Subscription Savant

Chris George with his siberian husky, Mamas / Photo provided by Chris George

Chris George, SBA ’06, means business. At an early age, George already embodied an entrepreneurial spirit. “I remember picking up golf balls for my neighbor, and he was paying me 25 cents a ball. I always had that hustle for sure,” George says.

His hustle drove him to Oakland University, where he transformed his gift for business into a marketing degree, preparing him to launch several successful companies.

While at OU, George says he fine-tuned his presentation skills and used his competitive nature to forge his path to success. “The social impact of going to college is just as important as what you might be learning,” says George. “I think that was probably the most important part of going to OU: the social interactions with students.”

Working full time while going to college and paying for school himself, George intently focused on his education. “If you’re going to college, make sure that you are going to learn something you want to learn — not something someone else told you to learn,” he says. “One of the biggest things you can try to identify is what you’re good at and double down on it.”

Sample Gentleman's Box / Photo by Adam Sparkes

George hit the ground running, opening his first company — a local commercial and consumer debt agency — right out of college. He eventually pivoted his focus to consumer consumption by founding, co-founding and investing in subscription-based companies like Gentleman's Box in 2014, a service that delivers high-quality men’s accessories to consumers on a monthly basis.

“We are all looking for convenience. If I want food, I DoorDash it and it arrives at my door. If I want to get a ride, I get an Uber,” says George. “Ten years ago, if you had asked a parent if they would send their 17-year-old daughter in a car with a stranger, they would say ‘no way.’ Now, it happens every single day. So many things can happen now where subscriptions have built convenience.”

Expanding on the idea of consumer consumption, George also founded SUBTA, a subscription space trade association, and SubSummit, the world's largest conference dedicated to consumer subscriptions. The annual summit attracts a multitude of industry professionals and draws big names like Netflix, Disney Plus, DoorDash, BarkBox and HelloFresh.

“I found that I was really good at helping other people build amazing businesses, and I get joy out of giving advice to somebody and watching them apply it to their work,” says George. “So, our large event is allowing me to do that at scale. We bring thousands of people together to network, learn, listen to speakers and build their businesses — and that’s a great feeling.”

Chris George at SUBTA / Photo provided by Chris George