Dive Brief:
- NatureBox is hiring Ray Elias, an executive at eBay's online ticket marketplace StubHub, as the subscription snack box company's new CMO.
- Elias has been at StubHub for more than a decade, but he will start his new position at NatureBox on May 11.
- NatureBox recently announced that it raised $18 million in Series B funding, and the company is also launching its first national TV ad campaign.
Dive Insight:
Elias will take over for founder and former CMO Kenneth Chen, who will turn his attention to other special projects and maintaining the company's startup atmosphere while it increases its payroll to almost 100 employees.
This may have particularly been a draw for Elias, who said that he always knew he "wanted to go back to a startup," according to Fortune. While Elias doesn't have much food industry experience, he does know what it's like to be a part of a startup culture, including his time at StubHub when that company itself was a startup before eBay acquired it.
This startup could certainly be one to watch if it can capitalize on consumer interests.
"Food is a mass market category and we think based on the demand we’ve seen online, this is a product consumers across the country want," said co-founder and CEO Gautam Gupta.