In what ways is Birchbox’s business approach a winwin for both its suppliers and its customers?

Katie Beauchamp and Hayley Barna met on their first day at Harvard Business School. They volunteered to co-coordinate a spring holiday for themselves and 50 of their classmates. Through the experience they realized that they worked well together as a team, but at that time, they had no thought of cofounding a business. That all changed just over a year later, when Beauchamp and Barna launched Birchbox, a beauty samples subscription service that now has over one million monthly subscribers in five countries.