BOXY's beginning

What started as a project for a Marketing Strategies for StartUps class, is now a growing company led by Hannah Ung, DMSB'23. At the end of the Summer 2021 course, Ung pitched BOXY to Professor Cheryl Mitteness and her peers, presenting it as an affordable, short-term storage solution. Inspired by the business course and fueled by encouraging feedback, she was excited to see where BOXY could go.  

Breaking out of the box

With the support of Northeastern's entrepreneurial ecosystem, Ung turned BOXY into a reality. In the Spring of 2022, she entered BOXY into Northeastern University's Husky Startup Challenge. The Husky Startup Challenge provides student entrepreneurs with the knowledge, resources, and mentorship needed for their early-stage startups. Every semester, student entrepreneurs attend bootcamps, spanning topics from ideation to prototyping, to build their own businesses. The program concludes with Demo Day, where student founders compete for cash prizes. [insert result from demo day] Ung credits the Husky Startup Challenge for encouraging her to go all in on BOXY, “I just knew that Boxy was something I really wanted to pursue full-time after attending my first session at the Husky Startup Challenge.”

In the fall of 2022, Ung embarked on her first pilot launch with the support of Northeastern's Women Who Empower Innovator Awards program, which provides funding to women entrepreneurs in the Northeastern community with promising start-ups. Ung won second place in the Undergraduate Women Innovator division and was awarded $10,000.

In the Fall of 2023, Ung was also awarded the Sherman Center's Venture Co-op. The Sherman Venture Co-op provides the utmost support to student entrepreneurs, affording them the opportunity to co-op at their own startup and get paid to do so. The program also provides student entrepreneurs with the funding to hire their first employees. During her Sherman Venture co-op, Ung was able to work with more than forty students to refine BOXY's market research, website development, advertising, and branding plan.

Earlier this year, Ung proudly turned her first profit for BOXY, which was impressively only one year into her pilot launch. Notably, entrepreneurs usually see their first profits within two to three years of business. 

On April 6th, Ung officially launched Boxy. The night was filled with celebration, excitement, and festivities. Some say it takes a village, but at Northeastern, we call it our entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

More in store(age)

While 2023 has been a busy year for Ung, her hard work does not go unnoticed. BostInno named Ung to the 25 under 25 list of 2022, published in 2023. Ung plans on working on BOXY full-time upon graduating this year and looks forward to what is in store for her and the BOXY team.