USC graduate starts women’s health company


Ying Tao received her master’s of business administration from the Marshall School of Business in 2016, and she’s already making strides in the entrepreneurial world with her company G Box Club.

Based in Beverly Hills, Tao delivers on-demand care packages for women specializing in toiletries, clothes and flats. The inspiration for the company was derived from her hectic lifestyle at business school.

“If I was running around in my heels all day, and I would want to get out of them and go hang out with a friend or something, it would be amazing if I could just order flats on demand,” Tao said, remembering how her idea materialized.

Tao said her goal with her company is to help women “feel comfortable and empowered.” G Box Club recently partnered with Postmates to help deliver the product, a process that took a lot longer than Tao expected.

Before reaching an agreement with Postmates, Tao had tried to use Uber drivers and a subscription model, but found this difficult. Postmates requires that she has a business location, and now with an office in Beverly Hills, Tao is ready to expand her product.

Though Tao’s company was officially incorporated in July 2016, she’s three weeks into her soft launch. Before she starts the hard launch, Tao is in the process of finding the best way to advertise G Box Club and use influencers to her advantage. Right now, Tao is trying to spread awareness of her company, and she is figuring out what her customers want.

“We’re testing out different products to see what products sell,” Tao said. “This is really just the beginning, but we’re just [focusing] on how to get the word out.”

When Tao entered business school, she didn’t envision starting her own business. She had her sights set on a high-paying, steady job. Tao said that all changed when she took her required entrepreneurship class.

Tao and her partner had to create a business in a week and compete against other teams to see how much money they could make. They sold 3D- printed roses, and at one point, she remembers, they had sold 100 units in five hours. That initial idea got their company $5,000 when they made the finals of the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies’ New Venture Seed Competition.

“It was such an exciting process of having a concept and then selling the product and then getting it to the competition,” Tao said.

Tao said that’s what attracted her to entrepreneurship and is part of the reason why she’s the CEO of her own company now. Tao is running the company on her own, without a co-founder, because she felt no one else could be as passionate as her.

Tao is already thinking ahead for her company. She sees G Box Club as a data test to see how much of a market there is for on-demand services. And in the near future, Tao is looking to make an app separate from Postmates.

It’s also been a learning process for Tao run a business and look for employees.

“I wish I took more risks when I was younger,” she said.

Tao’s project has already garnered praise from popular figures on social media. Jennifer Adams, a digital influencer based in Los Angeles, said she was a huge fan of the “flats in a flash.”

“I will be out with my fiancé or girlfriends and get to that point in the night where I want to take off my heels,” Adams said in an email to the Daily Trojan. “Flats straight to you, with a bag for your heels to protect them? Yes please!”

Along with the flats in a flash project, her latest care package for women comes just in time for Valentine’s Day. It allows customers to send Valentine grams to friends wherever they are, on or off campus. That’s just one of the many ways Tao envisions the future of her company.

“I just want it to be an on-demand service for men and women for products that they really need in their everyday lives,” Tao said.