In 2018, as a spin-off and salute to the original 2003 deck of 52 Most Wanted playing cards, let’s honor post 9/11 frontline leaders here at home. Once a week, for 52 weeks this year, OpsLens will post a card highlighting one of the 52 Most Wanted Post 9/11 Frontline Leaders. You’ll learn the top facts about their business or organization, as well as why they made the list, which comes down to impact, scalability, health, and unique value proposition.
I encourage you to look for these weekly updates, share the card with your network, and support or buy the products and services they offer. See the 52 Most Wanted Post 9/11 Frontline Leaders launch story here.
9 of Clubs| Sandboxx
This may be difficult to remember or imagine, but there was once a time when our world did not have email, text messaging, or social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Even before landlines became a thing of the past as cellular phones became affordable for the masses, good old-fashioned physical mail was the primary mode of communication. And, interestingly, letters are still one of the only ways to communicate today with approximately 200,000 service members who are training or deployed—at any given minute. Former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Sam Meek knew this little-known fact all too well, since he deployed twice to Iraq in the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2012, he founded Sandboxx, a military media and technology company to create and develop an application (app) that allows family and friends to convert images and messages from a couple taps on their phone to actual physical letters that are printed and mailed by the Sandboxx team.
In six years, he’s scaled this “letter” mission by expanding his iOS and Android app to offer features that are like “Slack” for units and “Kayak” for traveling military members. Each new offering continues to simplify communication and better connect the military community to content and technology—not to mention, each other! Sandboxx has been named by both Forbes and TechCrunch as one of the “Top Veteran-Run Companies,” and Sam was also selected as a 2018 Mighty 25 nominee, which is a list of the nation’s top influencers supporting the military community.
Sandboxx is a frontline leader that should be on your list of most-wanted businesses to support in 2018.
Frontline Leader (Founder): Sam Meek.
Name of Company/Organization: Sandboxx, founded 2012.
Location: Arlington, Virginia.
Post 9/11 Service Connection: U.S. Marine Corps.
Tours of Duty: Two tours in Iraq (OIF, including Fallujah), in addition to an assignment in Japan.
One sentence tagline &/or mission statement: Connecting our Military Community. Letters, Units, and Travel
Website: https://www.sandboxx.us/
