Happy Friday! I’m “borrowing” my Saltbox-related update from an EOY blog post I wrote this week. In 2022, I’m going to get back to sending this more regularly.
THIS YEAR @ SALTBOX
We founded Saltbox because we believe all growing businesses deserve logistics solutions that are approachable, accessible, and fundamentally human-centered in their design. While 2021 was full of challenges and surprises for many of us, we are thankful to be able to take a moment and reflect on our growth and learnings over the past year, as we made strides in making our vision a reality.
It all begins with opening in four new markets across the United States: starting with Dallas, then Seattle, LA, and most recently Denver. We’re incredibly excited to be ending the year with a truly national presence, as well as the opportunity to connect with and learn from entrepreneurs across the country, while also helping them connect with and learn from each other.
In July, we launched Saltbox Fulfillment, a 3PL and eCommerce logistics provider built specifically for growing eCommerce companies. As more and more entrepreneurs are beginning their e-commerce journey, we realized the existing solutions just don’t take into consideration the human at the end of every small business - Saltbox does. Our solution and services bring logistics to the entrepreneur, both literally and digitally. Not only do members have full access to our national network of micro-fulfillment centers, but we also provide transparency and clarity into our operations and pricing. This way, our members can more deeply understand how their business is running.
By expanding to new cities and launching fulfillment, we’ve grown from thirty to hundreds of new members this year, and we’re beginning to see insightful and inspiring trends about who those entrepreneurs are. They are women and men who had a side idea and took a leap. They are individuals who had a unique skill or trade, and at Saltbox have turned that into a growing business. They are also those individuals who are traditionally underrepresented in entrepreneurship (50% of Saltbox companies are led by women or persons of color). Through Saltbox, they can realize that growth and vision.
Through working with these hundreds of businesses, we have learned that one of the things they need most is more operational leverage, so they can focus on growth. So, we introduced a new solution this year called eForce (Elastic Workforce) - a team of on-demand, experienced operations specialists who are available to handle daily tasks or tackle large projects. To date, we have delivered over 9,000 hours of eForce to our members.
We have also had the privilege of telling our story across the country via humbling national press coverage, including this feature in Bloomberg which covers the future of retail and as well as one of our founding member companies, Shinery.
To help fuel our growth and continue our mission, we completed an $11 million Series A funding round, with support from great investors like Playground Global, XYZ, and MetaProp. These leading firms believe in our mission and share in our hypothesis about where the world is going and how we can best support growing businesses.
In addition to capital, we have also quadrupled our team! We are now over 70 employees across 17 states. It is just mind-blowing to have that many people understand and believe in our mission. Come join our team; we’re always looking for more people to help us build the future of logistics for growing businesses.
Not only have we grown as a team, but we have grown overall as a Saltbox family. We have celebrated two weddings, two babies, and a few new pets. What we’re building here is not just a random set of employees, but people who are deeply connected, and we want to celebrate all of that!
From the entire Saltbox team, we are truly grateful for a successful 2021 and look forward to doing even more amazing things, building new products, and serving thousands of companies next year.
AND ON A PERSONAL NOTE
I’ve admittedly have not spent enough time investing in myself this year, so between late November and December I made a few significant changes:
Invested in a part-time executive assistant, using an awesome company, SquaredAway
Purchased a Peleton (no, Mr. Big didn’t scare me off); username maxwellbonnie if you want to do a ride together
Undergoing executive coaching at the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute
Set up a weekly call with a long-time friend who’s a PsyD. Along with being able to call me out on my BS, she also has a passion of organization dynamics and culture.
So much "Wow"! Just followed you on Peloton :)