College Junior Kaeya Majmundar pitches her product called BZ Box to the Sharks in the Shark Tank Season 5 Finale on May 16. BZ Box is a “patent pending, innovative, space-saving, and unique storage solution” that Kaeya created while still a student at Emory College.
She hasn’t come to market yet, but she’s won lots of contests: 1st Place in 2012 the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Elevator Pitch Competition, the CEO Peoples’ Choice Award Winner, and 3rd Place in the 2013 Charlotte Venture Challenge Student Business Competition. Clearly the young woman knows how to pitch her product!
What makes the BZ Box unique is the design. Unlike standard cardboard boxes, the BZ Box folds up without breaking down the box and quickly unfolds for re-use. Kaeya wanted to “figure out a way to create a new design for packing boxes, using origami. The idea was for the boxes to open up without assembly and to be reusable.” It’s sure to be a popular item with college students – who tend to pack up and move every few months, but moving companies would like them, too. There could also be some uses for companies who ship products.
My Take on BZ Box
I’m actually surprised nobody invented something like this before. It’s such a simple concept, but Kaeya thought it up first. I suppose I’d use these if they were available and I was in the market for a box; it’s just not something you think about until you need it. That’s the beauty of the product: it’s something everyone uses and there haven’t been a heck of a lot of innovations in cardboard boxes. I think it’s a product that would sell well in the packaging space. I am IN.
Do Sharks Pack Up an Investment?
Kaeya clearly has the stuff to impress the Sharks, who often invest in the entrepreneur as much as the product. I think she’ll come off well in front of the Sharks, but will they like her product? BZ Box has no sales yet, they don’t even have a website! On the company Facebook page, it says “coming soon to stores,” but it doesn’t say what stores. This usually isn’t the mark of someone who gets a deal, but I think Kaeya boxes up one of the Sharks.
There aren’t as many true start-ups on the show as there were in earlier seasons. Kaeya and her business are what a lot of fans think Shark Tank should be all about: smart entrepreneurs with good products and ideas who need a bit of money and advice to have their business explode. BZ Box fits that mold and its uniqueness ought to make for multiple offers.
Scrub Daddy Scratch-Free Sponge, $9.99, Amazon Scrub Daddy is probably the most successful product to come out of Shark Tank.Inventor Aaron Krause got a $200,000 investment in the smiley-faced. In exchange for the seven hundred thousand dollars, the Sharks would get a seventy percent stake in the Boogie Box Fitness DVD business. Dede Barbanti-Parra continues the presentation and states.
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5 investors took the plunge into the Shark Tank and walked away with some record breaking numbers for their idea.
Her Fashion Box founder Kath Purkis. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter
A failed fashion industry start-up that once scored a $200,000 deal on Shark Tank has been dealt a final blow after copping a massive fine for exploiting young workers.
Her Fashion Box and its sole director Kath Purkis have been fined a total of $329,133 by the Federal Circuit Court in Sydney for underpaying three workers more than $40,000 between 2013 and 2015.
The court found one was unlawfully classified as an “unpaid intern” when she was in fact a part-time employee. The graphic designer worked two days per week for nearly six months before receiving a one-off “Christmas bonus” of $1000.
Shark Tank Flower Box
The three workers, who were underpaid a total of $40,543 for their entitlements including minimum hourly rates, overtime, public holiday pay and annual leave between 2013 and 2015, have now been back paid in full.
Alice On Shark Tank
Her Fashion Box Pty Ltd has been fined $274,278 and Ms Purkis a further $54,855.
The company ceased trading in 2017 and has unsecured debts of $200,000. Ms Purkis told the court she had no income or property and is currently financially supported by her partner.
“There is no doubt that the penalties are substantial,” Judge Nicholas Manousaridis said on Thursday. “Unfortunately, the conduct constitutes serious and sustained contraventions of important provisions of the Fair Work Act.”
Judge Manousaridis said the underpayments were significant and deliberate and that Ms Purkis was aware she was not paying her workers the amounts they were entitled to. He said a substantial penalty was required as a deterrent for others.
“The penalty should be set at a level that, having regard to the other circumstances of the case, should signal to employers who might be tempted not to inquire into their legal obligations as employers or not to comply with their legal obligations, particularly in relation to inexperienced workers, that there is a significant risk of being exposed to the imposition of a pecuniary penalty if they are to succumb to such temptation,” Judge Manousaridis said.
Ms Purkis appeared on Shark Tank in 2016. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter
She scored a $200,000 investment for her business.Source:Supplied
She was a finalist in the 2015 Telstra Business Women Awards.Source:Supplied
The Fair Work Ombudsman commenced legal action in 2017. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter
The court found ‘serious and sustained contraventions’ of the law. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter
Ms Purkis was also fined for failing to produce documents. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter
The court found the “unpaid intern” was underpaid $6913. She gave evidence that by late 2014 she was running out of money and, expecting to begin full-time work with Her Fashion Box, resigned from her part-time waitressing job.
Another graphic designer was underpaid $15,511 over a period of two years of full-time work. That employee gave evidence that he struggled to afford basic living expenses and there were days he could not afford lunch and had to borrow money from his mother.
A third employee, a full-time brand partnerships manager, was underpaid a total of $18,119 over a 12-month period.
The court also found Her Fashion Box breached the law by failing to comply with four Notices to Produce documents or records issued by Fair Work inspectors, who investigated the company after receiving complaints from the young workers.
According to court documents, when contacted by Fair Work inspectors who asked her if she had ever heard of the Ombudsman before, Ms Purkis said she had done “a lot of reading … in particular in relation to internships”.
She later said she had “read about how (the FWO) speak to company owners and they get them to improve processes and different things like that” and that she had “read cases where people have said they were an intern and they weren’t an intern”.
The Fair Work Ombudsman commenced legal action in 2017.
“Business operators cannot avoid paying lawful entitlements to their employees simply by labelling them as interns,” Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said in a statement.
“Australia’s workplace laws are clear — if people are performing productive work for a company, they are legally entitled to be paid minimum award rates.”
Ms Parker said unpaid placements were lawful “where they are part of a vocational placement related to a course of study”.
A Table Business In A Box Shark Tank
“However, the law prohibits the exploitation of workers when they are fulfilling the role of an actual employee,” she said.
“Business operators who try to exploit young workers as a source of free labour risk facing enforcement action from the Fair Work Ombudsman. Any workers with concerns should contact us.”
Her Fashion Box sold online subscription boxes containing fashion accessories and beauty products.
In 2016, Ms Purkis appeared on Channel 10’s Shark Tank where she secured a $200,000 investment from judges Janine Allis and Andrew Banks in exchange for 16 per cent of her business.
Ms Purkis did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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