Who launches businesses in this tech-obsessed society with products that don't require a watt of electricity or a blip of Wi-Fi?
At Bundle, the answer is two sisters raised in a game-crazy house in upstate Pennsylvania who, as adults, want to help create for others that "environment for authentic conversations and laughs" through board games, said Cassie Collier, co-founder and CEO, who runs the company with older sister Jacklyn, the chief operating officer.
In the Collier household in Mount Carmel, Pa., games were beloved. "It's a simple life," Jacklyn, said of her hometown, where her father, Jack, worked in quality control at a plastics company and her mother, Millie, in mental health — and the closest movie theater required a 45-minute drive. "We created our own fun. It was part of our DNA."
Their board-game company loosely dates back to December 2013. That's when their Christmas present to their parents was a board game Jacklyn and Cassie made, based on family inside jokes and memories. It went over so well, they started making board games as gifts for friends.
Last year, during a July 4th party in New York, someone suggested the sisters should start a company and sell their customized games on Etsy. After thinking about it, the sisters decided to go for it.
They developed a prototype, built a website, secured copyright protection on any text within the game, and, by late September, started accepting orders.
Bundle — ideal for a game intended to bring people together over nostalgia — offers three standard versions: couples, family and bachelorette, each for $35. Customized games, built from client answers to questions the Colliers send them, are $65. In May, the sisters raised $15,000 and generated 200 orders for their Bundle board game.
When they think long-term, tech is involved, including software that writes questions the Colliers now do by hand.
