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Walter Oh loves how nuanced the Chinese phrase for business is.
Sheng yi, after all, has hints of “birth”, “growth”, “life”, “idea” and “meaning”.
In his case, giving up a promising banking career to co-found the BoxGreen food company has been meaningful and fulfilling in more ways than he bargained for.
What he and 35-year-old co-founder Andrew Lim envisioned as a snack subscription service in 2014 is now a thriving B-corp certified business using sustainable packaging, spending 60 percent of its expenses with local suppliers , packs its snacks for ex-offenders and has an open hiring policy, employing ex-drug addicts, single mothers, and people with special needs.
A B-corp company is one that uses business as a force for good.
The duo came up with the idea when they were managing partners at DBS Bank. Often pulling in long hours, they lamented the fact that healthy snacks were “unbelievably expensive” or not readily available and vending machines dispensed only “shitty things.”
Mr. Oh says, “My idea was that if we could get 1,000 subscribers to pay us $ 20 a month for a box of healthy snacks, we would do it.”
It wasn’t easy to give up the high four-figure salary she was earning then and the certainty of a much bigger paycheck in the future, but she didn’t want them to become golden wives.
To the anger and despair of his parents, real estate agents, he took the step. Mr. Oh, 33, who has an older sister, also became desperate on many occasions; it was a lot of sweat and tears for little or no salary for the first few years. But he also learned a lot, including how to launch, fundraise, manage people, and run a business.
“It’s been like a six-year MBA,” jokes the economics and business graduate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
On several occasions he thought of throwing in the towel. And once he was about to do it, but three aunts, whom he had hired as packers, stepped in to save the day. More on that later.
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This is the first in an eight-part series of interviews about social entrepreneurs who make a difference.
He says, “Everything we try to do for profit, the money never comes. But when we do something good, something better always comes along.”
A meaningful business, he says, is one that cares not only about customers, but also about its people and the world. Hence its motto: Snack Good, Do Good.
The team, supported by the DBS Foundation, which helps social enterprises grow, expanded to Malaysia and raised more than $ 1 million in two rounds of funding.
Turnover has doubled year-over-year for the past four years and exceeded one million dollars last year.
Today, BoxGreen supplies nearly 50 varieties of snacks, packaged at a facility in Changi, as well as cold-pressed juices to more than 500 businesses and 2,000 households. It also operates vending machines. It has a diverse team of more than 20 employees from diverse backgrounds.
“We don’t want to save the world. But as long as we improve some lives, we will be happy,” says Oh, who is married to a bank executive and has a three-year-old daughter.
“Some people interpret sheng yi as finding meaning in life. It is what I am experiencing right now. I am learning about life, both good and bad, and it is an education for life.”
To earn money as a student, you literally wiped someone’s butt every day. Tell us why and if cleaning your butt builds character.
I came across a job in college as a personal care assistant (PCA) for a fellow student with cerebral palsy and was intrigued by the role. He paid relatively well and I ended up helping him with his basic daily routines and personal hygiene.
Some of the tasks that PCAs can perform for a person with disabilities include helping them change clothes, brush their teeth and hair, exercise, and shop. It’s not just about cleaning the butt, but a lot of other interactions.
To be honest, I never thought much about it except that I could help someone and earn something extra. In retrospect, having different experiences and perspectives helped me frame my way of thinking about life.
Some may think that wiping butt is disgusting, but to me, I would never have met such a smart and genuine person as Patrick. We got together and I learned a lot, thanks to him. We would go to soccer games together, make cocktails in his room, and hang out with his friends.
You and your co-founder did it by working at DBS. So why give up selling walnuts?
One of the favorite lunchtime discussions among my friends was thinking about what we were going to do in our post-banking careers. Some wanted to go the traditional route: get an MBA and join a private equity firm. Others spoke of starting a business or taking time to travel.
Whatever it was, the consensus was to keep draining until enough money was accumulated. And that was true: every year, I was paid a little more and I worked a little less. The comfort it provided was addictive. I realized that the golden handcuffs are real. I ended up spending more every year as a way to validate time spent on a job that I felt was not cut out for. In the end, I felt bad complaining about my job but not having the guts to quit.
One day over lunch with Andrew, we decided to implement the idea of delivering healthy snacks. The original domain name was andrews nuts.com.
Did your parents threaten to disown you?
Initially they changed, but I think they always care about my best interests. Being business owners themselves, they felt the difficulty and risk of starting a business and had their reasons for doubting me when we started.
Good snack, do it right. From day one, did you want to do good?
I guess so, that’s why we started the “one box, one meal” initiative with Willing Hearts (charity and soup kitchen), where we donate a meal to those in need for every box of snacks we sell. We don’t just donate meals. We also help cook, pack and deliver meals at Willing Hearts. It’s great for team building.
Tell us about the three aunts you hired as packers, but who ultimately played a critical role in where you are today.
Within a few years of starting the business, we began to wonder if what we were doing was sustainable. We were acquiring customers in a very aggressive way, like offering a free box for every two boxes ordered, but it was a negative economy.
There were other problems and we were tired. All three aunts have been with us since the beginning, so I found them alternative employment in a place that actually paid more. I even took them there. They thought about it, but they told me they didn’t want the job.
The next day one of them offered us some funds to help us set up a proper facility. That was a turning point and although our business always had the element of “doing good”, we decided that it had to focus on a social mission.
Today, the three aunts are shareholders and also supervisors in our packing plant.
Who or what else has inspired you to stay the course?
People who have joined the business as employees or partners in one way or another. They have chosen to trust us and give us their nine-to-five schedule every day for the past five years to work on this dream.
Stubbornness, strategy, stupidity or serendipity? Who is responsible for the success of BoxGreen?
A better word for stupid could be naivety and with that, a mix of serendipity. We keep learning new things (and making mistakes) every day and we have great people who believe that selling nuts can change the world.
Do you think you have a messiah complex? Do you think you are saving the world?
No way. I don’t pretend to know everything … but I believe that I am in control of my actions and that they can be used in a force for good.
Knowing what you are doing now, what would you say to Walter Oh in 2014, when you were about to quit your job?
It will not be as easy as I imagined. You can probably achieve what you set out to do in half the time if you learn to let go earlier and move on when you realize you made a bad decision.
Entrepreneur, husband, son: what role is the most difficult?
You missed dad. I would say father and son.
Being a parent helps put things in perspective: that you live life only once and time doesn’t go back. Seeing my daughter grow up is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It is also harder to be a parent because there is guilt that you will never be able to spend enough time with him because of all your other commitments.
Now I realize how much my parents have sacrificed for me to become who I am, so yes, I am still learning how to be a better father and son.
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