Female Founders: Sarah Puil of BOXT On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Kristin Marquet

Speak up. This goes for individuals, parents, non-parents, teachers, kids, those in power and those without. Our voices are a powerful tool. We all need to start using our voices and speaking up for ourselves. Women need support, but we also need to be our own best allies. I’m speaking in terms of inequality and injustice, but I also mean in just regular life. We need to inculcate a culture of curiosity, of asking questions, of not being afraid to be wrong or make mistakes. Success is informed by failing. Sometimes a lot. We need to teach young people, especially girls, how to make mistakes, how to fail, how to get something wrong, how to break something and how to keep going, how to dive in and give 100% over and over again.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Puil.

Sarah Puil is the founder and CEO of BOXT, the female-founded, direct-to-consumer winery on a mission to disrupt the fine wine industry. Unlike a traditional bottle, BOXT remains fresh for up to 30 days after opening, and one BOXT contains the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine. The BOXT collection of six proprietary blends (three reds & three whites), and a limited edition rosé, are crafted in Napa, CA and available a la carte or via monthly membership-based subscription at www.drinkboxt.com.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My career started out in digital media at the New York Times Company. The connection between our services and our clients really clicked for me and I realized I wanted to explore not just digital, but the intersection of tech and media. That curiosity eventually led to my running global strategic partnerships for Apollo Education Group and that is where I got my first taste of the excitement and draw of entrepreneurship. While at Apollo, I developed and launched ‘Education Nation’, a five-year platform with NBC News that became one of the most impactful educational media events in the country. My next taste was as the senior vice president of product development at Strayer Education, where I created its first product innovation lab, focusing on employee development and new customer lead generation. My next leap took me to Civic Entertainment where I was again a senior vice president using my fluency in experiential marketing to develop growth strategies. This all set me up perfectly for taking the leap fully into being a founder. In 2019 I was named a Next Coast Ventures Entrepreneur in Residence and that’s where this new journey began.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Well, it’s really an interesting trend over several stories, but I’ll just use one example of something that keeps happening as I build this team. My mentor taught me that the power of people is everything; and to be willing to spend time with people, to get to know them and what matters most to them, and be open enough to let them learn what matters to me. He taught me that when there are mutually beneficial opportunities to collaborate or connect, incredible things can happen. Time and again, as we grow BOXT, people show up and we connect and they may not be right for one position in the company, but we stay connected, we keep talking and then something shifts and we can bring them on board in the perfect role. This just happened with a woman I met a couple of months ago. She originally applied for a branding position at BOXT. Someone else was a better fit, but she and I stayed in touch, we stayed connected, and just last week, we brought her on as our marketing project manager.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We didn’t pack the boxes well in the beginning, so when we first started shipping, we had some breakage. We went through four weeks of drop kicking boxes to test the best packing materials. It was comical. We tried every material you could imagine. We finally decided on biodegradable peanuts and sent our members a humorous, “pardon our peanuts” note with the new packaging. We felt proud of the peanuts until we had to start summer shipping. The ice packs we use to keep the wine at temperature melted the biodegradable peanuts for a few of our members and our gorgeous wine got delivered in a cocoon of cornstarch mush. But since we have such a close relationship with our members and have carried them along with us on this journey — its ups and downs — they had a sense of humor about it. Lucky for us, only a few people got the mush, so we just shipped them out a new one and learned a good lesson that’s always been my motto: these aren’t mistakes but the things we learn along the way. Everything is hard when it’s new until one day it’s not. Each of these micro moments of learning connect us to growth and the next thing and because of that they are impactful and powerful.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My personal mentor is Stedman Graham. We had the opportunity to work together back in 2010 when I was at the Apollo Education Group. We went on a 14-city tour to talk about jobs in the new economy, combined with career fairs across the country. It was during this time that he gave me some of the most impactful advice of my career. First was to meet people where they are. Second was, as a young executive with a lot of responsibility early on (I joined the executive team of a publicly traded company by 32), that if I put my head down and worked hard the work would speak for itself. We would meet for sushi and just talk about his passion — identity leadership — and where I was in my journey. Those conversations were everything. He taught me about leadership and nuanced lessons of personal responsibility and accountability. One of the big lessons I learned from him was deciding how I want to define myself and then being consistent. To this day my conversations with him are some of the most impactful in my life.

Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I think the Crunchbase article has taken some figures out of context. According to Forbes in April of this year, that number is 2.7%, and even according to one of the Crunchbase graphs, only 3% of female-only founding teams get venture capital funding. So there’s not nearly as much progress as there needs to be to see equity on the startup playing field.

I think there are several factors at play that hold women back from founding companies. But it starts early, with girls lacking the basic foundation of being told we can do it, the conditioning that there are set gender roles and that girls don’t belong at the top, including the startup table. Research shows us that as early as four years old, girls begin to notice the gender gap and become aware that they are not seen as equally capable or valuable as boys by any combination of parents, teachers, other mentor figures and society in general. There is also the larger issue of gender bias in education and the overarching cultural mores that hold women back.

But I already see ways in which we are changing that narrative — with a focus on STEM education for girls and young women. With people like Missy Park, whose company, Title Nine, recently contributed $1 million to the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team to help narrow the pay gap for the players. This made a bold statement about equity and the gender pay gap, but it also shows women standing up and using our voices to lift each other up, and setting examples that other women can look to and see the change — even imagine themselves as having equal opportunity and pay. Women speaking up for other women and sharing their experiences is part of the solution. Awareness and education are our best tools. I think for some of us, we have support and someone cheering us on and we really believe we can do anything, but for so many women that isn’t the case. What we need are more female role models, more supportive education for young girls and women, we just need to keep changing the narrative to one of empowerment and support for diversity of all types.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

One of my biggest passions is mentoring. It is one of the most valuable tools we have to both give and receive. I can see scalable models of mentoring implemented in families, communities, schools and universities, youth groups, social equity organizations and government. Mentorship is hands-on, it’s active, it’s personal. Lessons I’ve learned through mentoring and being mentored are some of the most impactful of my life.

I think we can keep striving for inclusion. Not just of women, but of all types of diversity and we need to start at the beginning, at home, with connection and conversations and support of all of our differences. That’s where it really begins for me. With inclusion and a willingness to assume different perspectives. To understand that a different perspective provides strength in a foundation.

I also support getting STEM into all of our schools. Not just to help young women and girls, but to help all kids have access to those subjects. You don’t need a background in STEM to be a founder, but studying those core subjects builds the critical thinking skills and the confidence needed to help young people, not just women, overcome the current obstacles women face. Because this isn’t about the exclusion of others for the betterment of women. We all need to lift each other up.

Speak up. This goes for individuals, parents, non-parents, teachers, kids, those in power and those without. Our voices are a powerful tool. We all need to start using our voices and speaking up for ourselves. Women need support, but we also need to be our own best allies. I’m speaking in terms of inequality and injustice, but I also mean in just regular life. We need to inculcate a culture of curiosity, of asking questions, of not being afraid to be wrong or make mistakes. Success is informed by failing. Sometimes a lot. We need to teach young people, especially girls, how to make mistakes, how to fail, how to get something wrong, how to break something and how to keep going, how to dive in and give 100% over and over again.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Just as with creating diversity in any sector, more viewpoints and more perspectives at the table raise everyone’s game. Look, men are great founders and when you bring women in, people of color, people with a wide range of backgrounds, you get stronger ideas, different ideas, stronger competition. It makes us all better and sharper leaders and innovators. Innovating in a bubble of similar perspectives is just limiting. Our success as founders can only be made stronger by including more diverse voices at the table. And in turn, that diversity makes for stronger leadership teams, stronger overall business cultures, stronger product ideas and a stronger connection to customer bases. It just makes better businesses. And listen, all that is true, and it’s also just really fun.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

That you have to be cut throat, obsessive, single minded in your goal. There has to be some amount of obsessiveness, but there also has to be the ability to continually refocus and reprioritize. It’s a myth that your whole life has to be dedicated to your work. I think that your entire being has to be dedicated, but I have a great relationship with my husband, my daughter, my friends. There has to be integration. I think there’s a belief that only a certain type of person is cut out to be a founder. It’s less about who a person is, than how committed they are willing to be. I think almost anyone can do it, but there are sacrifices, just like with anything. It just takes incredible tenacity, not taking no for an answer, perseverance, resilience, patience, the ability to tune out naysayers and the willingness to fail over and over and over again.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

I think just about anyone could be a founder, the question is, does someone really want to be a founder. It’s not a small undertaking. I think the most important thing is to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and get support for both. Look for people who are going to push you where you are strong and help you push your own boundaries, help you be even better than you can imagine and at the same time get people to help you where you’re not as effective or experienced. Some founders are great with people, great leaders, natural connectors and storytellers. Some founders are brilliant with the back-end engineering of their idea, but don’t do well selling it. The key for both of these types of founders is to always be searching for ways they can be better at what they are good at and to surround themselves with people who can see their vision and help them succeed. I said before people are everything and I mean it. Anyone who surrounds themselves with people who support them and want to see them grow and thrive, and who also gives back to others who are looking for support to grow and thrive, anyone who does that can be a founder. You need that, and a willingness to stick with it and give it everything you have. That’s a great litmus test for seeing someone’s founder potential: if someone isn’t willing to give 200%, day after day, for several years, doing all the tasks, even the thankless ones, or if they want to give large parts of their attention to many different things, they may not be successful as a founder. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Founders are visionaries, they see the 30,000-foot view and we need people who niche down and have a specific focus to help us get our ideas off the ground. So that might be something for people to think about: Do they naturally see the bigger picture or do they prefer to home in on singular subjects and get granular? That’s not to say someone who loves details can’t be a founder, like I said, I think anyone has the potential, it’s just what you do with that potential.

Based on your opinion and experience, What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

The unshakable belief that you can do anything.

My grandfather owned a hardware store in Cuba and my parents immigrated to the US before I was born. The cultural history of my family and their emigration from Cuba has shown me that.

Support from your family and friends.

BOXT started as an idea at a cafe in Paris and the first person I told was my husband who thought I was really on to something and told me to go for it. A few months later, I was telling my idea to a good friend and mentor while I was an entrepreneur in residence at Next Coast Ventures, and he said to me, “Stop thinking about new ideas. This is the idea. Move. Go.” You have to surround yourself with people who also believe you can do anything.

Be a mentor and have a mentor — or more than one.

I’ve already talked about one of my biggest mentors, Stedman Graham. He said to me once, “You don’t get to choose your mentors, mentors choose you.” For me the question became, “What’s the definition of a mentor?” I realized, it’s someone who truly makes time to coach and give feedback. A mentor can be anyone in your life, younger, older, different perspective, different career field. It’s like I was saying before. More perspectives make us better and stronger. Curiosity, people and listening is the key.

Be honest with yourself.

One major thing that has helped in my career has been simply showing up and genuinely being interested. Doing things I am interested in — and realizing when I am not interested and being able to let go or to say no. Two major intersections challenged me to my core — marriage and motherhood. I have an incredible and supportive husband and a very happy 4-year old daughter. But in the same way I realized that in my career, going all in was the only way to create the work life I wanted, the same goes for my family life and that is very hard. It is very hard to be 100% present in all the areas — and well, I am far from perfect, but juggling BOXT, my marriage and being a mother is starting to show me the way. Seeking balance is not really the solution, it’s really more a process of constantly being aware of what needs my attention the most, and making my decisions based on the best outcomes for everyone.

Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them and always get back up.

I tried on so many ideas while I was in the Next Coast program and none of them were quite right. There was pressure to create something incredible and each time my idea got shot down, I didn’t quit, I just went back to the drawing board. And with BOXT, there have been so many mistakes! We made the first BOXT and a handful broke during our first shipment. We knew we had to make the best impression possible — these were going out to founding members, investors, influencers — but it reinforced a valuable lesson for me, that mistakes are truly just opportunities if you see them that way. It gave us our first, under fire, opportunity to give over-the-top customer service and make it right for those customers. They appreciated our honesty and our transparency in fixing the problem and they are all still members today.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We’re part of the solution to making the wine industry more environmentally conscious. One BOXT equals four bottles and creates 50% less carbon footprint than just a single glass bottle. We plant a tree for every BOXT we make and our BOXT is 100% compostable with a refillable option coming out in 2022. We also offset our carbon footprint with Native.eco.

BOXT collaborates with other local-to-Austin women-led businesses, most recently raising money for Alzheimer’s research in partnership with Morgan Perry of @vinovinyasayoga and partnering with Inn Cahoots to supply showers and drinking water to Austinites in need during the snowstorms of February 2021. We are currently collaborating with Former Radio Disney Host, Alexa Curtis, to raise funds for POPS Clubs, an incredible organization working to bring after school projects to kids who have an incarcerated parent or loved one.

We’re also actively and intentionally part of the diversity and equity solution. Our c-suite and board is 45% female and POC, with a female CEO and founder, and our entire team is over 85% female, with 45% POC /minority identifying, 45% parents and 5% LGBTQ+.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be?

Exactly the movement I’m creating. On the outside, it looks like we’re just making wine in a pretty BOXT, but what we’re doing is so much more. We’re working to change exclusivity and language equity through the dynamic of wine. We’re not just educating people about why they like the wine they like, but how to talk about it in a way that is natural to them and that makes sense. In essence we’re helping people use their voice around personal preference and choice; showing them how to stand up for what they want and resonate with, instead of just going with what their partner or friend likes, or what’s trending.

And as I mentioned before, we’re working to change the environmental responsibility of the wine industry from the inside out. I sit on several wine-related boards and the conversation I push is about sustainability, climate change and how wineries and vineyards can contribute more to the solution.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

As the mom to a newly minted 4-year old, I’d love to have lunch with her every day to learn about what she is connecting with in the universe: her way of thinking and questioning has been one of the most incredible sources of exploration and learning for me. I can’t always have a full lunch, but I do take 30 minutes of uninterrupted time every day to pick her up from school at 1pm, with nothing else distracting me, and I talk to her and ask her questions and just listen. We connect and then I go back to my day. The nature of this business means a lot of wine tastings at night. So that time with her, it’s the time I can protect and it’s the most incredible and energizing experience. So, anyone one the planet? It’s the person I created that I want to hang with.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.