Entrepreneurship with a heart: Curated gifts with a special message

A fine box of tea, a jar of coffee or a bunch of pretty stationery make pretty gifts for your loved ones this year, but what if they came with a story of their own. Here’s how Pooja Goyal, founder of P.O. Box makes this kind of magic happen.

The P.O. Box collective is a limited edition collection of curated handpicked products, crafted by a community of artists, dreamers and innovators. Pooja Goyal, founder of The P.O. Box has always wanted to make gifting more meaningful and combine design with storytelling.

When she founded Vamos Digital to pursue her passion as a Brand Marketer, she laid the foundation for her next venture, The P.O. Box. She crafted brand and digital strategies for national and international brands and six months ago, she launched the P.O. Box for all her creative designs. She was recognized by NASCOMM and CMO Asia as one of the 2015 top social media entrepreneurs of the country.

In an exclusive interview with YS Weekender, Pooja speaks about the importance of curated gifts and her entrepreneurship journey

YSWeekender: Why are curated gifts so important nowadays?

Pooja Goyal: Gifting by itself, is a means to make someone feel a certain way. We gift to make people feel special. Gifts help us express our feelings and leave a lasting impression of our memories with them. I remember buying souvenirs from small communities during my travels to Europe because of the uniqueness of the products that the small stores offered. I wanted my friends to feel that they had received special and exclusive gifts.

Mass gifting choices usually take away from the essence of expression and the focus remains on the product more than the emotion. This is why we work with artists, designers, young brands and poets to collectively design a joyful experience too.

What are some of the most popular gifts that people like to give each other?

Products ranging from stationery, food and beverages to lifestyle products, depending on the theme of the curation are sought after.

YSW: Tell us about The P.O Box

PG: The P.O. Box is the creative wing of Vamos digital that designs collectives around collective curated experiences, stories and products designed to celebrate our deepest emotions. Every collective is crafted by a community of gifted artists, entrepreneurs, dreamers, designers and brands and caters to organisations, enterprises and individuals looking to deliver a message. My latest release - "Let's Get Lit!" was designed to capture our desire to get together and to share the joy of lighting up our lives with gratitude and hope. We work with enterprises who integrate our theme within their organisations and look forward to participating and delivering a positive change in our communities through our customers.

YSW: What is so special about The P. O. Box?

PG: I aim to help our customers stand out in a world full of mass produced products available at the tip of our fingers by researching brands, creating designs and bringing talented artists together. Time is invested in discovering products and strategies that stand as a true reflection of their core values.

YSW: Where do you find inspiration for your brand?

PG: My mother and my sister are artists and my father is an entrepreneur, therefore, my family is a huge source of inspiration for me. My brief stint at design school taught me how to give form to inspiration. Travels across India, California, South East Asia and Europe inspired me to bring together diverse perspectives. When I see happy clients live the experience that we carefully designed, it brings a lot of satisfaction. 

YSW: How do you do social work with your brand?

PG: I strongly believe that social work itself needs a professional well thought out sustainable approach. By identifying very gifted selfless individuals who are working tirelessly for social good and I enjoy spreading their word through our collections. For example, by productising a set of artwork postcards from a collective of transgender artists we aimed to support them too.

YSW: What are your plans for the future?

PG: I started with entrepreneurship because I wanted to design my life around what I enjoy doing. Our future plans involve discovering, understanding and promoting themes across India and internationally. Our focus will be on organisations looking at delivering change through newer mediums. We are evaluating travel, fitness and wellness for our future collections and plan to go international soon.

‍