2016 Award Winner: Bulu Box
Founded in 2012 by Paul and Stephanie Jarrett, Bulu Box provides its subscribers a monthly box containing four to five product samples related to health and wellness. Customers can share their feedback on the products in exchange for reward points that can be used to purchase full-sized items on the Bulu Box website. Subscriber feedback is aggregated in real time via a software dashboard that allows brands to make data-driven decisions about product development and marketing. Today Bulu Box distributes up to 50,000 boxes of samples each month to subscribers across the country.
The Jarretts are both UNL graduates and maintain a close partnership with the university. Bulu Box offers numerous internship and job opportunities to university students; more than three-quarters of the company’s full-time staff are UNL graduates. The Jarretts and their team are frequent guest lecturers in UNL classes, serve as mentors to students, and host events that give students the opportunity to connect with the local startup community.
Bulu Box plans to use its prize money to create additional computer science-focused internships.
“Bulu Box is honored to accept the Walter J. Scott award from the University of Nebraska,” said Paul Jarrett, Bulu Box’s CEO, who has coined the hashtag #BangTheDrum to encourage entrepreneurs to share their stories. “Partnership between the university system and companies like Bulu Box fosters entrepreneurial spirit in students, offers local businesses a stellar pool of internship candidates, and it provides talented NU graduates an opportunity to build lasting careers in Nebraska.”