For the past year, Silicon Valley’s geek-chic answer to Martha Stewart, Brit Morin, has been full speed ahead on Brit + Co., her tech-meets-fashion-media-and-lifestyle startup — raising $1.25 million, hiring 10 full-time staff (half of whom are engineers), cranking out two mobile apps, snagging big-name partnerships.
And the launches just keep coming. Last week, the San Francisco-based startup made its first move into the e-commerce space with the launch of Brit Kits, monthly deliveries of boxes full of materials for making the most popular DIY crafts and projects featured on Brit + Co.’s “creative living” editorial site.
In the same vein as Birchbox and the like, Brit Kits will be offered as a monthly subscription service that costs $19.99/month. The contents will vary pretty widely, as Morin says there will be kits “related to everything from home decor to food to fashion.” To get people fully prepped for the wide world of DIY, Brit + Co. is also selling a “starter kit” for $29.99, which contains basic crafting items such as an Xacto knife, a glue gun, and a hole punch.
Brit + Co. has pulled in revenue from day one through brand partnerships and sponsorships from companies such as Uniqlo. But opening up the e-commerce angle represents its first foray into making really scalable direct-to-consumer revenue. From the outset, I think it fills a nice niche in the very hot online subscription commerce sector, as it’s something that could appeal to teenaged girls and middle-aged women alike. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows going forward.
Meanwhile, Morin tells me that there is much “more to come” when it comes to commerce, and Brit + Co.’s expansion in general. Given what she’s built and shipped since launching the company just 10 months ago, I’d wager that there’s reason to believe her.
Last month TechCrunch TV sat down with Morin at Brit + Co.’s San Francisco headquarters, to talk about the company’s recent growth and to check out its newest native iPhone app. You can watch that interview in the video embedded below: