It is starting to seem like there’s a startup providing subscription delivery services for just about everything: Razors, snacks, kids items, makeup, underwear, DIY craft tools, even condoms and sex toys. Some of these things are necessities, but many of them are not exactly must-haves — but still, people are loving the monthly subscription e-commerce model.
The newest entrant in this space is Juniper, a startup that is providing monthly deliveries of items that a huge segment of the population absolutely needs on a monthly basis: Tampons and sanitary napkins.
It’s a topic that always makes people blush a bit, so Juniper’s business model sounds funny at first, but when you start to think about it, it makes a lot of sense. The vast majority of adult women out there need these items once a month, but shopping for them is always a chore and potentially embarrassing — you never want to run into, say, a professional acquaintance while you’re buying a box of maximum absorbency Tampax and a giant bag of Peanut M&Ms at Walgreen’s.
So Juniper handles it all for you. For $28, every 28 days (or longer or shorter, depending on personal preference) Juniper sends the tampons of your choice in a discreet box along with a handful of pads and pantiliners and a curated selection of goodies such as chocolate, tea, and sweets. As with all subscription e-commerce startups, the tech angle here is Juniper’s data and inventory management and the level of personalization it provides to each user.
Juniper, which is based in San Francisco and currently bootstrapped with a staff of three, just launched last week. Co-founder and CEO Lynn Tao stopped by TechCrunch TV to talk to us a bit about the company and show us a Juniper Box in person. Watch the video above to hear about where the concept for Juniper came from and how the company plans to grow in the months ahead.