NatureBox Hungry to be Next Billion-Dollar Food Brand
San Carlos, CA (PRWEB) September 17, 2013 -- NatureBox Inc., one of the fastest growing food brands in the country, today announced its board of directors and advisors, seasoned innovators who have built some of the most successful companies in the last decade. The board will help make NatureBox a household name—paving the way for NatureBox to bring its healthy and delicious snacks to millions of Americans.
NatureBox, founded just 18 months ago, is pioneering a direct-to-consumer model within the booming $64 billion snack industry. The company has created its own line of unique and exclusive snacks, each nutritionist-approved, which are delivered directly to customers’ door monthly. The company has raised over $10 million in less than a year to support growing from 50,000 NatureBoxes shipped last year to more than 1 million NatureBoxes projected in 2013, representing a 20x increase this year.
“Snackers across the country are enjoying our products and have made NatureBox one of the fastest growing food brands out there,” said Gautam Gupta, co-founder and CEO of NatureBox. “As such, we are excited to work with such an experienced and insightful group of visionaries who will help us make NatureBox a billion-dollar brand.”
The board represents a mixture of food and technology backgrounds as NatureBox aims to combine deep food and branding expertise with technology infrastructure. The diverse board of directors, who bring an array of retail, branding, entrepreneurial and e-commerce experience, include:
• Barry McCarthy—McCarthy most recently served as the chief financial officer of Netflix, the world’s leading streaming video company with over 20 million subscribers, where he was responsible for financial and legal affairs. Prior to joining Netflix, he spent six years as the senior vice president and chief financial officer at Music Choice, a music programming service distributed over direct broadcast satellite and cable systems. He currently serves on the boards of Chegg, Eventbrite and Wealthfront.
• Keith Belling—Co-founder and chief executive officer of popchips, the innovative popped snack company founded in 2007 to bring new flavor and innovation to the snack aisle, Belling has led the fast-growing line of snacks, which are now in over 30,000 retailers throughout North America and the U.K., and won awards and acclaim, including being named “One of America’s Hottest Brands” by Advertising Age. A serial entrepreneur, he has been involved in a number of established and emerging businesses, including co-founding and serving as president and founding-CEO of AllBusiness.com, one of the leading small business portals that was sold to the internet venture of NBC, JAMS/Endispute, the leading private alternative dispute company with offices throughout the U.S., Restoration Hardware, and Oh-La-La!, one of the first coffee-bar concepts launched in San Francisco.
• Neil Sequeira—As a General Catalyst Partners managing director and general partner, Sequeira invests in areas that include commerce, new media and software. He sits on a number of boards including Elemental, Flite, The Honest Company, Plum District and StyleSaint. Before joining General Catalyst Partners, Sequeira held various positions at AOL and Time Warner—most recently as managing director, technology for Time Warner Investments. His prior experience includes CMGI, Goldman Sachs, Accenture and Goldenvoice Presents.
• Gautam Gupta—Co-founder and chief executive officer of NatureBox, Gupta is a venture capitalist-turned-entrepreneur. Prior to launching NatureBox, Gupta was principal at General Catalyst Partners, where he focused on early-stage consumer investing and was actively involved with the firm’s investments in companies such as GoodData, Plum District, Bigcommerce, Shareaholic, The Honest Company and Friendbuy. Gupta began his career at Procter & Gamble, acquiring experience in brand strategy and consumer preferences.
• Ken Chen—Co-founder and chief marketing officer of NatureBox, Chen leads the company’s growth strategy. This is Chen’s third startup venture; prior to launching NatureBox, he served as founder and CEO of W Media, a pioneer and one of the largest players in the lead generation space, generating millions of leads in the insurance and education verticals. Before W Media, Chen was co-founder for Apartment Analytics, a real-time database that tracks rental, occupancy, and lease-up rates for 4.5 million apartment units across the United States. Chen began his career on Wall Street at JP Morgan.
In addition, NatureBox has selected three respected individuals to its board of advisors: Brian Lee, co-founder of The Honest Company, ShoeDazzle and LegalZoom; Anna Fieler, chief marketing officer of ItsOn, and former chief marketing officer of social shopping company Stella & Dot; and Bradford Oberwager, chief executive officer and chairman of Bare Snacks.
About NatureBox
Believing that everyone deserves wholesome and tasty snacks, NatureBox surprises and delights snackers with distinctive nutritionist-approved foods delivered right to their door. Offering more than 100 unique and delicious snacks, including sweet and nutty Pistachio Power Clusters, flax-infused Masa Crisps and soft-baked, handmade Blueberry Nom Noms, NatureBox uses carefully-sourced ingredients with distinct flavor combinations based on snackers’ needs. Earlier this year, NatureBox partnered with WhyHunger to help provide nutritious food to the millions of Americans who go hungry. For more information on NatureBox, visit http://www.NatureBox.com, Facebook, Twitter (@NatureBox) and Pinterest (@NatureBox).
Jenn Pansegrau, NatureBox, Inc., http://www.naturebox.com, 619-234-0345, [email protected]
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