Max, an 8-year-old from West LA has taken an early step toward becoming an entrepreneur. He and his mother, Jacki, have created a new subscription box startup called The Top Secret Science Club.
The monthly box is curated by the mother-son duo and leads its customers through a story to learn more about science and history. Each box includes a book, a science mission to solve, and three to five hands-on science experiments. And for every one year subscription purchased, a box is sent to a less fortunate child.
“I subscribe to a couple of other boxes and they were about geography, science and arts and crafts but none of them let me play along or pretend,” said Max. “So I asked my mom if I could make a dinosaur box. But then we decided to do all kinds of science to make it more fun for kids. I also heard about Toms Shoes' one-for-one, where every pair of shoes you buy you donate a pair to a kid in need. I wanted to do our own program like that so that all kids can learn to love science.”
The linear story follows cartoon versions of Max and his younger sister, Grace. The two discover a hidden time machine built by their grandfather, Pampa, that lets them meet the likes of Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and Mary Anning, the first female paleontologist, all of whom teach them important science lessons as they try to solve a mystery. In real life, Pampa (Jacki’s father) was a rocket scientist for NASA.
“Each box contains a story and that’s what makes it a little different,” Jacki said. “There are other science boxes out there but, with those boxes, one month you make crystals and the next you make a catapult. There’s nothing that links them together.”
The Top Secret Science Club has sent out 40 test boxes so far to family and friends, but plans to launch in the coming months. Unlike other monthly subscription boxes, The T.S.S.C sends each subscriber's boxes in the same sequence so everyone can experience the full story. Jacki and Max have crafted the first few boxes and are waiting on a response from their pre-launch users before shipping them on a large scale.
“My background is really on the digital, entrepreneurial and innovation side,” said Jacki, who has worked at LiveNation, Shopzilla, and most recently as the VP of Design and User Experience at
. “It’s just super fun to be able to actually do a hands on physical project and do it with my little boy!”
