Episode 32: On Planning Subscription Box Services with Paul Jarrett, Co-Founder & CEO at Bulu

Jul 26

On this week’s episode of Subscriptions: Scaled, we sit down with Paul Jarrett, Co-Founder and CEO at Bulu.

During the episode, you’ll learn everything from what exactly Bulu offers to the planning and organizing of subscription boxes, to Paul’s expert thoughts on the future of subscription box services.

Keep reading to learn more about Bulu and the man behind the brand.

Bulu

Bulu launches and manages hundreds of subscription box, kitting, and specialty fulfillment projects. Impressively, the company can kit up to 100,000 packages in one day. Brands working with Bulu receive plenty of perks, including order management software, shipping rate discounts, and no monthly order minimums.

Bulu kits and ships specialty subscription boxes directly to a brand’s customers with care and quality in mind. The company also offers its clients several customer support channels and supplementary services—like monthly box surveys created with the unique requirements of its customers and business model.

The average customer satisfaction rate of those receiving boxes from Bulu is 4.5/5 stars, which increases brand loyalty and keeps clients happy.

Bulu helps out with branding, too, with over ten years of subscription box design experience. Bulu assists with everything from the initial box design to monthly insert designs.

How Bulu Was Established

The episode begins with Paul talking about Bulu and how the company first became established. Officially, the brand started on April 12, 2012. But Paul and his wife were discussing ideas around December 2011.

While the couple always knew that they wanted to start a business, they thought it would be an advertising agency as that was their background. However, it seemed that wherever they went, they always ended up involved in a new launch of brands or programs. They were always doing something physical, whether it was guerilla marketing or working with consumer packaged goods.

When living in San Francisco, it soon dawned on the couple that as they were involved in social media and e-commerce work, it made sense to work in the industry. When they started thinking about subscription boxes, they stumbled across the famous Birchbox subscription service, and that’s how their idea for Bulu came about.

Software and Programs

Later in the episode, we learn about some of the company's software and programs. Paul discusses the benefits of using Asana as a project management tool. Since day one of the company, the team has been with Asana and is happy with how they work with it.

Paul claims you can’t put a price tag on an excellent project management tool to help streamline communication and the workload.

We also discover that Bulu has dabbled with using VR. However, some people in the team didn’t like the idea of wearing the headset in a room and being unable to see what was going on in the space.

While Paul is impressed with VR, he doesn’t believe it’s right for the company just yet. He speaks about Oculus, a brand providing VR headsets.

The Future of Subscription Boxes

Paul explains where he thinks the subscription business is currently going, especially in a post-Covid-19 world, following many people who were experimenting with subscriptions while they were at home.

Paul states that if you look at the mechanics of an item being sent to somebody on a repeated basis at a lower cost, as long as that wealth gap increases or it doesn’t shrink, he can’t imagine a world where subscription services don’t exist.

He says he would gladly pay Apple an annual or monthly fee to always have the new gadgets. After all, many of us buy the latest gadget, and then all the old devices typically get left alone, unused.

Planning and Organizing Subscription Boxes

We also learn about the marketing and planning of the subscription boxes in detail.

Currently, Bulu is in a position where they have a lot of inbound coming in, including influencers, to help with marketing.

When large brands approach Bulu, the first step is to put together a plan. On the website, people can see that there’s a template and a YouTube video to go with it. But when working with a client, Bulu provides a much more detailed layout.

Coming up with a customized plan for each brand is a long process. They have to look at what they’re doing for social media and what assets they have available.

Paul says clients are always surprised at how well they can develop a plan, but it’s something they’ve learned after creating over 50 different types of subscription box programs. After working in the business for over a decade, they know what to do to create a successful plan.

The Team at Bulu

Paul also talks about how talented the team at Bulu is, with many of the staff members working at the company since day one. He notes that their staff members can pick up the small things easily, such as asking for a brand’s website conversion rates.

The conversation starts to wrap up with Paul explaining who Bubu’s ideal client profile is. He also answers the question of when an entrepreneur or business owner should reach out to Bubu for a subscription service for their brand.

Paul says that while they aren’t actively pursuing large, multi-billion dollar brands, they’re more than welcome to speak to Bulu.

While those clients are great, they take a long time to work with. Paul notes that Bulu turns away nine of ten brands anyway. He says that during one of ten calls, you just get this feeling that they are the right client for the brand.

Interestingly, Paul still likes to spend a significant amount of time on sales calls because he loves speaking with entrepreneurs about their brands and ideas.

So, do you want to learn how many of the country’s subscription box services are managed? Then tune in to the latest episode of Subscriptions: Scaled with Paul Jarrett, Co-Founder and CEO at Bulu, by clicking on the episode link below.

—