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How I Built This with Guy Raz
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Advice Line with Chieh Huang of Boxed

April 16, 2026 • 51m

Summary

⏱️ 10 min read

Overview

On this episode of the Advice Line, host Guy Raz teams up with Che Wang, co-founder of Boxed, to help three entrepreneurs tackle challenges in scaling their businesses. They advise Alec on growing his natural skincare brand Surfing Cow, Jessica on expanding her equine products company Tail Cinch, and Eli on scaling his anti-inflammatory coffee brand Macor Coffee. The conversation spans manufacturing partnerships, distribution strategies, and balancing growth with authenticity.

Che Wang's Journey: From Boxed Success to Bankruptcy and Beyond

Che Wang reflects on his decade-long journey with Boxed, the online bulk retailer he co-founded in 2013. Despite achieving remarkable success and going public in 2021, the company faced bankruptcy by 2023 due to macroeconomic challenges and market pressures. Wang shares how this experience, while traumatic, was ultimately valuable and shaped his next venture. He now co-founded Pelgo with Frank D'Souza, focusing on AI-driven outplacement services to help workers transition to new jobs more affordably.

  • Boxed went public in 2021 but filed for bankruptcy in 2023 after pandemic-related challenges
  • The company still had almost $20 million in cash when they decided to sell the software business to BlackRock
  • Wang joined the World Economic Forum after Boxed, gaining global perspective that helped incubate his next idea
  • Pelgo offers affordable outplacement services for workers displaced by AI, costing a fraction of traditional services
" If we had a time machine and we traveled back to my parents' garage and we told that person that story about what will happen in the next 10 years of our journey and my life, I would say sign me up now because the people I've met, the people we've helped, the things I've learned, I just wouldn't trade it for the world. "
" My stress is up 100%, but my happiness is up 500%. So it's a fair trade. "

Surfing Cow: Scaling a Beef Tallow Skincare Brand

Alec from Cardiff-by-the-Sea discusses his natural skincare brand Surfing Cow, which uses beef tallow as a primary ingredient in sunscreen and moisturizer products. Starting in January 2024 with just kitchen production, he's on track to hit $220,000-250,000 in sales for 2025, up from $74,000 last year. As a solopreneur still making everything at home, Alec faces the critical challenge of scaling production while maintaining the authentic, transparent brand identity customers love. His radical transparency approach includes publishing actual costs and production details on his website.

  • Surfing Cow launched in April 2024 and did $74,000 in sales the first year, projected to do $220,000-250,000 in 2025
  • Recent surge in demand with sales reaching $20,000-25,000 per day in March 2025
  • Alec still makes all products himself at home and personally writes thank you notes for every order
  • Sunscreen as OTC drug could cost $50,000-80,000 per SKU and take 9-12 months for FDA approval
" I'm looking at this website and how you're this radical transparency ethos that you espouse, it doesn't shock me that people are giving it a try. I mean, you even put up your actual fixed cost. It's like how much LLC filing has cost you. It's pretty wild, man. You're the Bridgewater Associates of the beach. "
" Every single successful consumer brand that Guy has had on the show has been in your stage and has had a co-man bet on them. "
" I think it's okay to take outside capital because most businesses, the end result and the quote unquote end result for the founder, most businesses are quite binary. Like meaning that this is going to be really big, like we're going to see Surfing Cow and Sephora and Whole Foods and everywhere over the next five, 10 years, or we're going to see it nowhere. "

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