by Aleicia Zhu
The Cuddle Box is a business founded by BTHS student Phoebe Chen. It focuses on curating self-care items to promote sustainability. Make sure to visit Phoebe’s website at https://www.cuddlebox.shop/. She is also looking for interns; please contact her using the website form or through her email phchen@ctemc.org.
An outlay of the ‘Citrus Care Box’ from www.cuddlebox.shop/relaxationgiftbox.
Audio: drive.google.com/file/d/1_qeFe22znT_rmfiiOaLZ25WuoMD6xewF/view?usp=sharing
Aleicia Zhu (Interviewer): So today we're going to be talking about your company, the Cuddle Box. In a world where business is in everything, I'm really happy to see teen entrepreneurs coming from our very own Biotech. I do want to get to know a little more about your business. My first question is that your about page says that the Cuddle Box began when you wanted to bring sustainable value to Haitian entrepreneurs. What inspired these feelings?
Phoebe Chen: So I think it is actually rooted from opportunities. So, throughout my life, I had a lot of opportunities. And they just happen to line up with sustainability for Haitian entrepreneurs. So my first exposure to this was fundraising for Haiti in my freshman year. And so I really got to have the opportunity to go around Jersey, and do a lot of bubble tea sales and a lot of flea market sales just to raise money for Haitian rice and oil distribution and things like that that would ultimately contribute to the long-term economic sustainability of Haiti. And from then I realized that I wanted to personally make a long term impact that would also just be really sustainable, sustainability focused, and it'd be really long term. And that's why I started my own company, Cuddle Box, and even within Cuddle Box one, one thing that I really value is environmental and economic sustainability. I think a lot of altruistic efforts are really great, but they happen for a very short lived period of time. And I think that long term progress is the most important. So for Cuddle Box, all the products are sourced from-what it is, it's a personalized, artisanal self-care routine in a box. And all the products are handcrafted and sourced from artisans. So it really contributes back to the small businesses nationwide. And so something that we really wanted to do was to give part of the profits to Haitian entrepreneurs as a grant. And then that way we can invest in the future of Haitian entrepreneurs and provide resources that they might not otherwise have.
Aleicia Zhu: Yeah, that sounds wonderful. So another related question is that Milton Friedman, the wildly influential economist, once argued that companies don't have a social responsibility to society, and they only have the responsibility to increase profits. So how do you feel about that outlook?
Phoebe Chen: I think that's become really common under capitalism, in general, it's like trying to maximize oneselves' profits. But I think that social progress, I think it's not just companies' responsibilities, I think it's humans' responsibilities, to be altruistic and to help one another. And if I'm able to align that, while simultaneously making profit for my own company, so I can get back even more in the future, I'd be more than happy to do that. And I think every human has their own responsibility to give back to the community. It's not even just a company wide thing. it's a personal thing as well.
Aleicia Zhu: So after your ideology, so let's get into some questions about the Cuddle Box itself. What was the process of starting the Cuddle Box? And what kind of support did you get?
Phoebe Chen: Sure, I got into entrepreneurship when I was really young. When I was six years old, I used to go around my neighborhood selling dirt. And I would go door to door, because I, I'm from the suburbs. So it's pretty convenient for me to do that. And within two weeks, I made $20. And I was like, I really like this. And since then, I really started various ventures in freshman year, I was on boarded to my first real company, which was a 3d printed prosthetic hand company and I made, we raised like $8,000, within like, a year or so. And then we were featured on Fox Business, and it was really eye opening to see like, companies can do this, high schoolers can do this. The main founder, he was like, just a 16 year old and I was like, This is crazy. So it kind of motivated me to start my own company too. And in like an understanding that it is possible to start a successful company. Nothing's stopping you. It's just the fact that you have to get started. And so I think that was one of the really great places to start. And thankfully, I had a lot of mentors that I met along my journey. Since I got into entrepreneurship so young, that was really able to help me and guide me through the process of ideation.
Aleicia Zhu: That sounds really, really cool. So the Cuddle Box offers self-care boxes, gift boxes and synced boxes. The gift xox is pre-curated, but how did you design the quiz used for the self-care and synced boxes?
Phoebe Chen: So there are two aspects I really wanted to emphasize within Cuddle Boxes' business model, one being the curation aspect, so it's curated to someone personal preferences, and the second aspect being the sustainability aspect, economic and environmental sustainability. So for curation, I really went through a lot of different versions of Cuddle Box before I landed on the quiz. So I made a lot of versions of Cuddle Box. And then I sold them in batches of 50, maybe, until I really got the feedback that they really liked that people liked these products. So I started weeding out the products that people didn't like, and keeping the products that people did. Like, I realized that along the spectrum, a lot of people did like different things. So I wanted to make it an option for people with different preferences to be able to get the box that they truly wanted.
Aleicia Zhu: Yeah. On to the more the business side, how do you handle pricing, supply costs, distribution, etc. And, in essence, tell me what it's like running the Cuddle Box?
Phoebe Chen: Yes, there's definitely a lot of backend operations. I do have several friends who are also high schoolers, who are able to bounce ideas with me and stuff like that. But for the most part in terms of finances, and just supply and retail costs and stuff like that. I definitely determined that on my own. I have like a couple interns. And I have a couple mentors, who I like bounce ideas off of. Aside from that, I'm usually on my own for that. And I have just a Google Excel spreadsheet and stuff like that, that I just work on.
Aleicia Zhu: Yeah, that sounds cool, but also complicated. And so what is your staff like, more specifically?
So I'm the only one who owns the company, if you want to say. I filed for an LLC, and I'm the only one who owns, I own 100% of equity. And then I have a couple interns who are actually sisters, twins from California who I met online. And they've been helping me with marketing and operation. So they've definitely been a really big help for me. And they just help along the side. And it's been a really interesting journey they've definitely been through thick and thin.
Aleicia Zhu: They sound like a real big help. So what do you feel like makes the Cuddle Box unique from other curating services?
Phoebe Chen: Yeah, as I said, I think there's two main things. In terms of, obviously, we have a big emphasis on self-care. Our whole business model is featured on self-care, but from other self-care services, one of our biggest differences. As I said, it's curation, as well as economic and environmental sustainability. So in terms of curation, we want to make it that people have different preferences can choose what they like, in terms of sustainability, we want to give back to the community give back to small businesses, because virtually no self-care companies out there who source their products from various small businesses across the nation while simultaneously providing curation while simultaneously providing clean and handcrafted goods. So it's really a win-win-win situation.
Aleicia Zhu: That sounds great. So what do you plan on doing for the Cuddle Box in the future?
Phoebe Chen: Sure, honestly, I think it's definitely going to vary. I don't think I have one specific answer like there's no foreseeable future, in terms of what I know, step by step is going to happen. But what I hope happens is obviously that it takes off even more, and I get to do more business. So I really want to be selling to businesses wholesale like corporate gifting. And I also hope to bring this into college or to some incubator program in whatever university I end up at. So that's the goal in the future. And I do plan on outsourcing manufacturing, so that is possible, because I don't really plan on seeing myself packaging box boxes in my dorm room. I don't really think that's feasible. So hopefully, I can find a way to really outsource that.
Aleicia Zhu: Yeah. So what would you recommend to teen entrepreneurs in business? What kind of activities and resources do you feel like they should use?
Phoebe Chen: All activities and all resources, I think a lot of them get hated on a lot, because a lot of them are mock. And I agree that a lot of business competitions tend to be really fake. Like, there's a lot of competition and challenges for business for high school students. And nothing actually happens after it. But what I recommend you do out of that process is to network with people and find mentors out of those competitions, because I've attended a lot of business competitions for high schoolers. And I might not necessarily want anything or made anything, but I got to meet really cool people who have helped me in my future endeavors. So I think that's really critical is to make sure that you go out of your way to meet people and to reach out to people that you find interesting, and I think that will get you a long way.
Aleicia Zhu: Yeah, so that sounds really great advice to our teen students here at biotech and our teen students overall. So that was my last question. And thank you for telling us all about your wonderful business, the Cuddle Box.