I am beyond thrilled to reintroduce you to our company, Bold Reuse – a bigger and bolder vision for the future of reusable packaging. Before we go full-on into the future, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how we got here.
In June 2011, Laura Weiss launched GO Box with a few food carts and corporate clients in downtown Portland, OR Although the footprint was small, the system grew steadily. In 2017, Laura posted the business for sale on Facebook. I saw the post and, about a week later, reached out.
I formally acquired GO Box in June 2018 and started my life as an entreprenuer. The first sixteen months was the steepest learning curve I could have imagined but we found successfully locally, launching with New Seasons Market, and nationally, to support two reuse pilot programs based in New York City. Everything was going according to plan.
So well, in fact, that I signed a new lease on bigger washing facility and moved in on March 1, 2020. Little could I imagine that we would be closing down operations less than 30 days later. The whiplash was brutal. I spent three long, deeply fitful months wondering if GO Box – or reuse at all – could survive the test of a global pandemic.
To encourage myself to feel hopeful, I threw myself into a ten-week course on the circular economy called Linear to Circular, hosted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. I am so grateful for the learnings, perspectives and inspirations shared during the course.
Steadily, day after struggling day, I began to rebuild the business. And then, I landed two remarkable opportunities. The first was a new partnership with Imperfect Foods to support their reusable packaging program, which GO Box launched for the PNW market in January 2021. Then, in March, GO Box expanded to Seattle to support the Starbucks’ Borrow-A-Cup pilot.
In summer 2021, GO Box opened our flagship facility in Portland – an 8,000 sq ft reuse workshop that allowed us to scale our team and operations to process more reusable materials including glass, ceramic, aluminum, stainless steel and plastic products. By the start of the new year, we signed a partnership with Loop to support their first North American product launch with Kroger/Fred Meyer.
Soon after, I was introduced to Heather Watkins by a mentor, who suggested we may work well together. It was co-founder magic from our first conversation and Heather officially joined the GO Box team soon after. I cannot oversstate the significance of finding such a special fit in a co-founder. Not only did she have the professinal chops, having worked as the Head of Growth at Impossible Foods, but Heather’s deep passion for working on climate solutions was the infusion of energy GO Box needed to more boldly step into the future…
By July of this year, GO Box hit an important milestore of eliminating over 1 million single-use products through our reuse services. As Heather and I discussed how we’d grow to hit our next million, we made the decision to rebrand. We wanted to find a name and identity that better encompassed our shared vision for the company. We tossed around options, but nothing felt like a winner until Heather suggested Bold Reuse. Bold perfectly reflects our vibe, our vision, our process. Bold seeks to inspire others while continuing to inspire ourselves, too. Bold is exactly how we need to act to address our climate emergency.
And so, we are super proud and happy to reintroduce GO Box as Bold Reuse. We hope you like the name as much as we do and that you feel compelled to join our bold vision for the future of reusable packaging. Bold Reuse is soon to expand to new markets and launch exciting new partnerships, and we can’t wait to build a waste-free future together with our community.
My most heartfelt gratitude goes out to every single person that has supported me, Heather and the business to make it here today. To our team – Paul, Gloria, Killian, Alexandra, Adrienne, Anthony and Mya – we absolutely coudn’t do this without your hard work making reuse magic happen day in and day out. To our community of clients, subscribers, mentors and investors – thank you for your support, your trust, your committment to working on a solutions collaboratively. Thank you to my husband, for always having my back through the lows and the highs. And thank you to YOU, for being here and being a part of our journey.
Let’s be bold together,
Jocelyn Quarrell
CEO, Bold Reuse
August 2022
