Collage Coffee and Art House. To help local artists, the couple rents wall space to sell their art which builds community connection. As for the college students, the location and wonderful drinks attract them. Each season, the owners create new drink recipes to attract customers. The small shop provides a space to be surrounded by artwork as the customer enjoys his or her hand-crafted beverage.

In August 2023, Collage opened a second location, where they will receive foot traffic from the outlet malls. The second store has a kitchen where they can cook food and make drinks. While the new location does not display art on the walls, the original location still supports local artists.

Despite their lack of knowledge and experience, Joe and Emily Funte created a successful business while helping their community. They continue to appeal to customers because of their quality food and excellent locations. Collage Coffee and Art House shows how people can combine the needs they see and create a unique and thriving business.

Visit their website at: Collage Coffee

Collage Coffee and Art House | Grove City College Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation (gccentrepreneurship.com)

5 Comments

Categories : Art, Coffee

Barking up the Right Tree: Carly Strife

Posted by Anna Scott

· Saturday, October 28th, 2023

· 3 Comments

How much do you love your dog? Enough to pay for a monthly subscription for dog toys and treats? Bark Box has found plenty of people willing to spend money to see their dogs happy.

Treats for man’s best friend.

When Carly Strife started Bark Box with Henrik Werdelin and Matt Meeker, she never imagined how successful it would become. Each month Bark Box sends thousands of boxes with curated themed dog toys and treats.

Although the founders were obsessed with their dogs, they never realized how many other dog lovers were equally obsessed with their pets. The company started with Carly selecting items from pet stores and Amazon. When Bark Box continued to grow, Carly began bulk-ordering special toys from artisans.

Customers began to respond, which inspired a unique marketing tactic. Carly realized that real videos from customers of their dogs tearing into the boxes were the best testimonies. Few can resist a video of owners laughing at their ecstatic dogs. So, Carly created BarkPost: a place where dog lovers receive curated posts and articles.

Bark Box eventually grew into Bark & Co. They have a second property called BarkCare. Customers pay $199 to connect with veterinarians at any time.

But how exactly did Carly Strife become involved with Bark Box and how did the company start? Carly was searching for a job. A friend referred her to Henrik Werdelin and Matt Meeker. They came up with the idea but lacked the ability to execute it. Werdelin and Meeker decided to invite Carly to help them start the business.

“I think it was because I was eager to do whatever… it took. I have a lot of energy and I’m kind of like a bulldozer when it comes to doing things. I don’t have a ton of experience but I like to think that I learn from my mistakes quickly and am risky enough to take them.”

The founders took their love of dogs and built Bark Box. It provides similar services as other subscription boxes but caters to dog lovers. Strife found the special niche enthusiastic and capitalized on customers’ emotions.

BARK: Shop BarkBox, Food, Toppers, Treats, Dental, Toys and more!

3 Comments

Categories : Dogs, Toys

Persevering to Sucess: Life360

Posted by Anna Scott

· Sunday, October 15th, 2023

· 3 Comments

Some people might be familiar with the location app Life360. To many teenagers, it is the bane of their existence. Parents use the app to track their kid’s exact location. They can thank Chris Hulls for creating the app.

Chris Hulls: Creator of Life360

Originally, Hull started in the United States Air Force. During his service, the government established a website to help locate missing family members in disasters after Hurricane Katrina. The site was ineffective.

After Hulls pulled out of the military, he went to college and was accepted into Harvard Business School. He, however, decided not to go after a health issue. While undergoing treatment, Hulls remembered the ineffective government website and started thinking. He developed the idea for Life360 and bounced the idea off a few friends.

Hulls began by outsourcing the technological development in India. It ended up as a failure. He tried again after winning “Google’s Android Challenge”. From the competition, he won $300,000 which helped him make Life360.

Despite the app being created, Hulls almost failed again. He was dead broke: he lived in his mom’s house and was making $700 a month. The app had very few users. In the beginning, the smartphone had just been created. People did not know how to effectively use apps. He and his team managed to limp by for 2 years. After some improvements and a few years for the world to adapt to smartphones, business began to pick up. Now, Life360 has about 30 million active users according to a 2022 article.

Life360 still faces plenty of challenges. The app has caused lots of controversy. The Washington Post wrote an article on how parents use the app to track their children. Life360 also received backlash after Markup exposed the company for selling information to data brokers. This caused the company to adjust its policies, but Life360 continues to have 50 million users.

While Chris Hulls barely qualifies as a millennial since he was born in 1985, he is certainly an entrepreneur. He conceived an idea years ago and stored it in his memory. When he faced health issues, he used the time to think about his idea.

“What felt like a set back in my life was actually time to incubate an idea that inspired my career.”

He changed his life plan and developed the idea. Although he struggled in the beginning, Hulls persevered for years. Even after his success, Hulls continues to adapt and change Life360 to make it better.

What is Life360? | About Our Company & Our Mission

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/chris-hulls-of-life360-you-will-never-regret-trying/

Founder lessons (and silver linings) from Life360’s Chris Hulls – Bessemer Venture Partners (bvp.com)

Life360 is getting out of the business of selling precise user location data – The Verge

3 Comments

Categories : Male Entrepreneurs, Military, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Smartphone, Technology

Taking Initiative: Slik

Posted by Anna Scott

· Monday, October 9th, 2023

· 1 Comment

In 2016, teenager Stefan Stokic from Jackson, Mississippi cofounded Slik, “an automatic email prospecting app”.

Stokic started learning coding when he was 10 years old. When he was 15, Stokic listened to Chris Sacca on Periscope. Sacca and his partner discussed their need for a job page for Lowercase. Stokic decided to create a page. Then he cold messaged Chris Sacca on Twitter with a link to the page. A few minutes later, Stokic received a reply from Chris Sacca and his partner.

Later, Lowercase hired Stokic as an intern. His internship helped him network with other Venture Capitalists (VC). At Lowercase, Stokic connected with Saroush Ghodsi who lived in Canada.

Together Stokic and Ghodsi developed Slik to help find email addresses. When the two realized they needed more support to launch the product, they turned to the phone. They cold-called the top VCs and entrepreneurs.

Stokic’s partner Ghodsi managed to find the personal cell phone number for Sam Altman. The call ended with Altman offering to fly both Stokic and Ghodsi to San Francisco to discuss it further. After the initial San Francisco meeting, the two moved to the city to attend Y Combinator’s summer classes.

Soon, Stokic and Ghodsi launched Slik. The platform was ranked 3^rd for Product Hunt on October 19, 2016. In one month, Slik supported over 1,500 users with a revenue of $4,000.

Stokic took the initiative to create a Jobs page and tweeted Sacca. This landed him an internship, helped him gain experience, and created a network for him. He and his partner continued to take risks which paid off.

In an article from Business Insider, Stokic states,

“If you don’t reach out, you’re never going to have the opportunity. You don’t have much to lose, especially when you’re just starting out. Just go out and try to get something done.”

Mo’s Bows

Posted by Anna Scott

· Friday, September 29th, 2023

· 2 Comments

When Moziah (Mo) Bridges was 9 years old, he made his first product for his business that would eventually become an internationally recognized brand. Originally, he was looking for an accessory to “help [him] look sharp”. All he found were ugly-colored, clip-on bow ties. When he couldn’t find anything that expressed his personality and fit his fashion taste, Mo decided to take matters into his own hands (literally).

With the help of his grandmother, Mo sewed his own bow tie at his grandmother’s kitchen table. Then, he began selling bow ties on the side of the road. He then expanded to selling on Etsy. Later, in 2013, Mo appeared on the 5^th season of Shark Tank but failed to receive financial support. He did receive Daymond John’s mentoring. Since then, Mo has created bow ties for all 30 NBA teams and former President Obama.

In 2012, Mo founded a charity called Go Mo! Summer Camp Scholarship Fund to send Memphis kids to summer camp. As of 2021, his charity has sent more than 50 kids to summer camp. At age 17, Mo expanded to neckties, pocket squares, and facemasks. He even wrote a book. His Memphis-based business now sells products to other stores such as Bloomingdale’s.

Mo’s charisma, family, and media outlets also greatly influenced his success. His mother helped him run his business while other family members helped sew the ties and ship them. Later, news outlets found his story interesting and provided publicity. Publicity would have been useless though, if Mo was not a personable character. In 2022, Mo’s net worth was $2 million.

Mo’s Bow was born out of a 9-year-old who wanted to add a bit of flare to his attire. He created what he wanted and saw potential. His business provided handmade bowties for both boys and men. From there, he expanded and continued to address another need. Mo saw yet another need in his community and decided to donate part of his profits to help.

Mo’s Bows (mosbowsmemphis.com)

Mo’s bows Shark Tank Net Worth 2023| What Happened To Mo’s bows After Shark Tank? 2023 (biznewske.com)

2 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Fashion, Handmade, Shark Tank, Teen Entrepreneurs