How Birchbox Founders Cold-Emailed Their Way to Success

Of-the-month gift clubs have been popular for years, but it took two Harvard Business School entrepreneurs to one, make the concept cool and two, completely disrupt the online beauty industry in the process. After brainstorming over how to connect the world of e-commerce with the very personal realm of beauty shopping, classmates Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna came up with Birchbox. The duo launched the $10 monthly subscription service of personalized makeup products in September 2010, and debuted a men's version in April 2012.