UniversalYums

My boyfriend was on reddit one night about 3 weeks after our website launched and posted on r/shutupandtakemymoney. We didn't think much about it and went to bed. When we woke up, we had 24 new orders. We freaked out. This was more orders than we had gotten since launching. That whole day, orders just kept pouring in. I think we got 200 or so just from Reddit. That day (specifically waking up that morning) was definitely the moment.

We send our customers snacks and candies from a different country each month. The snacks come with a 12-page booklet that has a ton of cool stuff like trivia about the country, descriptions of the snacks and their history, interesting pieces of culture, and a riddle to the next featured country!

I write the card every month and it's one of my favorite parts of the job :)

Welcome to the game! I wish you the best of luck, but I would encourage you to find a different selling point other than variety. We work with several suppliers to find snacks for each country, and unless you have exclusive importation rights everyone else has access to the same stuff.

We've had some customers that have been with us since the very first box, and some that just sign up for one box and then cancel.

While I can't provide the exact number, I will say that most people either cancel within the first 1-2 months, or they stick around for at least a year. A lot of our customers try the snacks as an activity with other people (their family, their co-workers, their SO, etc.). So once you make it a routine/tradition, you stay subscribed for a while.

It's a very difficult decision! While my boyfriend and I don't regret starting the business together, we both agree that we wouldn't want to start a business together again. It is very taxing on our relationship.

Our tipping point was when we were making enough money from the business to pay our bills. We focused on reducing our living expenses as much as possible. The business was growing so even though we were taking an initial pay cut, we were confident it would end up being a smart decision.