“I always had an itch to work for myself,” says 25-year-old entrepreneur Miriam Brafman. “It’s one of these things I’d always imagined I’d do. I was always noticing opportunities that other people might not notice.”
That’s how Brafman got the idea for her quickly growing startup called Packlane. One day, she was looking for a company that could help her print some custom packaging, but couldn’t find what she wanted online.
“I was pretty surprised to see that all the options out there were pretty old-school,” she says. “You had to call a salesperson, who would have to figure out your order and quote you a price.”
Suddenly, she knew what her business would be: a website where people could design, print, and pay for their own custom packaging quickly and easily. Want 10 gift boxes with your company’s logo on the top? Done in a flash. Need hundreds of custom-designed cardboard cartons in full color? Just as easy.
“The technology had changed, but the industry hadn’t,” Brafman says. “Once that light bulb went off, I was so excited to be working on this project.“
Brafman already knew a thing or two about launching a company. Growing up in Palo Alto, Brafman says she was interested in web design and development from an early age.
“It was a really exciting place to be because by the time I was in high school, I was already doing all sorts of freelance work for local companies,” she says. “It was a great opportunity to work with startups.”
Brafman launched Packlane at the beginning of last year, moving into the WeWork Berkeley space in June. By September, she had already secured a larger office and hired her first employee to help her out with customer support.
Many of Brafman’s first customers were fellow WeWork members, and she says that the feeling of support from other young entrepreneurs was invaluable.
“It’s a big reason why I wanted to join WeWork,” she says. “Having that kind of community has been great.”
What’s next for Packlane? Brafman says that branching out into other lines of work hasn’t even crossed her mind. Managing her business is all she has time for.
“Right now, we have so much work to do, it’s insane,” Brafman says. “But because of all the amazing opportunities, there isn’t anything else I’d rather be doing. I hope to be doing this for a very long time.”
Photos: Sarah Gerber