Studifuel - The Student Health Box | Meet the Maker

This is part of uOpen’s ‘Meet The Maker’ interview series - your exclusive opportunity to get to know the real people and personalities behind the subscription boxes you know and love, and the ones you will soon come to!

Studifuel is a monthly subscription for students packed full of healthy snacks, vitamins, herbal teas and more. Founder Sam Birch, launched Studifuel whilst still studying at university, let's hear from Sam to tell us more about it and how it all got started :

What sparked your decision to start up your box and how did you get started? 
As a student at the University of Manchester, I have first-hand experience of how tough it can be to lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle at university. Late nights, deadlines, tight budgets and social commitments lead many students to resort to unhealthy snacking, eating fast food and not getting enough of the essential nutrients they need to keep their body and mind on top form.

It was during my first year of uni that I came up with the idea of Studifuel after seeing most of my flatmates lead diets consisting predominately of takeaways, unhealthy snacks and ready meals with many subsequently suffering from tiredness, fatigue and being prone to colds. After a few weeks of brainstorming, I decided on creating a subscription box for students full of healthy snacks, vitamins, herbal teas and recipes to try and make it easier for students to lead a healthier lifestyle whilst at university.

Getting the business started was quite hard whilst having to deal with the responsibilities and commitments involved with studying full-time. However, after months spent developing the product, fulfilment process and website alongside my business partner Armen, we launched fully in September 2018.

Describe your box in three words?
Healthier Student Lifestyle

Where did your box name come from?
The box name is a play on the words 'Study' and 'Fuel'. I believe that to maximise your potential at university and study productively you need to fuel yourself properly with the correct nutrients as a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. That's why with Studifuel it's our aim to provide students with healthy snacks, essential vitamins as well as nutritious recipes in order to give them the right fuel they need to tackle everything university and life throws at them to the best of their ability.

Are you a creator or curator?
Both

What was your most popular box?
The Premium Box - despite being more expensive than our Essential Box, it's packed to the brim with 15 great healthy snacks, 7 herbal teas and an essential vitamin making it a great value box!

How many people are involved with producing your subscription box?
Two - I run the business side of the subscription box (product ideas, customer service, marketing, fulfilment, etc) and my business partner Armen is in charge of designing and maintaining the website.

Which subscription boxes do you subscribe to?
Currently none sadly but being a bit nerdy I'm a fan of Super Loot!

Name a celebrity subscriber you’d love to have as a customer?
Alan Sugar - I doubt he would need a Studifuel box but watching the Apprentice as a kid probably inspired me into wanting to become an entrepreneur!

If you could put anything in your box, with money or scarcity no object, what would it be?
If I had no budgetary or time constraints I would create a fitness and recipe book tailored to students to include in our boxes to give students an insight into the ways they can incorporate eating healthily and doing healthy activities into their lifestyles.

What do you love about uOpen?
It's an easy-to-use, professional platform with a great interface that not only allows customers to discover new, exciting subscription boxes but allows us as a business to reach new audiences we haven't been able to target yet.

A huge thanks to Sam for taking the time to feature in the interview. I'm sure Studifuel will be a great option for students and we look forward to feedback as customers try the latest snacks included in the next boxes.

Studifuel is a 2-person team working hard to create an amazing experience for subscribers, To show your support, please share this post with anyone that may enjoy trying the Studifuel box. Plus as a thank you for reading this far, use THANKS10 to grab a 10% discount off your first box today.