Meet Innovative Woman Sandra Oh Lin Founder and CEO of Kiwi Crate and Mother of Two.
How and why did you start your business?
Kiwi Crate was built out of a passion for hands-on projects that encourage kids to exercise their problem solving and critical thinking skills – and have serious fun doing it. We inspire kids to see themselves as creators and makers, and our goal is to help kids gain the creative confidence and curiosity to tackle problems when there is no one right answer.
As a parent, I had a deep appreciation for hands-on projects, but often found that my greatest intentions fell short. It was tough to find the time to come up with engaging activities and find appropriate materials. So as I started to develop and design creative projects for my kids, I thought, “why not share them with friends?” As it turns out, many parents are busy and well-intentioned. They’re seeking convenient, enriching experiences for their kids. Kiwi Crate is that solution. And now, we have a suite of brands for preschoolers through teens. For each brand, we offer a subscription with a fresh new theme and project every month as well as one-off projects.
What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
One of our biggest challenges has been scaling our operational efforts as we’ve grown. As much as I’ve had experience in consumer products and ecommerce – most recently at eBay and PayPal, I personally haven’t had as much exposure to sourcing and shipping physical goods. I still remember when we received our first shipment of shipping boxes, and the pallets and space they would require shocked us.
Since then, we’ve brought a team with deep experience and expertise in sourcing, production, and operations onboard. They’ve done a fantastic job tackling the challenges in making our operations more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective.
How do you define SUCCESS?
When we were first starting the business, I remember when one of our early investors asked how I define success. I responded that success to me is building a trusted brand and a great company. For employees, I want Kiwi Crate to be a great place to work. For customers, Kiwi Crate is about creativity, fun, and learning. We offer a convenience, quality solution. We’re defining ourselves as a trusted brand centered on creativity and young innovators. Every day, we see the impact that we’re making as parents and kids post photos and send us letters that illustrate how their experimenting and learning – while having fun. Ultimately, we hope to have had some part in developing kids who can tackle the challenges that they are bound to face in an ever-evolving society.
If there was one thing you wish you knew before you began, what would that be?
When we were starting out, I was introduced to a lot of people. Admittedly, I was afraid that some of these meetings would be a distraction, given all that we had to do to build the business. As it turned out, we made some of our most important connections through these “blind dates.” We got connected to a our product design lead and one of our major investors. I would encourage new entrepreneurs keep an open mind and do those meetings because you never know where they can lead.
What makes you an innovative woman?
While we are encouraging creativity and innovation amongst kids, we also need to be innovative! We have to design fresh new projects and experiences every month across our brands. In designing these projects, we have a set of constraints – whether it’s size, cost, quality, customer engagement, skills, etc. – that we need to keep in mind. This keeps us on our toes to continuously innovate.
Our model where these fresh new projects are shipped directly to the consumer is also unique. It’s an approach that marries ultra-convenience and quality. We have a direct feedback loop with our community, which can influence our roadmap and new product development. Also, we offer a suite of products ranging from ages 3-16+ with gender-neutral offerings, which is a new take on addressing the market. All of this coupled with a deep commitment to developing and inspiring children’s creative confidence makes us an innovative company – and me an innovative founder.
To find out more about Kiwi Crate and Sandra visit kiwicrate.com or connect on Facebook or Twitter.