http://www.snacknation.com/

 We've all had that experience. Feeling a sudden drop in sugar levels during an intense meeting or working to meet a deadline. Whenever I feel that low-sugar signal, I head towards the hub. When I am faced with the hub with no snacks left for me, I feel a wave of sadness and maybe, sometimes, even anger (?). But to be fair, it probably is a trivial chore to have to regularly stack snacks for employees. Hence, a startup to do that chore for the company! Just choose company size and frequency of delivery, and SnackNation will deliver a various range of snacks. It took less than 2 years after being founded in 2014 when the LA-based startup became a hugely successful company, recording 4.7 million dollars (about 5.3 billion Korean won) in sales with two-digit monthly growth rate.

 SnackNation pursues the values of convenience, cost saving, and a selection of diverse and healthy snacks. Companies can purchase snacks with about 40% reduction in costs once they subscribe for the service. SnackNation carefully selects healthy snacks that are low in sugar, sodium and gluten levels. SnackNation also makes recommendations on new snacks, providing the fun of trying out new tastes. At the same time, they analyze (?) the snacks that are not popular and make changes for the next delivery.

 Now, at this point, some of you may be thinking that this is not a story of a startup you were expecting. You may have been expecting a story of some sort of innovation. When we say 'startup,' most of us would think of an IT startup that grew based on some type of cutting-edge technology. (In fact, it's true that when the term 'startup' was first coined, it was mainly used to describe IT companies). But this column will be sharing the stories of startups that started with something small and simple, much like SnackNation. The column will be 'selecting' and 'delivering' the stories of startups that are strong (somewhat recognized in the market) and quite like the fun snacks themselves (small and simple) just like how SnackNation 'selects' and 'delivers' fun and healthy snacks. A column for you to 'snack' on when you need to refresh.

 The theme of this first edition is #MassCustomization. The term 'Mass customization' was first coined by futurist Stanley Davis in his 1987 book Future Perfect. Mass customization combines the words 'mass' and 'customization', referring to mass production of customized products to meet individuals' diverse needs and expectations.

www.functionfobeauty.com

 The startup, function of beauty, was founded in the U.S. in end of 2015. It creates custom shampoos and conditioners for customers. The startup is valued at 120 billion Korean won with more than 13 billion Korean won in investments in only one year since it was founded (as per 2017). Imagine that! A company that sells only shampoo and conditioner – nothing special. function of beauty's awesome slogan represents the brand's spirit: Celebrate individuality. And the company's appealing products and services embody the essence of its slogan.

 The first thing that catches the eye when one visits the startup's website is the Hair Quiz. It is a set of questionnaire to discover the perfect formula for the individual customer.

 Click on Hair Quiz, and the first question you are asked to answer is whether your hair is straight or wavy, whether it's fine or coarse, and whether your scalp is dry or oily. I clicked on the types that best describe my hair profile - wavy, fine and normal.

 Next, I was asked to select hair goals. Further explanation was given for every box I clicked, which helped me better understand and choose what I look for in a shampoo. By checking each explanation one by one, I chose 'fix split ends' over 'deep condition' and also chose 'anti-frizz' and 'curl definition.' I found myself wanting to really make the purchase, feeling that the shampoo would really be able to solve problems I've had with managing my hair. It was too bad that the product is currently only sold within the U.S. market.

 Next step is choosing the color and fragrance of the shampoo and conditioner. You can even enter your name. Customers can choose different colors for shampoo and conditioner, or even select the option 'dye-free.' The details of designing a custom shampoo and conditioner, from choosing not just the fragrance but also the strength of that fragrance, was impressive. After entering your name, the chosen combination is saved, allowing you to make the same order the next time. Your name is printed on the bottle.

 As shown in the photo, function of beauty personalizes the shampoo and conditioner, and box by printing 'function of (name).' I couldn't have my name printed on a bottle myself (as it is not sold in Korea), but found that my name appeared on the title line of the website – all elements of a complete customizing brand.

 The names of the fragrances were interesting as well – all (you) calyptus, hibis (kiss), musk-have, peony tail, and feeling (f)ineapple. These names gave a sense of what the fragrances smelled like with a little twist of wit. Just like selecting the hair goals, an explanation appears for each fragrance chosen. But this time, the explanations are not in sentences. They are not pictures either, but rather curious-looking formulas.

 Just looking at the formula, it somehow feels like you can suddenly smell the fragrance, while on the other hand, quite puzzling to understand. I thought these 'fragrance formulas' were fun and smart at the same time. Interesting fact: the startup was founded by MIT-educated engineers. It is also the reason how the startup successfully mass-customized. The founders of function of beauty developed an algorithm to optimize materials and their amounts based on customers' answers to enable customizing. Based on this algorithm, they also created production equipment that automatically selects materials and their amounts to be placed into a container, according to the computer (talk about the power of engineering!). This technology is what allows for about 1.2 billion different combinations of shampoo production. It is reported that the startup has not repeated a same formulation so far.

 The final step is to choose the size of the shampoo and conditioner and the frequency of the delivery. You can choose to have the products sent once, or on a regular basis. Finally, your own custom shampoo is delivered to your home with free shipping. If customers feel that the shampoo is not a good match, they can return it and request for a new formula within 30 days from purchase, free of charge. Zahir Dossa, co-founder of function of beauty, explained that the business model came from an engineering idea. In an interview with Business Insider, Dossa said, "Engineers like us understand beauty with a different perspective. Everyone uses shampoo, but the beauty industry will never be able to satisfy every individual. That's where technology comes in. We considered everything – from deciding what ingredients to use and the mixing combination, depending on the individual customer, to production."

Blank Label : https://www.blanklabel.com/
Stripes : https://stripes.co.kr/

 The next two startups I'd like to share with you are startups that offer custom-made men's shirts. When it comes to men's shirts, customization is not a new concept. There already exists a market for high-end tailored suits. But there are startups that have brought the concept of 'mass produced' into custom-made shirts. Introducing the Boston-based company, Blank Label, and the Korean startup, Stripes. The two companies' business models are quite similar. There is a higher demand for customization for men's suits compared to other fashion clothing. It is also easier to standardize and modularize. These two startups modularized the shirts' design factors and measurements, allowing customers to choose for themselves.

 This is how Blank Label's customizing works: you enter measurements in the unit of 1/4 inches and choose design factors, such as color and sleeves. The customizer menu allows you to see changes you make applied to the picture of the shirt. You can try out different colors, change the material of the pocket, or choose different buttons.

 Stripes also offers similar options to choose from, but the illustrations are a bit more intuitive. When you click on a detail, a pop-up of an actual photo of the shirt and a brief explanation appears. Initially, Stripes also used to send a stylist to assess the measurements of customers (if requested) to design custom-made shirts. Currently, Stripes has its own size category based on online questionnaire called 'Smart Size.'

 To find your 'smart size', the questionnaire asks for your height, weight, the shirt size you would normally purchase, and if there were anything about a typical shirt that bothered you. After slightly pressuring (?) you to frankly answer questions about your weight and body shape (e.g. do you have a belly?), the website shows you a size and feature comparison against a typical off-the-rack shirt. Measurements of different parts of the shirt are diversified, offering 18 different types of the typical shirt size 100. Stripes offers a total of 90 different shirt sizes.

 The production process of the shirt still involves making each and every part of the shirt, except for the fabric-cutting process. Therefore, in the case of these two startups, it wouldn't have been too difficult to reach the stage of production, compared to function of beauty, which had to develop the entire production process. The two custom-made menswear startups also didn't start with a big innovative idea. But both had started with shirts and are now expanding into other menswear categories. After two years since its launch in 2013, Stripes recorded 5 billion Korean won in sales. It is now becoming a global company, opening offices in Singapore and Hong Kong through continued investments.

 Other than these startups, I found many other companies and brands with mass customizing as business models. Custom chocolate brand, chocri (https://www.chocri.de/), offers chocolate in different shapes and different toppings. Custom blended foundation brand, bearMinerals (https://www.bareminerals.com/new/made2fit/), creates the perfect foundation to match your skin measured through its app. Custom jewelry brand, Gemvara (https://www.gemvara.com/), allows customers to choose design factors of rings and necklaces. True Gault (https://www.truegault.com/) makes comfortable high heels, customized to each of your feet, based on 3D scanning. These companies, however, didn't make the cut to be included in the column. They started as 'startups,' but have been in the business for a long time or have been acquired by big companies, making them slightly unqualified to be called 'startups'.

 Matt Wilson of the online media Under30CEO explains that there are two major reasons for an increase in 'mass customization' startups. First, the close producer-consumer relationship enabled by the development of SNS sparked a spread of customizing products. Second, mass customization is a simple business model that can be adopted without a lot of capital because custom products can be made in small scale production after the order is in.

 This brings me to the end of the first edition of Snack Startup. I worried that this column might not be a refreshing story for fellow colleagues. I also regretted of having selected a difficult topic to write about. But I hope that this column may be an interesting column to you. Thank you.