A few weeks ago I went a little crazy at Quarterly.co and signed up for quite a few subscriptions (8 to be exact). They only ship every 3 months, so I haven't received all of the boxes yet, but you can check out my past Quarterly Co. reviews to date.
If you aren't familiar with Quarterly, they offer seasonal subscriptions curated by different taste makers. The True Ventures box looked interesting to me - it's curated by True Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups.
The Box: True Ventures
The Cost: $50 a box (shipped every quarter)
The Products: The True Ventures packages will focus on entrepreneurism: on sharing knowledge, ideas and objects that will help founders and aspiring founders find inspiration to start their own movement—and develop a beautiful, imagination-capturing product.
Ships to: US, (Canada extra $20 fee, International extra $30 fee).
Check out all of my Quarterly Co. Reviews!
Each box comes with a letter from the curator explaining the theme of the box and why they selected every item. This month's theme is all about creativity.
Legos
From True Ventures:
Ask almost any creative Founder and they'll tell you that their favorite toys growing up were Legos. Legos put the power of invention in the hands of children, who are arguably the most creative among us all. Building with Legos teaches us to solve problems, to plan ahead and to fix mistakes - all skills absolutely critical to starting a company. You are never too old to revisit this essential, original toy, and dream up new things to build.
I'm thinking a glass bowl full of colorful legos could actually make an interesting centerpiece on a dining room or coffee table, and could be fun to play with as well!
Spirograph
From True Ventures:
At any given True team meeting, the majority of our notebooks slowly become covered with "doodles." Once perceived as an example of distraction, recent studies have shown that doodling actually increases focus and aids in problem solving. Sunni Brown, co-author of Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers, explained the benefits of doodling in her TED talk:
Doodling is really to make spontaneous marks to help yourself think... People who doodle when they're exposed to verbal information retain more of that information than their non-doodling counterparts. We think doodling is something you do when you lose focus, but in reality, it is a preemptive measure to stop you from losing focus. Additionally, it has a profound effect on creative problem-solving and deep information processing."
My notebooks from high school and college were always covered in doodles - so this was very interesting and encouraging to read!
Business Improve by Val Gee and Sarah Gee
From True Ventures:
There are several "rules" of improv - saying "yes, and" instead of "no, but"; building a "culture of thank you"; and listening to understand versus waiting to respond - that can easily be applied to fostering better communication among teams. One of our biggest take-aways was that if you get comfortable supporting other people's ideas, you get more comfortable with big ideas, and it becomes easier to see the possibility of doing really big things. And creativity is all about doing big things.
Verdict: I found this box to be really inspiring and interesting. I'm pretty sure there is no other subscription like it! If you are an entrepreneur or want to be one, I think this box would be a great quarterly box to subscribe to!
Do you subscribe to any Quarterly boxes? Let me know if you have any recommendations!
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