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How I Built This with Guy Raz

How I Built Resilience: Sandra Oh Lin of KiwiCo

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.831.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

KiwiCo delivers science and arts projects to kids on a monthly basis. Sandra Oh Lin founded the company nine years ago, and her team has scrambled to meet demand during the pandemic. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

0:07.0

Download the app today.

0:09.0

New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

0:13.0

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

0:17.0

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

0:24.0

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

0:27.0

Hey everyone, welcome to how I built this resilience edition.

0:32.0

On these episodes, we talk with entrepreneurs and other business leaders about how they're coping during this very challenging time.

0:40.0

And today, we're going to hear from Sandra O'Linn, the founder and CEO of KiwiCo.

0:45.0

KiwiCo makes arts and science projects for kids and ships them out in monthly subscription boxes or crates.

0:52.0

In March, when students began learning from home, Sandra's company saw a spike in orders, and it's now shipped over 20 million boxes around the world.

1:02.0

I spoke with Sandra from her home in the Bay Area, where she's trying to keep up with demand.

1:07.0

Tell us a little bit more about KiwiCo, for people who don't know what you do tell us about your company.

1:13.0

Yeah, so we design and we deliver hands-on experiences for kids, kids of all ages.

1:20.0

So we have different types of experiences and products that we develop for newborns and infants all the way through to kids at heart.

1:30.0

So teens and even grown-ups.

1:32.0

And these hands-on experiences, they range.

1:35.0

So science experiments, games that kids make and play, projects that encourage imaginative play.

1:40.0

And they're all centered around this idea of how can we encourage kids to see themselves as makers?

1:46.0

And I think the best-known product is the KiwiCrate. And inside, you get pipe cleaners and different, you know, like styrofoam balls.

1:56.0

And I think that's probably the best-known product that you guys make, right? The KiwiCrate.

2:00.0

Yeah, I mean, that's our flagship line. So KiwiCrate is geared for early elementary age kids, so ages 5 to 8.

...

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