The Whole Package

Co-founder of start-up CD packaging company ZinePak, Brittany Hodak (MS ’10) remembers being fascinated with her dad’s record collection as a child. “He had hundreds of albums. I remember looking at the pictures and touching them; I remember the way they smelled. I fell in love with physical music.”

That early memory helped inspire her idea for music packaging for “superfans” that incorporates a magazine plus exclusive merchandise and cool digital features. Hodak started ZinePak in 2011 with partner Kim Kaupe, and in the past year, its revenues soared from $2.6 million to $6 million. Its roster of clients is equally impressive and includes Katy Perry, KISS, the Beach Boys, and Taylor Swift.

By partnering with record labels and artist managers, the company creates ZinePaks and other unique products to suit each client. Through exclusive distribution with Walmart, it has sold approximately 2 million ZinePaks, close to $25 million in consumer spending. That’s impressive for any start-up—let alone one that is only three years old and completely self-funded. ZinePak and its founders have understandably received many accolades, including a nomination for Wall Street Journal’s 2013 Start Up of the Year and inclusion in Forbes “30 Under 30” list.

From Local Dream Job to Major Record Label 

Hodak, 30, who grew up in Fort Smith, Ark., has always been a music fan. At 16 she was hired as the mascot for local radio station B98 FM (KZBB), a job that required dressing as a bumblebee. “I went to every rodeo and county fair, mall opening. Got free CDs, got to go to free concerts. I was in heaven.”

She later pitched the station an idea for an early music blog: “Why don’t you send me to a bunch of concerts and I’ll try to meet rock stars and get into funny situations with them and write about it?” The resulting Brittany Jones’s Diary (Jones was Hodak’s maiden name) “was probably the point where I was spoiled for life regarding ever having a real job,” she laughs.

After graduating from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in communications, Hodak came to New York and worked for SONY’s RED music distribution division. “I got lucky,” she says. “They were looking for someone with much more experience, but because I’d worked as a college rep for (distributor) WEA, I already had a pretty good portfolio.” As a manager at SONY, she worked with various retail outlets, including Walmart, with whom she began a long and fruitful relationship. “Because I grew up in Arkansas [where there weren’t many music stores], Walmart was where I’d bought all my music. I was intimately familiar with their music department.”

An Accidental Entrepreneur 

While at SONY, she decided to get a master’s degree in marketing. “I did some research, and what I loved about Baruch was the emphasis on real world education that you can apply the next day on the job.” She says of her master’s program experience: “If I could have taken 30 more hours of classes for the degree, I would have. I enjoyed it so much, learned so much, met so many fantastic people.” Her Baruch education “really helps me reframe the way I think about everything we do at ZinePak.”

At SONY, says Hodak, “I was trying to do something very similar [to ZinePak], and I couldn’t get support.” So she took a job at an entertainment ad agency, “thinking they’d be more receptive to the idea.” Unfortunately, they weren’t. Frustrated, Hodak remembers discussing her situation with a Walmart buyer she’d kept in touch with. “She said, ‘Why don’t you start your own company? We’ll buy from you, and you won’t have to wait for someone else to give you permission.’”

Hodak enlisted co-worker Kaupe, with whom she foresaw a good partnership “because she had a publishing background and I had the music phase.” She recalls thinking, “Together we’re probably both naïve and wide-eyed enough to think that this is going to work.”

An Expanding Company 

Their first ZinePak, for KIDZ BOP, was released in January 2011, and they’ve never looked back. With the help of Walmart, they gained access to the Academy of Country Music, whose fourth ZinePak was released in March. A ZinePak All Access app was recently launched, part of the company’s transition into a more consumer-facing brand. Recently ZinePak created beautiful ticket “passports” for fans who attended Mumford & Sons’ Gentlemen of the Road tour. More than 10,000 passports were shared on Instagram within 24 hours of mailing out the first batch.

ZinePak is also branching out into video games and DVD releases, while keeping its “100% made in the U.S.A” mission, using environmentally friendly products and vendors. The company currently employs 10 full-time employees and several freelancers. (Two interns are Baruch students.)

Hodak’s advice for start-up entrepreneurs? “You can’t be the CEO and the intern at the same time.” She remembers “taking myself away from something important like landing a future account to go to the post office or work on an e-mail blast. At some point doing it all yourself becomes a detriment and in fact is costing you money in the form of lost opportunities.”

Like many entrepreneurs with original ideas, Hodak stuck to her guns despite naysayers: “Almost everyone we talked to said, ‘It’s a crazy idea. Nobody buys music, nobody buys magazines.’ We thought it might be crazy enough to work, and so far it’s been pretty great!”

(Update: Hodak has been selected as a finalist in Entrepreneur magazine’s Emerging Entrepreneur of 2014 competition. To vote for her, go to www.entrepreneur.com/e2014emerging by Sept. 19!)

—Marina Zogbi