Describe Shoeboxed in one sentence

Shoeboxed.com is an online service that allows people to easily and securely manage their e-mail and paper receipts, helping them take a big step towards achieving financial organization and consumer confidence.

How did you guys get started?

Taylor Mingos, our founder, started actively working on the project about 9 months ago. Most of the team members are current and former students of Duke University, and Shoeboxed was really born out of a series of dorm-room conversations about Web 2.0 business ideas. We worked on campus in the spring before moving to Berlin, Germany this summer to develop the project full-time. With all of us living and working out of one apartment, we were able to get a lot done, and we’ve been blown away by the success we have had as such a young start-up. Right now, we have an office in Durham, NC, near Duke’s campus. We still have lots of students working with us, but there are a healthy handful of full time (read: all the time) Shoeboxers that are making sure everything goes to plan.

How has the original idea evolved and grown?

With the idea of organizing digital receipts from the outset, Taylor and the rest of the team have developed a comprehensive strategy for where we want Shoeboxed to go in the coming months and years. We will be launching an upgrade to the site in the next month or so that will use our receipt functionalities as a launchpad into new areas of the Internet. Shoeboxed is a dynamic project, and we are putting up new features all the time. It’s the kind of thing that you want to check everyday, because you never know what’s coming next.

How large is your team?

We have 25 team members.

What are some techniques that you guys have used to keep such a large team so tight?

Well, this summer, 13 of us lived and worked out of an apartment in Berlin. With two bedrooms and one bathroom, we got along surprisingly well. Those of us that were in Berlin are certainly a tight-knit group because of our shared experience of working so hard to launch the site. But even the new additions to the team that have come since we moved back the U.S. have quickly become part of the group, and it’s hard to imagine how we survived without them! We only bring people on that we think will work extraordinarily well with the rest of the team, and so far, everybody has been enthusiastic, flexible, and hard working. I can’t say we make it a point to do “team bonding” or anything like that… we are just lucky to have found an amazingly dedicated bunch who are committed to making Shoeboxed a success.

What does a typical team meeting consist of — brainstorming sessions, fights, or what?

The flavor of meetings at Shoeboxed is kind of dependent on what part of Shoeboxed we’re talking about. Our marketing meetings are very collaborative, creative and high-energy. Our development meetings on the other hand, would involve a more technical creativity… and a lot of white-board space. I’ve never seen a meeting where there was a “fight.” We’re a pretty reasonable bunch I suppose. We throw a lot of popcorn at each other though…

List 3 totally unrelated (to your business) areas of study that you are into that inspire you as a person / company

Well, there aren’t too many disciplines that are TOTALLY unrelated to Shoeboxed. We’ve found that pretty much every academic field can be applied to our work, and having people that majored in completely different things has definitely been a good thing for us.

What are the percentages behind your motivation — 50% for the money, 10% for the fun, 40% to truly help people or what?

100% for making receipts a manageable, useful and fun part of everyone’s life!

In one sentence, what words of inspiration do you have for someone wanting to take a risk and start something new?

You’ve got to love what you are doing!

If someone offered you guys 20 million to sell your company and never again push forward with another idea, concept, company again, would or wouldn’t you take it and why?

We have way too many plans for Shoeboxed to take any amount of money right now. Plus, so many of us have this entrepreneurial spirit so engrained in our personalities, that we’d be really bored with doing anything else!