Submit A Business Plan

Still Have Questions?

Have an early-stage concept that you would like us to look at? The more information you provide the better, and please take advantage of the option to upload additional documents and materials. Some suggestions include: business plan, financials, and/or executive summary.

We don’t sign confidentiality agreements, but please know we will keep your information confidential.

We look at every single entry – which is great, but also takes time. We will contact you as soon as we are able. Thanks for thinking of Sandbox!

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If you would like to stay updated on news from Sandbox and our portfolio companies, feel free to add your email address to our mailing list below. Newsletter updates are sent out on a quarterly basis.

Office Hours

Let’s Chat!

Entrepreneurs, technologists, hackers, marketers, students, and anyone else looking to chat: we’d love to meet you! Sandbox Office Hours is a chance for you to lead a conversation with us.

Have an idea you want to kick around? Looking to meet new people? Or just want to see what Sandbox is all about? Office Hours is a great way to have these casual conversations.

Office Hours are on the third Thursday of each month from 2pm – 5pm in our Chicago office.

Provide us with a brief idea of what you’re looking to get out of your office hours session and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible with a 20-30 minute potential Office Hours time slot. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Jobs

Let’s Get To Know Each Other

If you’re a driven, creative and entrepreneurially-minded professional, we’d love to get to know you. Please review the openings listed below and contact us if you’re interested in learning more.

All Current Openings

• Sandbox Industries Foundry Copywriter – Chicago
• doggyloot Communications Associate
• doggyloot Director of Operations
• Leading Rails Website doggyloot Hiring a Director of Technology
• doggyloot Part-Time Warehouse Assistant
• Lab42 Sales Executive
• CakeStylist
• Ruby Engineer / Technical Co-founder (SF and Chicago)

Sandbox Industries Foundry Copywriter – Chicago

Overview

Are you a quick, creative, versatile writer who can adapt to any tone or brand? Do you hate routines and love doing something different every day? Want to help establish the voices for new companies?

Then read on.

Sandbox Industries is looking for a talented copywriter to join its Foundry team in Chicago – a group of smart, creative folks who create and launch new startups. You’ll help brand-new companies write everything from ads and blog posts to newsletters and website copy. You’ll also be asked to proofread a range of documents, so attention to detail is a must.

Sandbox Industries is a startup foundry and venture capital firm that creates, invests in, and grows new businesses. We are located in the West Loop of Chicago.

Responsibilities

• You have a year or more of experience in copywriting and copyediting
• You’re a stickler for grammar and nothing escapes your red pen
• You can write in a variety of tones and styles – no two startups are the same!
• You have an entrepreneurial mindset and a passion for startups - maybe you've worked with one before
• You’re willing and able to help out with anything
• You’re a self-starter who can take initiative without constant direction
• You can write about anything, from pets and fashion to healthcare and market research
• You’re not looking for a typical 9-5 job
• Social media experience a plus
• Experience with WordPress, MailChimp, and PowerPoint a plus

About You

• Create content on-demand for the Foundry companies – blog posts, newsletters, website copy, ads, and more
• Proofread various documents for grammar, spelling, etc.
• Research the industries and target audiences you’re writing for
• Send out company newsletters quarterly
• Help maintain the Sandbox Industries website
• Assist with social media-related tasks as needed

Compensation

Competitive salary based on experience.

How to Apply

Please send an email to kassia@sandboxindustries.com with your resume, two to three writing samples (NO academic papers – in-school journalism-type assignments okay), and a brief email explaining why you’d be a good fit for Sandbox Industries.

***No recruiters, please***

doggyloot Communications Associate

Overview

Creative, flexible, and versatile Communications Associate needed to join doggyloot, the #1 flash sales site for dog owners. This is a great opportunity to gain experience with website production, account management, customer service, and content writing. You’ll work with a talented group of businesspeople and specialists to develop and grow our promising young company.

doggyloot is the leading website for the discovery of dog-related products and has hundreds of thousands of members that visit its website. doggyloot is a well-funded, VC-backed startup that was founded within the Startup Foundry at Sandbox Industries in early 2011.

The US pet product market is huge - over 46 million US households own a dog. There are actually more dogs (over 75 million) than children in the US. The size of the market for pet food and supplies is over $30 billion and has grown by over 200 percent the last 10 years. doggyloot is positioned to revolutionize the pet e-commerce space.

Responsibilities

• Customer service: make customers happy via email and phone by providing a “wow” experience
• Write product copy and build/send daily marketing emails; coordinate with designers and buying team to successfully execute complex weekly deal schedule
• Account management: coordinate with merchants/suppliers selling their products on doggyloot

About You

• You’re an effective communicator, whether over email, on the phone, or in person
• You thrive on deadlines
• You're detail-oriented
• You're a strong writer
• You're incredibly organized
• You're great with webapps
• You're a team player
• You have customer service experience
• You're comfortable occasionally working outside of 9am to 5pm
• You love startups - maybe you've interned or worked with one before
• You're a perfectionist and a grammar freak
• You're a self-starter who can work in a relatively unstructured environment
• You love dogs!

Bonus Points

You have photography and/or Photoshop experience

Compensation

Salary, potential equity participation, and full benefits including health, dental, vacation, and 401k.

How to Apply

Email communicationsjobs@doggyloot.com with your resume. Subject line: Communications Associate

Also, please include:

1. Sample deal text (choose an imaginary deal). Please see our website for examples.
2. A sample customer service response to these two emails:
1. “My order was supposed to ship three weeks ago but I have still have not received it – can you please update me on this situation?! Thanks, Cathy”
2. “My dog destroyed this toy in less than 10 minutes. I am not happy. What a waste of money! –Jodie”

doggyloot Director of Operations

Overview

Driven, organized, and experienced operations professional needed to join doggyloot, where we are revolutionizing the pet e-commerce space.

doggyloot is the leading website for the discovery of dog-related products and has hundreds of thousands of members that visit its website. doggyloot is a well-funded, VC-backed startup that was founded within the Startup Foundry at Sandbox Industries in early 2011.

The US pet product market is HUGE with over 46 million US households having a dog. There are actually more dogs (over 75 million) than children in the US. The size of the market for pet food and supplies is over $30 billion and has grown by over 200% the last ten years. doggyloot is positioned to revolutionize the pet e-commerce space.

We are looking for a versatile individual who can lead the scaling of our warehouse operations. Our growth in sales is not only providing interesting day-to-day operational challenges but in the coming months we will move into an exponentially larger warehouse facility and implement a new WMS. This is a phenomenal opportunity for the right person to get involved early and make your mark with a promising, funded startup with rapidly-growing revenue.

Responsibilities

• Lead all day-to-day warehouse operations
• Assist in creating and lead in the execution of a highly organized and efficiently designed warehouse (physically and technologically)
• Maximize order fulfillment speed and accuracy
• Grow our warehouse team
• Hire new team members
• Create and implement a new-hire training program
• Delegate and empower capable team members with the many growing warehouse responsibilities
• Promote and foster a detail-oriented, positive culture
• Manage all warehousing and fulfillment vendor relationships, maximizing price breaks and service levels
• Work with other units of the doggyloot team in optimizing cross-unit efficiency

About You

• You have 3+ years in warehouse supervisory experience
• Both internal and external team members greatly enjoy working with you and for you
• You are very detail-oriented and organized
• You are a problem-solver and pride yourself on bringing solutions to the table
• You are adept at managing several high-priority tasks at once
• You thrive in high-pressure, fast-paced environments and work with a sense of urgency
• You are data-driven and comfortable with numbers
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, v-lookups) are a plus
• A love of dogs is a big plus!

Compensation

doggyloot offers competitive salaries, equity participation, and full benefits, including health, dental, and vacation. We are conveniently located in the West Loop/Fulton Area near public transportation.

How to Apply

Our email is opsjobs@doggyloot.com. Send us your resume. Also, in a short email to us:

• Explain why you’re specifically interested in this position and doggyloot
• Provide us with a brief example of one of your warehouse optimization stories

***No recruiters, please.***

Leading Rails Website doggyloot Hiring a Director of Technology

Overview

Experienced Ruby on Rails engineer needed to join doggyloot, where we are revolutionizing the pet e-commerce space.

doggyloot is the leading website for the discovery of dog-related products and has hundreds of thousands of members that visit its website. doggyloot is a well-funded, VC-backed startup that was founded within the Startup Foundry at Sandbox Industries in early 2011.

The US pet product market is HUGE with over 46 million US households having a dog. There are actually more dogs (over 75 million) than children in the US. The size of the market for pet food and supplies is over $30 billion and has grown by over 200% the last ten years. doggyloot is positioned to revolutionize the pet e-commerce space.

Our small engineering team has already built an effective e-commerce platform but we plan to build even more impressive technology in the coming months and years. We need to scale our technology platform, build innovative consumer features and automate a lot of operational processes. This is a great opportunity to get involved early and make your mark with a promising, funded startup with rapidly-growing revenue and interesting technologies.

Responsibilities

• Act as the leader of the doggyloot technology organization, reporting to the CEO
• Lead development for our existing Ruby on Rails-based systems
• Lead technical decision-making, including technology platform selection and recruiting, hiring and managing the technical team
• Collaborate with other members of the leadership team on the business and technical strategy as well as the product roadmap
• Build a technology platform that can scale with our quickly-growing business
• Collaborate with team members about technical and business strategy
• Work with designers and other specialists on our team to create beautiful, functional web experiences

About You

• You have 5+ years experience working on a high-traffic Rails site
• You’ve managed a team of developers
• You’re comfortable working on any part of the development stack (server administration, Rails, MySQL/PostgreSQL, HTML/CSS, Javascript/jQuery, UI/UX)
• You have a passion for writing quality, test-driven code
• You’re familiar with the tools needed to scale a high-volume web stack (AWS, Heroku, etc.)
• You’ve created public GitHub projects, posted answers on Stack Overflow, contributed to open-source code, or created some hacks that you're proud of
• You’re comfortable being involved in the product development cycle
• You can clearly explain technical concepts and make decisions with non-technical team members
• A love for dogs is a plus

Compensation

doggyloot offers competitive salaries, equity and full benefits, including health, dental, and vacation. We are conveniently located in the West Loop/Fulton Area and near public transportation.

How to Apply

Our email is techjobs@doggyloot.com. Send us your résumé or LinkedIn profile, a link to your GitHub profile and/or personal website, and links to work you’ve created. No recruiters.

doggyloot Part-Time Warehouse Assistant

Overview

doggyloot is a fast-growing e-commerce company for people who love their dogs. We are looking for someone to help out in the day-to-day operations at our warehouse. We hope to find a driven individual who is outgoing and works well with others. We are looking for someone to start at 20 to 40 hours a week. Growth opportunities for high performers.

doggyloot is located in Chicago's West Loop.

Responsibilities

• Help pick & pack customers orders in a timely and efficient manner
• Aid in quarterly inventory counts
• General warehouse organization
• Get your hands dirty
• Be willing to contribute ideas for how to scale the operations side of our business as we continue to grow

About You

• Detail-oriented
• Able to be flexible with your work schedule
• Excited to work in a fun e-commerce startup environment
• You love dogs :)

How to Apply

Please reach out to us at warehousejobs@doggyloot.com.

Attach a resume, a description about yourself, and one to two sentences on why you think you would be a good fit for the company.

Lab42 Sales Executive

Overview

Lab42 is an innovative market research company that conducts surveys using social networks to (1) deliver quality insights rapidly (2) for a fraction of the price charged by traditional research solutions. We work hard and we work fast to make our clients happy, completing surveys within three to five business days. Some of our notable clients include Ogilvy, Redbox, Dave & Goliath, CarX, Time etc. We are looking to build our team of Sales Executives, who will continue to accelerate our client base.

Lab42 was founded within and is currently officed at the incubator at Sandbox Industries, located in the West Loop of Chicago. With our recent funding and continued market validation, this is an exciting time for Lab42 with many key initiatives underway. By taking advantage of this opportunity, you will be an integral part of team Lab42's success collaborating with talented professionals to take our company to the next level.

Experience and Skills:

• At least two years of sales experience; proven track record of maintaining and generating new sales relationships and generating repeat business
• Experience with business-to-business sales
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and a CRM system like Salesforce or Zoho
• Effective presentation creation and delivery, and confidence in speaking and leading meetings
• Ability to work both independently and in a team-oriented environment

Responsibilities

• Prospect, call, pursue, and foster consultative relationships with potential clients, specifically clients in Marketing and Advertising agencies as well as Consumer brands
• Build a healthy pipeline and grow client base to achieve and exceed monthly sales target
• Lead the cross-functional collaboration of internal teams based on client needs
• Identify and purse alternative industries for Lab42 business development
• Present yourself as an industry expert by developing industry intelligence by researching trends and best practices

About You

• You are self-motivated, self-sufficient, and assertive
• Rejection has never fazed you
• You enjoy working with people and people enjoy working with you
• You want to be a part of a startup that is going places

Bonus Points

• Experience selling to ad agencies and innovation consultancies
• Knowledge and familiarity of the market research industry
• Experience selling market research solutions

Compensation

Based on experience; components: base salary, commission, and benefits.

How to Apply

Please send your resume to us at jobs@lab42.com explaining your interest in Lab42 and the Sales Executive position.

CakeStylist

Overview

CakeStyle needs a driven and fashion-forward CakeStylist to join our team. As an early team member at our quickly growing startup, you’ll be responsible for interacting with clients and styling them in great outfits from top designers. CakeStyle helps busy women look great wherever they go by sending hand-picked boxes of clothing straight to their door. We just finished our first year of business, and we are now looking to grow our team to match our exciting customer growth. CakeStyle is venture-backed, and has raised $1M from the Sandbox Advantage Fund.

Responsibilities

• Help source new clients and encourage leads to receive boxes
• Streamline client intake and fulfillment processes
• Work with clients to develop their personal style and ensure a fabulous experience
• Style clients based on their fit and wardrobe needs, using CakeStyle’s inventory
• Create online style guides for your clients, to explain how to wear pieces
• Assist buying team with new inventory choices using client feedback
• Help wherever you’re needed; there’s lots of work and it’s a great way to learn the business

About You

• You have 3+ years retail experience, with a focus on high-touch client relationships
• You love helping people choose great outfits that make them feel amazing
• Customer experience is important to you; you’ll go the extra mile to make the client happy
• You are creative, flexible and adaptive
• You are a team player – you know when to lead and when to follow
• Retail experience preferably with female clientele at high-end boutique or department store
• Stylist experience preferred but not required

How to Apply

Our email is jobs@cakestyleme.com - send us your resume. In a short email to us, explain why you’re interested in this position at CakeStyle and show us one sample outfit that you’d give to a CakeStyle client. This position is located in Chicago, IL. *** No recruiters please. ***

Ruby Engineer / Technical Co-founder (SF and Chicago)

Overview

Openings in both SF and Chicago offices.

Independent and creative full-stack engineer needed to join the startup foundry team at Sandbox Industries. You'll have the opportunity to work with a talented group of business people and specialists to develop ideas, create prototypes, launch and grow web-based startups.

Your job will be to team up with one of our founders-in-residence to develop a prototype for a startup concept that we're exploring. You'll spend anywhere from a few weeks to a few months on this project, and if our initial tests go well and the startup receives additional funding from Sandbox, you'll have the option to join that team full-time, often as a lead engineer and founder (equity included!).

This is a great opportunity for a junior to mid-level engineer to receive exposure to a variety of startups at all stages, work with the full stack, learn new technologies and skills, contribute from technical and non-technical perspectives, and collaborate with our truly special foundry team.

Responsibilities

• Act as lead developer and technical co-founder on startups founded within Sandbox, taking startups from idea on a whiteboard, to working prototype, to (hopefully) successful, revenue-generating startup with our guidance, support and funding
• Collaborate with team members about technical and business strategy
• Work with designers and other specialists on our team to create beautiful, functional web experiences

About You

• 2-3+ years experience working on web-based projects, with exposure to the full stack
• You know Ruby, and ideally have at least some experience with Rails
• When you encounter a new problem, you can figure out a way to make it work
• You can clearly explain technical concepts and make decisions with non-technical team members
• You’re comfortable with Javascript
• You can complete basic server administration tasks
• Ideally, you’ve created a public GitHub project, posted answers on Stack Overflow, modified open-source code, or created some hacks that you're proud of

Compensation

Based on experience. Salary plus equity participation.

How to Apply

Our email is developer-jobs@sandboxindustries.com. Send us your resume and links to work you’ve created. Also, in a short email to us, please make one suggestion for any of our portfolio companies (could be an improvement to our existing website, or a general idea of something that could help bring one of our businesses to the next level). No recruiters.