Episode 18 - Introducing SV Raider Crate Part I with Antonio Amelio

SHOW TOPIC
Introducing SV Raider Crate Part I 

SPECIAL GUEST
Seneca Valley Senior and Raider Crate CEO, Antonio Amelio

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• What is Raider Crate
• How this idea get started
• What is the purpose of these crates
• The first box delivery 
• Raider Crate's plans for the fall and the rest of the school year 

USEFUL INFORMATION
https://www.raidercrate.org/
https://www.instagram.com/raidercrate/
https://www.facebook.com/raider.crate.5

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

Voices E18 Antonio Amelio.

File Name: Voices E18 Antonio Amelio.mp3

File Length: 00:11:27

00:00:02:22 - 00:00:07:24

Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

00:00:10:20 - 00:00:26:00

Jeff Krakoff: I'm here today with Antonio Amelia. Antonio, welcome, glad to have you here. What's something a lot of people have been talking about lately are the Raider Crates at Seneca Valley. Give us an overview. What is a Raider Crate? 

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:46:00

Antonio Amelio: So a Raider Crate is basically a mystery box filled with exclusive Seneca Valley merchandise, procured items, and event tickets for the students. And we also add in there a connection to local businesses that can build a sense of community among the students and the businesses. 

00:00:46:19 - 00:00:59:00

Jeff Krakoff: OK, so it's branded items with the Seneca Valley logo. When you say mystery crate, tell me a little bit more. So if I were to order one today, I get certain items versus what somebody else might get. 

00:00:59:24 - 00:01:19:10

Antonio Amelio: Well, so it's not necessarily one box versus the other. It's going to be each cycle. So if we push out a bunch of crates like we are going to next or this coming month, it's going to look different than what you get in December. So the items in this crate are different than the last one. 

00:01:20:03 - 00:01:26:05

Jeff Krakoff: OK, what a great idea. So when did the idea come about and how did it come about? 

00:01:26:21 - 00:01:59:15

Antonio Amelio: So last year in the purpose program, specifically in the finance and entrepreneurial scenario, we were given the opportunity to go to the BC3 challenge. And it's an entrepreneurial challenge. And basically we had to come up with a business plan and compete against other local school districts to win, basically who had the best business idea. And my one friend, Connor Anderson, thought of selling subscription boxes. And our whole team really liked it, we thought was a great idea. 

00:01:59:17 - 00:02:15:03

Antonio Amelio: Our teacher was on board literally within that day. We already had a name for our business. We were like, oh, Raider Crate sells great, sounds great and people will love it. And so we took this idea to the BC3 competition and ended up winning. And by winning we were given $350.

00:02:16:25 - 00:02:47:09

Antonio Amelio: And with the people who were in charge of the BC3 competition asked us to do was make it a real thing. And we were like, yes, we want to make this a real thing. So we decided then to take that seed money and find a partner within the school district to kind of give us a line of credit and work with and develop a relationship with. And we look to the Seneca Valley Foundation and once we became partners with them, we're able to make the business a real thing. And that was in about probably March of last year.

00:02:47:23 - 00:02:49:23

Jeff Krakoff: Got it. So when was the competition?

00:02:50:29 - 00:02:55:29

Antonio Amelio: The competition was probably October of last year. 

00:02:56:05 - 00:02:56:20

Jeff Krakoff: OK.

00:02:56:27 - 00:03:03:13

Antonio Amelio: Yeah, it took a lot of time for us to get everything worked out. It was a hard process. 

00:03:03:17 - 00:03:04:13

Jeff Krakoff: I'm sure. 

00:03:04:15 - 00:03:13:12

Jeff Krakoff: So when you came up with the idea initially, what is the purpose? Obviously, you want to win a competition, but what do you want these crates to do? 

00:03:13:27 - 00:03:38:22

Jeff Krakoff: So the real purpose of Raider Crate is to create a sense of community among different students and different people who wouldn't usually be around each other, and then to help support and connect those students with local businesses that they might not even know about. And so by helping both the students meet new people and get new connections, we're also going to help the local businesses and build our own community of Raider Crate. 

00:03:38:24 - 00:03:42:10

Jeff Krakoff: Was school pride part of it as well, since your items are brand. 

00:03:42:12 - 00:03:42:27

Antonio Amelio: Yeah. 

00:03:42:29 - 00:03:44:04

Jeff Krakoff: with the school district logo. 

00:03:44:18 - 00:03:55:19

Antonio Amelio: Yes. Yes. We wanted to let the Seneca Valley kids get something that, hey, if I get this in this box, it's something I could have 10, 20 years from now that shows, hey, I was a Seneca Valley student. 

00:03:56:15 - 00:04:03:03

Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, yeah. So the first box has gone out. Give us the update. How did it go?

00:04:03:28 - 00:04:14:18

Antonio Amelio: So the first box went out and it was actually it went perfectly with what we wanted. We looked at the crate and we were like, we we put together the best crate we could for exactly 50 crates. 

00:04:14:22 - 00:04:45:29

Antonio Amelio: We wanted to get them out and we didn't even actually want to make a profit with it because it would have we would have had to have sold 47 of the 50 crates to make a profit, which is horrible from a financial sense. But we just wanted to gain experience from launching our first crate and through quarantine and launching this crate, it went perfectly. We got 47 crates sold. We broke even. And with that we, we learned a lot. 

00:04:46:01 - 00:04:55:08

Antonio Amelio: We got all the experience we really needed out of the first one to make it run smoother on the in-school scenario that we were we are doing right now. 

00:04:55:25 - 00:05:05:23

Jeff Krakoff: So you did mention quarantine. How did that change your plans, whether it's working together as a team or actually getting the crates out there? Did you have to make a change of plans? 

00:05:06:08 - 00:05:40:11

Antonio Amelio: There was a lot of changes that went into how we actually launched the crate because not only that, it deal with like the actual creation of our box, but it dealt with how we wanted to get it to the students. So first off, whatever we started with the development of the crates, it was a lot harder for us to purchase our items from online vendors and actual people who are making the sales because it wasn't, everything was shutting down vendor's websites, nothing was the same. 

00:05:40:15 - 00:06:12:02

Antonio Amelio: And then the local businesses were trying to connect with they were getting shut down. They were losing money. It was hard for them to be like, hey, let's let's make a partnership during this really hard time. And so we were able to pull something together. We worked with Fun Fore All and Dairy Queen and a local business in Zelie, Curio, and we made these connections and it was very beneficial and added so much value to the crates and it like it was a great thing for us. And once we worked that out, we realized, all right, it's quarantine, it's a virus. 

00:06:12:04 - 00:06:40:14

Antonio Amelio: We need to make sure we do this as as perfectly as we can. So we deliver everything to one person, one person put the boxes together, instead of as a team. Then we did contactless delivery. And it was it was a very different experience that we're hoping to give because it wasn't like a grand like, hey, here's your Raider Crate. It was more of a thank you for purchasing a Raider Crate. It's on your doorstep. Can't wait to see you in the fall. 

00:06:40:29 - 00:06:47:19

Jeff Krakoff: So I'm trying to picture this. I'm envisioning that crate or a box. How big are we talking? 

00:06:47:21 - 00:07:22:05

Antonio Amelio: Well, so the nice thing about it is you'll never actually know when you're receiving your crate what size it'll be because it'll all depend on the items that you're receiving. So the first one fit a coffee mug and it was probably just probably double the size of the coffee mug because we had other items in there. But so this next one we're doing is relatively the same size. However, the one we have planned for December most likely going to be double that because it would our creative department came up with an item that would definitely not fit in the boxes we have right now. 

00:07:22:17 - 00:07:31:18

Jeff Krakoff: All right. So you've got your first box out in the fall. You said the next box will be roughly December. What are the plans for the rest of the school year? 

00:07:32:15 - 00:08:14:15

Antonio Amelio: So, like I mentioned, with this crate we're releasing now, we're going to look to December to release more of a holiday-ish crate, which is going to set us up, hopefully make a lot of profit so we can put a lot of money into hopefully four more crates for the rest of the year. And with that, we kind of theme them around the time of year, like we're hoping at the end of the year to do a graduation theme, one for the seniors and a spring one as March rolls around. And so with four more crates going out this year, we feel like it'll be enough for the students to feel like we're getting our Raider Crates and we're seeing a lot of progress and we're getting our money's worth. 

00:08:15:01 - 00:08:17:11

Jeff Krakoff: OK, now Antonio you're a senior, right? 

00:08:17:20 - 00:08:18:09

Antonio Amelio: Yes.

00:08:18:11 - 00:08:21:18

Jeff Krakoff: So what happens after this year? 

00:08:22:15 - 00:08:50:27

Antonio Amelio: So after I graduate, the way we set up the business is once I leave an underclassman will fill my position. And so the legacy of Raider Crate will stay with the Seneca Valley Senior High School and hopefully eventually even move into the IHS as the kids in the purpose program start working again and can work with the business through 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade, and then they'll leave it for the kids behind them to make it better and bigger. 

00:08:51:05 - 00:09:00:03

Jeff Krakoff: All right, great. Well, I also want to give credit where credit's due. In addition to you, how many other students are involved in this, this project? 

00:09:00:24 - 00:09:03:16

Antonio Amelio: So there's sixteen currently.

00:09:04:05 - 00:09:45:01

Antonio Amelio: And we had last year three seniors graduate who were on the original team. And so we probably all have in total a team of twenty really work on Raider Crate. Some aren't even a part of it. We have one person who's really helping us with graphics design, one so we procured a parking spot from the upper lot for the senior high school and we have an art student who's helping us paint. So even though the team might be just within the finance and entrepreneurship scenario, we are, a lot of people want to come help us and be a part of Raider Crate however they can be. 

00:09:45:19 - 00:09:46:04

Jeff Krakoff: OK. 

00:09:46:06 - 00:09:50:14

Jeff Krakoff: Or so are all the original 50 crates gone and delivered?

00:09:51:08 - 00:10:22:27

Antonio Amelio: So the original 50 crates we sold 47 of them, so 47 are gone. And so we developed, actually a big thing that lets our business work is the economies of scale. Whenever we buy more it becomes a lot cheaper. And so as we bought with the first crate a big thing, the Foundation, whenever, they give us more money to kind of help us move along with the first crate, they allowed us to develop an inventory which helps us develop more cash on hand down the line. 

00:10:23:12 - 00:10:32:19

Antonio Amelio: And so where we have actually three remaining crates, we have probably three hundred and fifty dollars worth of inventory. 

00:10:33:02 - 00:10:41:21

Jeff Krakoff: Got it. So if somebody wanted one of those last remaining crates or some of the future crates, where can people go to learn more? 

00:10:42:10 - 00:11:06:04

Antonio Amelio: So to learn more you can go to our website raidercrate.org or you can follow us on Instagram. And pretty much if you're a student in the senior high school and or the IHS, you're more than welcome to look around your hallways and find QR codes that are up that ask you what's inside this box, order your Raider Crate today, and I'll link you directly to our website. 

00:11:06:19 - 00:11:17:02

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, fantastic, great idea. Congratulations to you and all the rest of the students and any faculty that that helped with this. Thanks for joining us today. 

00:11:17:27 - 00:11:18:15

Antonio Amelio: Thank you. 

00:11:18:24 - 00:11:19:26

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Take care.