KiwiCo: Sandra Oh Lin

KiwiCo founder Sandra Oh Lin took an after-school pastime and turned it into a multi-million-dollar business. After quitting a high-powered job in tech, she dived into doing after-school projects with her kids, like making puppets out of Styrofoam or combining baking soda and vinegar to see what happens. When she discovered that other parents liked these projects too, she decided to create a subscription box company that sent out science and crafts kits every month. She gathered kids in her garage to test-market her ideas, and pitched her plan over and over to investors in Silicon Valley, where her car was “the only minivan in the parking lot.”  Today KiwiCo is the leading subscription box for kids, and has shipped over 50 million crates worldwide. This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei.  It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Carla Esteves. Our audio engineer was Josephine Nyounai.  You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success. How I Built This is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds.New episodes on Mondays and Thursdays for free. Listen 1-week early and to all episodes ad-free with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.Get your How I Built This merch at WonderyShop.com/HowIBuiltThis