Unboxing a Kiwi craft crate with company CEO

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Sumi Das: As a working mother of two girls, I've experienced first-hand, the challenge of keeping kids with short attention spans engaged. So when I learned about Silicon Valley based Kiwi Crate, I was intrigued and thought it sounded clever. You sign up for a subscription, and every month, a box full of crafts arrives for your little ones to play with, build and explore. Here to tell us more and show us how all it comes together is Sandra Oh Lin, CEO of Kiwi Crate. Sandra, thanks for much for being with us. Sandra Oh Lin: Thank you for having me. Sumi Das: So you brought a Kiwi Crate with you. Let's unbox it. Let's see what's inside. Sandra Oh Lin: Okay. So this is an example of a crate that we sent out recently. Kiwi Crate is geared for kids ages 3 to 7 and they get all of the materials and inspiration that they need to these hands-on projects and activities. Sumi Das: You don't need to provide your own paper or anything like that? Sandra Oh Lin: No, and so even in the introductory box, we supply welcome scissors, so it's literally just add water. So in this particular box, it's all about colors. And so we are basically providing a stained glass project, as well as an opportunity to see how colors mix with a spinning colors project, which is essentially you can color your own tops and see how the colors actually mix together. What we're trying to do here is really curate projects that are appropriate for the kid. We vet this all with child development experts and we test them pretty extensively, as well. We have kids come in to do testing and in this project, we even include a bonus project and we have online materials. For example, on our site that continue the exploration. So you can continue to create and discover with your child. Sumi Das: And can you choose different boxes? Or is it the same box goes out to everybody who subscribes?

Sandra Oh Lin: It's the same box that goes out to everybody who subscribes but that makes it also a very delightful experience. We don't actually unveil the topic or the theme of the box until it arrives and then we see the chatter happen across social media of, oh my goodness, I got the box this month and it's all about wind or all about pirates. And you see people sharing what they've created and also what they've discovered. Sumi Das: You were also kind enough to send over a box to my house and given that it was raining cats and dogs on Saturday, we actually did do a couple of the projects. My 4-year-old did so here's the -- this was the bonus project, where she created the tie dye tote bag and she really had a lot of fun doing this with my husband. And then we both, together, created the spinning tops. This is, this is her version and this is mine. You can kind of tell who, who the 4-year-old creator was and who the older creator was but we did have a lot of fun and it was nice to kind of create the projects together and there was a fair amount of sort of experimentation and observation that was involved. She was surprised by the colors that were passed on with the tote bag. So definitely, she, she had fun and it was something she was eager to do. Sandra Oh Lin: I mean one of the things that we love to hear is that this is a shared experience for families so it's not only a product that we're delivery, something that you consume, but something that you can create memories with your, with your family. And so that's something that we really love hearing. Sumi Das: Now, before the crate arrives at your house, there's a fair amount of work that goes into creating this experience. Tell us about the task that your employees are running, the people you have on staff at, at the company. Sandra Oh Lin: Yeah. So we really try to make sure that the project uphold our design principles so they include anything from quality materials, making sure that the these are products that are age appropriate and developmentally appropriate, making sure that they are engaging and kid led, rather than grown up led. And so we have a team of designers who are parents, creative parents who come up with different project ideas. We have an advisory board of child development experts, who make sure that they are appropriate and then we have inaudible labs in our offices, where kids come in at least once a week, across the age range to make sure that they are ones that they can tackle, that they love and that they engage in. Sumi Das: Why did you decide to start this company? It would be easy enough for a parent to go online, search for some arts and crafts, go to a craft store, buy the supplies and bring them home for their children. What makes Kiwi Crate unique? Sandra Oh Lin: So I think what we're finding is that it's actually not that easy, especially as a busy parent, it's tough to necessarily find the time to get that inspiration and there might be millions of ideas. There are out there online or through books, but there's resources don't necessarily tell you, these are the things that are going to be appropriate for my kid and that they're going to engage in and really going to be a delightful experience for them. So we cut through all that by curating the ideas and inspiration and then the materials, we hand select the materials as well. They are quality materials and we deliver it immediately to the door. Actually going shopping with a couple of kids in tow, can be a little bit painful at times. So we make sure that we deliver. Sumi Das: That's an understatement. inaudible. Sandra Oh Lin, thanks so much for telling us more about Kiwi Crate and bringing these projects to us. Sandra Oh Lin: Absolutely. My pleasure. Sumi Das: For Smart Planet, I'm Sumi Das.

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