Today we’d like to introduce you to Ariana Soto.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ariana. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It’s actually a funny story. I was a senior at DePaul University where I was studying Public Relations and Advertising. I happened to be in class where a few classmates were talking about an internship opportunity at a new company called Pressbox. I overheard them saying to email “Vijen” and I quickly jotted down his email. I emailed him right away, interviewed, and beat several candidates to intern with Pressbox.
I was later offered a full-time position after I graduated in June of 2014, and began working full-time as a Brand Manager with Pressbox. I was mainly working on the customer service side of the business my first year and a half with the company, but as we grew and were able to expand our team, I transitioned into a new role – the Director of Marketing.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Working for a start-up has been a very humbling experience, and building a company is never a smooth road. You truly see the good, the bad, and the ugly when you join a start-up at its earliest phase. For example, when we opened our first public storefront in Lakeview, we were completing all of the back-end inventory of our small store. It felt great to see our store fill up with our blue laundry bags, but there were only four of us at the time and we were handling all of the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, and everything in-between among the four of us. Sometimes we would be working until 11pm inventorying orders or delivering orders to customers. On the plus side, we were able to make changes to our business quickly to eliminate some of the late nights, but there were definitely nights where all four of us had our sleeves rolled up.
There’s no road map for locker-based dry cleaning, so trying to find the best way to market our service and connect with our audience isn’t easy. At the beginning, social media was another struggle we faced. We weren’t sure if presence on social media was important for a company like ours. We kept asking ourselves, “Do people really go to Twitter and Facebook to find their dry cleaner, or do they really care to follow them?” This is something that we discussed for a long time, and I think we’ve finally come to realization that it is important. But, surprising to our initial hypothesis, we believe building a presence on LinkedIn can really help to grow Pressbox.
Full disclosure, there were some days when I seriously questioned if all of this hard work would pay off. However, when you get to see your hard work unfold in front of your eyes, whether it’s great customer feedback or a promotion that brought us 300+ orders in one day, it makes everything worth it. When I first started with Pressbox we had 25 locations around Chicago. We now have a team of over 25 people who have worked together to build Pressbox. We now have about 300 locations across three major cities.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Pressbox – what should we know?
The company was founded in 2013 by two University of Notre Dame grads, Vijen Patel and Drew McKenna (the greatest bosses you could ask for). We are trying to disrupt the dry cleaning industry by offering full-serviced dry cleaners through lockers, and placing the lockers at more convenient locations than a retail setting. Plus, we don’t pay rent or have to pay for on-site labor, which makes our business more sustainable in the long run.
From the customer perspective, customers approach a Pressbox locker 24/7, drop their clothes or shoes in a locker, and place an order by using our app. After cleaning, we deliver the order back to a locker, and send the customer a secure access code for the customer to retrieve their clothes 24/7. We have about 300 locations around Chicago and Washington D.C, and have recently expanded to Nashville, TN!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Being willing to work through the tough times without losing site of the potential that your company has. My strongest trait has always been having a positive attitude. With a startup, you have to be willing to wear many different hats and be someone that others can rely on, even for tasks that are outside of your job description. Sure, there are days that aren’t so fun, or days where you have had enough, but it’s worth it in the end when you see how far the company has come in a matter of 4 years and see the direct impact of your work. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1123 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
- Website: usepressbox.com
- Email: support@usepressbox.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/usepressbox/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/usepressbox
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/UsePressbox
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/3269327/
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