When you think of Internet startups, snail mail
isn’t one of the first words that comes to mind. Yet, a number of
startups are making bank the good old-fashioned way, with stamps and
packing peanuts galore.
While the Internet is a fun place to hang out, people still crave participating in the physical world — holding objects, tasting treats, trying on products. And you can’t beat the feeling of getting a beat-up package filled with goodies in the mail.
So it’s no wonder startups are turning to the mailbox, rather than the inbox, in this latest round of ventures. There’s even a startup out there called Member.ly that helps would-be entrepreneurs build their own subscription-based programs.
The following 10 startups have combined the ease and convenience of the Internet with the pleasure and nostalgia of snail mail. From beauty and crafting to food and feminine hygiene, these startups are tackling a number of industries.
Birchbox is a subscription-based service in which subscribers receive a monthly delivery of high-end beauty, grooming and lifestyle samples.
The New York-based startup, founded by Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna, has attracted more than 100,000 subscribers to its monthly beauty kits. Following the success of its women’s kits, the company launched Birchbox Man, for all of the jealous boyfriends and husbands out there.
Beyond the business of selling kits, Birchbox does a great job of creating a content experience around the arrival of its latest beauty samples in the mail. The Birchbox team creates video tutorials and how-to posts on how to best use the samples. And users even post their own reviews and how-tos across the Internet.
In other words, you can pick from a list of awesomely creative people
— like Michael Karnjanaprakorn of Skillshare and Maria Popova of Brain
Pickings — subscribe to them, and receive packages of goodies curated by
them.
If you can’t find a Quarterly Co. contributor that fits your fancy, maybe it’s worth checking out Umba Box. While not based around tastemakers, it is a subscription service that offers up handmade goods — jewelry, accessories, home supplies, you name it — on a monthly basis.
TastingRoom.com enables wine lovers to try top wines before they buy full bottles. The site offers an ever-changing list of samples, each containing six 50ml bottles. Current offerings include samplers of California Zins, Sweeter Wines and Wines of Balance handpicked by award-winning sommelier, Rajat Parr.
Samples tend to range from $20-30 and come in varietal, regional, celebrity and single winery sampler kits.
After trying a six-bottle sampler, users can log on to TastingRoom.com to buy their favorite wines by the bottle.
Coffee-obsessed city slickers are going to love this one — Craft Coffee delivers artisan coffees on a monthly basis, starting at $19.99 per month. Each month, 12 ounces of hand-selected samples from three different roasters make their way to each member’s home, complete with expert tasting notes and suggested brewing instructions.
There are a few more coffee subscription services out there, too, including Kopi and Intelligentsia Coffee. If you’re more of a tea drinker, there’s also Steepster to get you going in the morning.
Craftsmen and craftswomen looking to expand their skills may find a friend in For the Makers, a New York-based startup that sends out materials and tutorials for DIY craft projects.
Priced at $29 per month, the subscription includes hand-picked
supplies for creating four to six unique projects, along with online
tutorials. Of course, subscribers can also choose to go it alone with
the materials and make their own crafts willy-nilly.
For those of us lacking artistic talent, there’s always Art in a Box, which lets subscribers receive a new piece of art each month, based on how they describe their taste in art.
For just a few dollars per month, the Dollar Shave Club empowers men to stop buying crappy razor blades at the supermarket and start receiving quality shaving goods by mail.
The company features three razor types, all at different price points of $1, $3 and $9 per month, plus shipping and handling.
CEO Michael Dubin stars in a hilarious promotional video for the company (embedded above), which uses humor, social media and authenticity to appeal to viewers. With nearly 4.5 million views, the video has been a success, and since its upload in March, the video has garnered its fair amount of buzz for Dollar Shave Club. The company’s attempt at going up against the big guys in the shaving market has also earned it a number of notable headlines.
Dollar Shave Club isn’t the only razor-focused startup, though. Raz*War is another contender in the space — based out of Brussels, the company offers three of its own razor options and worldwide shipping, though pricing varies.
For the men out there who couldn’t be bothered to even shop for their own clothes, let alone their razors, there’s also Trunk Club, which enables men to get full outfits delivered to their doors. And for the ladies, there’s Cake Style.
Though it’s not subscription-based and doesn’t even make its money directly from those who receive its mail, Swaggable is a startup that I couldn’t leave off this list.
Swaggable hooks consumers up with free products
that they want in return for a product review on its site, which
marketers, of course, are dying to read. Reviews aren’t mandatory, but
the Swaggable team says that users that don’t leave reviews are less
likely to receive invites in the future.
So far, the site mostly features food and beverage samples, including snacks, teas and soda. But more types of products are set to be showcased, such as electronics, clothing, books and music.
Without good ol’ snail mail, though, this company wouldn’t exist.
It seems like new organic and eco-friendly products are released every day, and trolling the aisles of Whole Foods isn’t always the best way to find out about all of them. Blissmo could be a solution for learning about the latest hippy trends, though.
For $19 per month, Blissmo sends its subscribers a box full
of eco-friendly products, all with a monthly theme, such as “morning
bliss,” “fair trade favorites,” and “afternoon fuel.” Though the boxes
tend to be heavy on the food offerings, beauty supplies are also
included from time to time.
Conscious Box is another offering in the eco-food space worth checking out, and if gourmet food is your thing, Foodzie might be right up your alley.
For $25 per month, Citrus Lane sends subscribed parents “care
packages,” each packed with four to five “best of” products. The
packages are based on the child’s age — the site can accommodate
children from newborn to three years old.
The boxes include anything from food and toys to bathing products and books.
Citrus Lane doesn’t have a monopoly on the baby subscriptions, though. If Citrus Lane’s care packs aren’t enough, parents living in New York City — Manhattan or Brooklyn, specifically — can order a subscription of farm-fresh baby foods from Farm to Baby. And Wittlebee lets parents “put their kids’ clothes on auto-pilot,” from birth to five years old.
For parents with toddlers and young children, Kiwi Crate is the next step up — it provides a monthly crafting kit for kids to get creative.
For some women, one of the most embarrassing moments of the month is
purchasing feminine products. After all, the boxes are big, pink and
oh-so-obvious.
UK-based Trinkets lets women forget the shame walk in the tampon aisle and enables them to get those puppies delivered right to their doorsteps.
The tampons are “chlorine free and use natural cotton, eliminating irritable materials and making our products hypoallergenic and 100% irritation free,” the site claims. They come in up to three sizes and can be purchased with or without applicators.
Not too shabby, eh?
While the Internet is a fun place to hang out, people still crave participating in the physical world — holding objects, tasting treats, trying on products. And you can’t beat the feeling of getting a beat-up package filled with goodies in the mail.
So it’s no wonder startups are turning to the mailbox, rather than the inbox, in this latest round of ventures. There’s even a startup out there called Member.ly that helps would-be entrepreneurs build their own subscription-based programs.
The following 10 startups have combined the ease and convenience of the Internet with the pleasure and nostalgia of snail mail. From beauty and crafting to food and feminine hygiene, these startups are tackling a number of industries.
1. Birchbox
Birchbox is a subscription-based service in which subscribers receive a monthly delivery of high-end beauty, grooming and lifestyle samples.
The New York-based startup, founded by Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna, has attracted more than 100,000 subscribers to its monthly beauty kits. Following the success of its women’s kits, the company launched Birchbox Man, for all of the jealous boyfriends and husbands out there.
Beyond the business of selling kits, Birchbox does a great job of creating a content experience around the arrival of its latest beauty samples in the mail. The Birchbox team creates video tutorials and how-to posts on how to best use the samples. And users even post their own reviews and how-tos across the Internet.
2. Quarterly Co.
Quarterly Co. is a subscription-based service that “enables people to receive physical items in the mail from influential contributors of their choice.”
In other words, you can pick from a list of awesomely creative people
— like Michael Karnjanaprakorn of Skillshare and Maria Popova of Brain
Pickings — subscribe to them, and receive packages of goodies curated by
them.If you can’t find a Quarterly Co. contributor that fits your fancy, maybe it’s worth checking out Umba Box. While not based around tastemakers, it is a subscription service that offers up handmade goods — jewelry, accessories, home supplies, you name it — on a monthly basis.
3. TastingRoom.com
TastingRoom.com enables wine lovers to try top wines before they buy full bottles. The site offers an ever-changing list of samples, each containing six 50ml bottles. Current offerings include samplers of California Zins, Sweeter Wines and Wines of Balance handpicked by award-winning sommelier, Rajat Parr.
Samples tend to range from $20-30 and come in varietal, regional, celebrity and single winery sampler kits.
After trying a six-bottle sampler, users can log on to TastingRoom.com to buy their favorite wines by the bottle.
4. Craft Coffee
Coffee-obsessed city slickers are going to love this one — Craft Coffee delivers artisan coffees on a monthly basis, starting at $19.99 per month. Each month, 12 ounces of hand-selected samples from three different roasters make their way to each member’s home, complete with expert tasting notes and suggested brewing instructions.
There are a few more coffee subscription services out there, too, including Kopi and Intelligentsia Coffee. If you’re more of a tea drinker, there’s also Steepster to get you going in the morning.
5. For the Makers
Craftsmen and craftswomen looking to expand their skills may find a friend in For the Makers, a New York-based startup that sends out materials and tutorials for DIY craft projects.
Priced at $29 per month, the subscription includes hand-picked
supplies for creating four to six unique projects, along with online
tutorials. Of course, subscribers can also choose to go it alone with
the materials and make their own crafts willy-nilly.For those of us lacking artistic talent, there’s always Art in a Box, which lets subscribers receive a new piece of art each month, based on how they describe their taste in art.
6. Dollar Shave Club
For just a few dollars per month, the Dollar Shave Club empowers men to stop buying crappy razor blades at the supermarket and start receiving quality shaving goods by mail.
The company features three razor types, all at different price points of $1, $3 and $9 per month, plus shipping and handling.
CEO Michael Dubin stars in a hilarious promotional video for the company (embedded above), which uses humor, social media and authenticity to appeal to viewers. With nearly 4.5 million views, the video has been a success, and since its upload in March, the video has garnered its fair amount of buzz for Dollar Shave Club. The company’s attempt at going up against the big guys in the shaving market has also earned it a number of notable headlines.
Dollar Shave Club isn’t the only razor-focused startup, though. Raz*War is another contender in the space — based out of Brussels, the company offers three of its own razor options and worldwide shipping, though pricing varies.
For the men out there who couldn’t be bothered to even shop for their own clothes, let alone their razors, there’s also Trunk Club, which enables men to get full outfits delivered to their doors. And for the ladies, there’s Cake Style.
7. Swaggable
Though it’s not subscription-based and doesn’t even make its money directly from those who receive its mail, Swaggable is a startup that I couldn’t leave off this list.
Swaggable hooks consumers up with free products
that they want in return for a product review on its site, which
marketers, of course, are dying to read. Reviews aren’t mandatory, but
the Swaggable team says that users that don’t leave reviews are less
likely to receive invites in the future.So far, the site mostly features food and beverage samples, including snacks, teas and soda. But more types of products are set to be showcased, such as electronics, clothing, books and music.
Without good ol’ snail mail, though, this company wouldn’t exist.
8. Blissmo
It seems like new organic and eco-friendly products are released every day, and trolling the aisles of Whole Foods isn’t always the best way to find out about all of them. Blissmo could be a solution for learning about the latest hippy trends, though.
For $19 per month, Blissmo sends its subscribers a box full
of eco-friendly products, all with a monthly theme, such as “morning
bliss,” “fair trade favorites,” and “afternoon fuel.” Though the boxes
tend to be heavy on the food offerings, beauty supplies are also
included from time to time.Conscious Box is another offering in the eco-food space worth checking out, and if gourmet food is your thing, Foodzie might be right up your alley.
9. Citrus Lane
For $25 per month, Citrus Lane sends subscribed parents “care
packages,” each packed with four to five “best of” products. The
packages are based on the child’s age — the site can accommodate
children from newborn to three years old.The boxes include anything from food and toys to bathing products and books.
Citrus Lane doesn’t have a monopoly on the baby subscriptions, though. If Citrus Lane’s care packs aren’t enough, parents living in New York City — Manhattan or Brooklyn, specifically — can order a subscription of farm-fresh baby foods from Farm to Baby. And Wittlebee lets parents “put their kids’ clothes on auto-pilot,” from birth to five years old.
For parents with toddlers and young children, Kiwi Crate is the next step up — it provides a monthly crafting kit for kids to get creative.
10. Trinkets
For some women, one of the most embarrassing moments of the month is
purchasing feminine products. After all, the boxes are big, pink and
oh-so-obvious.UK-based Trinkets lets women forget the shame walk in the tampon aisle and enables them to get those puppies delivered right to their doorsteps.
The tampons are “chlorine free and use natural cotton, eliminating irritable materials and making our products hypoallergenic and 100% irritation free,” the site claims. They come in up to three sizes and can be purchased with or without applicators.
Not too shabby, eh?
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