As a single mother of 3 children, Melissa Kieling rose from trial and tribulation into a successful entrepreneur with her creation of PackIt. Today, Melissa sits as the Founder of PackIt — A consumer product company that provides proprietary cooling lunch boxes & corporate supply chain cooling products. Things didn’t start off that way for the now successful entrepreneur. We sat down with Melissa to learn more about her journey and rise to success from zero to hero.
Humble Beginnings
Struggling to make ends meet, Melissa was frantic for hope financially for the future of her family. One morning while packing lunch for her children, all of whom were in grade school at the time, Melissa discovered the idea that would later on turn into PackIt. Kieling had identified a need that not only she had, but one she knew existed across the marketplace. That need was keeping lunches cool, something she quickly realized could turn into an amazing idea for a consumer product. Quickly, Melissa began building prototypes of her idea for a liner concealed lunch bag that would stay cool. The innovative entrepreneur managed to create the initial product at home, using DIY products.
Big Box Retailers & Go To Market Strategy
The early days of PackIt for Melissa were very stressful, and questions quickly arose, how will the product sell in the marketplace and what route for the product would work? Through hard work and determination, Melissa lined up a meeting with big box retailer Target. Unfortunately, the retailer ended up passing on Melissa, fortunately she kept on. Melissa soon realized that infomercials could be a route that would allow the product to get mass exposure and would be a tall tale sign of how large the need in the marketplace would end up being for PackIt. This option turned out to be a fruitful decision as the company was able to increase revenue from $150,000 to just under $7,000,000 in one year. Shortly after, with the continued success in infomercial sales, retailers finally started to offer retail product listings for PackIt — with the first one being Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
Success & Future Growth For PackIt
Today Melissa is grateful for the opportunity and execution of the organization’s growth in the marketplace. This growth has allowed her to take care of her family in the process and build success through the risk she took on in the pursuit of the American dream. Thanks to her courageous efforts and talent, Melissa was able to accomplish this fate. Now that the dust has settled from the initial plans that the organization had, there is no plan of slowing down. The company has begun the next phase of expansion, a commercial pilot with Kroger for their consumer supply chain cooling needs. With a new vertical expansion and continued consumer retail success through horizontal product expansion, PackIt will continue to pave the way. — To learn more about PackIt, click here.
