angus.todd

One day after seeing a moving company throw away cardboard boxes after unpacking them, Marty Metro was inspired to begin a business that connected people who had used boxes to people who needed boxes. In 2002 he left his job as an IT consultant and opened Boomerang Boxes, a retail store in L.A. that sold used boxes. Despite enthusiasm from many customers the company was loosing tens of thousands of dollars every month until Metro was $300,000 in debt. At this point Metro started working on the idea of selling boxes online and, in 2006 was given $300,000 by venture capitalists to develop an online business which Metro called UsedCardboardBoxes.com. In 2008 the company had 1 million dollars in sales and was faced with a supply lower than the demand. Metro used his IT expertise to develop a computer system that matched companies and people in need of boxes with people and companies trying to get rid of boxes. The company’s sales are now approximately $10 million and still growing fast.

UsedCardboardBoxes.com is extremely innovative and has, in a short frame of time, created large profits. Metro was able to take an object, cardboard boxes, and in a way never done before, turn them into a product out of which he was able to generate large profits.