Monday, October 21, 2019
Interview with Neal Pecchenino, Boxi: Turning Blank Trunks Into Moving Ads
Neal Pecchenino, the founder and CEO of Boxi, while trying to advertise the brand of a company he was working for--how do you reach a lot of people with a branding campaign, affordably? Then he noticed all of the big, blank delivery and shipping trucks around him. We talked with Neal about how he figured out how to wrap those otherwise blank and empty trucks with ads, to help advertisers such as Ring, Mercury Insurance, MedMen, and others to run their marketing campaigns through a growing network of independent truck owners. We spoke with Neal about the startup.
What is Boxi?
Neal Pecchenino: We are the largest truck advertising company in the country. Boxi is a company that works directly with delivery trucks already on the roads, which are already driving routes in neighborhoods and parts of the city, dropping off freight. They're already moving products from A to B, and we leverage the blank spaces on those trucks, by wrapping them with advertisements. The clients we have are targeting the areas those trucks are already servicing. We're talking advantage of the cool trends in the industry, and over the last four or five years, such as next-day delivery and second-day delivery of products, stuff that is moving around already, and are riding that wave, which is just getting bigger.
How did you figure out there were all these trucks that you could put your advertisements on?
Neal Pecchenino: I starte seeing a lot of them, as I became aware of the spaces and things around me while I was running a prior company of mine, in consumer electroincs. We were spending a small fortune, $30 to $40 grand a month, on digital advertising, on Google, Facebook, and other companies, all trying to build our brand. We just couldn't move the needle with that spend, and that spend was significant. So, we started looking at advertising campaigns and billboards, but we never could really bite the bullet on something that big. In a market like Los Angeles, it's just too expensive and too cost prohibitive. We even got some quotes on digital billboard trucks, and static trucks, which just drive around in a circle with your ad on it. At the same time I was getting those quotes, two and a half years ago, I was driving home, and I started noticing all of this blank box trucks. It got me thinking—shoot, I keep seeing that same truck every day, and that same driver, who is dropping stuff off for me. Why don't I put an ad on that truck? That was the beginning of it. I spent a lot of time answering all the critical questions and building out a business model, and putting together a proof-of-concept, and testing it, and now we're here today a couple of years after, and we're the biggest company in the country doing something like this.
How did you decide this was worth creating a company out of the idea?
Neal Pecchenino: Frankly, I have always wanted to run my own show. I had been at USC, at the Etnrepreneurship program. I was born and was raised in California, in Central California, and came down here for USC and never left. From those classes, I had always wanted to come and run an organization and a company, and wanted to found something, and do something really new and innovative, and create new value that just didn't exist. At the time, I was running this other company, and it was failing. We just couldn't justify running the company for a whole lot longer. It was becoming pretty clear the picture would either me finding another job, working for someone for less, or start something up on my own. I was able to take the risk, and take a chance on this, and actually spent about sixty percent of the money I had saved up until now, which was pretty significant. It wasn't a lot of money when you think about it now, but it was significant to me, putting all of my money on the line and starting this company.
You've got some pretty high profile customers—how did you get them to sign up in such a short time?
Neal Pecchenino: All of our clients are local. It's really a Southern California, tech advertising story. There's a great story on our how I got our very first client. When I first started the company, I spent my own money to produce ads for a few companies. I had to do that, to get it going, so we could getsome great content, including pictures and videos, of actual trucks. Who is going to buy something if you can't show them a picture or a website or a video? So, I went to two companies, which were wlaking distance from me in my one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica. One was Santa Monica Brew Works, which was the first company I called on. They're a local brewery, the only brewery on the Westwide. I told them, I'm launching this truck advertising company, you should buy our advertising. Eventually, I offered them a free month on a truck, I just need permission to use your logo. I told them, let me run a campaign for you, and show you what it looks like, and they agreed. We created the artwork and wrapped the truck with that artwork, and it was awesome. When we presented our trucks to Santa Monica Brew Works, they loved it so much, they effectively signed up for a campaign, and boom, our first truck was sold. That was almost exactly two years ago.
The second group was a company called Ring. They're a big company, but I could still walk over to them. I managed to get one guy's email, and kept hounding him for contact with the Chief Marketing Officer at Ring. I wrote the emai of my life, asking him if he wanted to run a free campaign on a truck. And, to my shock, he actually let me do it. A billion dollar company let us use their brand on an untested advertising system. So, we did the trucks, and got the best photos and video content we could have asked for. It's so good, we still use some of it today. When we pulled up to Ring, they loved it, but like a lot of things in big companies, it fizzled and died. Part of that, was because we just couldn't get to the CEO, Jamie. I had already spent all this money and investment, but he had never seen the truck in person. I knew I had to get him to see the truck, so I kept on bringing it back to their offices. Not twice, but three times, and parked it in front of Ring and kept on honking the phone until we got the CMO to agree to put a letter I had written to Jamie on his desk, basically say meet me, just give me five minutes! Luckily, that managed to get Jamie's assistant to put a meeting on his calendar, and a brought back the struck for the fourth time, and he loved it, and it turned into a total Shark Tank pitch. They signed on for a fairly large, long campaign, and that was our launch. They basically created a company changing trajectory for our business, and gave us the runway to go to the next step. That was October 2, 2017, which also was my birthday, and that was the best birthday present I have ever received.
What has been the hardest challenge of getting the company going?
Neal Pecchenino: I have to say, when you are sitting in your one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, and looking at your bank account, which is draining because you're spending money on developing some aspect of your business, not knowing whether or not it's going to work, that's definitely the biggest challenge in starting a business. That's true especially if you're bootstrapping, and it's not someone else' money, but it's your own. The uncertainty, and questions that consume your every thought and every moment of your day is a lot to take on. That's why most businesses never get past go, because most founders can't get answers to their own questions, and don't have enough faith to push things through. At the earliest stage, that was the big challenge. Ever since then, the challenge has been production, which is not easy. We're wrapping and launching trucks all over the country now, all over the place, with big campaigns, which can be expensive and very challenging to coordinate, even if you're good at it. Scaling that is now the big challenge.
How do you take on that scaling, and what strategy has worked so far?
Neal Pecchenino: What's so cool about our business, is we are at the point where we have such a resource base of trucks in our network, it's a lot easier to launch today. Earlier on, we literally would go to each market and drop it like soldiers behind enemy lines, and try to make it happen. We'd take our rental car and find what we need, meet with the right people, and find trucks. Now, we have a network so large it's just a couple of phone calls away. That's cool. Lots of people wouldn't even take on this business, because they are so many parts to it and how it's hard to get going correctly without all hands on deck, which is why it's so hard.
So, did you fully bootstrapped this business, or have you raised funds for this now?
Neil Pecchenino: It's fully bootstrapped. There's not even a dime in this from mom and dad, it's all been my own. The decision was, if this could be done without raising money, it should be done without raising money, which has been my approach from the beginning. I have worked for companies have raised money, and it's interesting that you often spend more time and money raising money, than actually operating your business and growing the business. That said, I am not opposed to raising money at a later point, now that we're doing well, as long as it's healthy. It's been orgnic growth, and sustainable growth, and it's really quite good that we're structured they way we are. Had we taken money, especially early on as we developed the product, I don't think we'd been where we are today. Now, we don't have to answer to anyone, and we can do things for our clients that we otherwise wouldn't be able to, and to take approaches we couldn't if we had to ask a board to give us permission to do. We're proudly focused on our clients, and ensuring that they love our campaigns.
Thanks!