The Problem
Imagine this: your friend, Mara, is having a baby. Jenny is going through an awful break-up. Mia just bought a new house, Amreetha's moving away...and you're feeling pretty terrible about missing Hope's wedding. (Yeah, you have a lot of friends. You're very popular.)
You'd love to send them each a care package. You would not love, however, to scour the internet, buy all the things, find a right-sized box, and then schlep to the Post Office to wait in line for an hour. You love your friends, but you have about 30,000 things to do before Monday.
Enter: Small Packages.
The Solution
Small Packages is the way to send beautiful care packages, tailored for specific life events, to the women in your life: friends, sisters, girlfriends, mothers...the sky's the limit.
We'll be an online destination (no brick & mortar locations) where you can select curated care packages in a quick, easy, 3-step process.
Here's How It Works
You'll head to the Small Packages website and choose the kind of box you'd like to send. We're launching with 9 box types...here, take a look!
- First row: Housewarming // Birthday // I Miss You
- Second Row: New Baby // Engagement // A Break-Up
- Third Row: For Mom // Get Well Soon // I'm Sorry
Then, you pick a price! Each type of Small Packages box comes in 3 price points ($35, $50 or $100), so you can decide whether you want to say, "Hey girl!" or "You're very seriously the best ever and I'd let you use the last of my La Mer."
Finally, you'll add a message that we'll handwrite in one of our own specially designed letterpress cards. This gift is from you, and we want your words to be the first thing they see when they open the box.
Our letterpress card collection, designed in-houseAnd then, you--oh wait. You're actually done. In five minutes, you've sent your friend a care package that'll cheer her up or cheer her on, and you can get back to checking off everything else on your to-do list.
So, What's In The Boxes?
Great question. The answer is: beautiful products you'd choose yourself, and no. cheesy. filler. Our brand partners range from big companies you know and love (like Ban.do and Amika Haircare) to up-and-coming brands we've curated because they're the best at what they do (like Devocion Coffee and PF Candle Co).
Here are some of our brand partners:
And when it all comes together, what do the care packages look like?
Here's our large Birthday care package:
Large Birthday Box: $100Here's a little something you'd send to a friend who just got engaged:
Small Engagement Box: $35And a medium-sized "Yay!" for a friend who just got her very own place:
Medium Housewarming Box: $50What Will Campaign Funds Be Used For?
To make the magic happen! Small Packages will be more than just pretty items put together. We're producing our own line of letterpress cards, designing a private line of mugs, and creating luxe, gold-foil stamped boxes. We figure: if you want to send a gift, you want it to be beautiful and creative, right?
So, we're raising $10k to get those products into full production. We're also purchasing goods at wholesale from our brand partners. (We believe in supporting the businesses we work with, and paying fair prices up and down the supply chain. Socially-minded business is the only kind we're interested in.)
How Will Rewards Work?
After the campaign ends, you'll receive a credit to use on the Small Packages website. If you've backed our campaign at the level of a large box, for example, you'll receive a credit good for a large box of any type. That includes free shipping!
This means you can wait until after the campaign is over to decide which friend you'll send the package to. (And we obviously won't tell if you send it to yourself. We're cool like that.)
The Small Packages website won't go live until after the campaign is over, so our backers will be the very first to be able to send packages!
Where Are You In The Process?
In a word: ready. Once we receive funds from a successful campaign, we can send payments to our wholesale vendors and officially finish production on all our private-label items.
Our website was designed by The Wonder Jam and constructed by Her Domain, an organization that teaches women in Pakistan to code. They've built a user interface that's sleek and easy to use, and we can't wait to share it with you.
Here's what the home page looks like:
We've scheduled our website to go live 3 weeks after the iFund Women campaign ends. That's when you'll be able to claim your reward for backing us here!
Who's The Founder?
Hi! I'm Julie Schechter. I picked up my close network of friends as a dance major at UC Irvine, a student at Harvard Law School, and as a corporate attorney (nothing bonds you faster than staying up all night studying for the Bar Exam). I previously founded and ran fitBallet, a ballet-fitness company that operated successfully for 3 years in the hyper-competitive NYC boutique fitness market.
I've lived on both coasts and way too frequently been far from the women who are my foundation. I love these people: I tell them my hopes, my secrets, and I'd do anything to be there for them when they're fresh from disaster or celebrating a huge win. But that's not always possible. Sometimes money and time just don't stretch far enough.
I wanted to make connection easier. If I could snap my fingers and send something beautiful to my best friend, make her whole week, I'd do it all the time...especially if it was affordable. That's what I want to create with Small Packages: the ability to send huge love with very little money and time.
I think anything that brings us all closer is worth making a reality. I hope you agree!