Co-Founder and CEO | Gentleman’s Box, Farmington Hills | Employees: 4 |
Subscribers: 4,000 | Oakland University
Based on the notion “most men hate to shop,” Christopher George and John Haji created the Gentleman’s Box, a high-end subscription service that caters to men, and delivers them grooming products, style advice, and fashion essentials on a monthly basis.
“As a busy man myself, I never had time to shop and I never got to see what new fashion items were available to me,” says George, CEO. “The Gentleman’s Box brings the latest fashion and accessories to your door each month along with the latest issue of GQ magazine.”
A recent box, based on a tribute to golfing great Arnold Palmer, contained a pair of argyle socks, silver-plated golf cufflinks, a flask, GQ magazine, a face moisturizer for men, half and half (lemonade/iced tea) Arnold Palmer mix, and a one-year subscription to Golf Digest magazine. George says each box subscription is $25 per month ($33 international); however, buying an annual subscription will get you one month free. He says the value of each box is $75.
George, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills, was 21 when he started his first business, Echo Management Services, a collection agency in Warren that he still operates. In 2012, he launched his first online business, K&G Wholesale, a harbinger to Gentleman’s Box.
Since it launched last November, the company has attracted more than 4,000 subscribers, and is on pace to do more than $1 million in revenue in its first year. George says the goal is to reach 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year, and 100,000 at the end of 2016. Although most subscribers are in the U.S., George says the company has customers in 40 countries; the majority of those are in Canada and the U.K.
His advice to young entrepreneurs: “Always choose what you love doing. Don’t do something just for a paycheck.”
