Unpacked: Insights hosted by the Penn State Smeal Center for Supply Chain Research™

From Garage to Global: Chieh Huang on Building Boxed and Launching Pelgo

18 Mar 2026

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In this episode, Donna and Tom sit down with Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed and CEO of Pelgo, to explore his journey from shipping toilet paper out of his parents' garage to leading a publicly traded e-commerce company and now building an AI-powered workforce platform. Chieh shares the operational engineering behind making unit economics work on low-margin, high-volume items, his early adoption of autonomous guided vehicles in fulfillment centers, and the evolution from pure automation to human-machine collaboration. Listeners will gain actionable insights on balancing cutting-edge technology with operational reality, preparing teams for rapid change, and leading with humor, humility, and perseverance in today's dynamic supply chain landscape. Takeaways: The operational engineering behind making unit economics work on low-margin, high-volume e-commerce items Early adoption and evolution of autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and the balance between automation and human flexibility Pelgo's mission to retrain workers for AI-forward roles and the potential for gamifying frontline supply chain work Cultural leadership lessons from Boxed, including employee education benefits and building anti-micromanagement teams Stay connected with CSCR on LinkedIn (Center for Supply Chain Research) and Instagram (@pennstatesupplychain), and be sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you are tuning into Unpacked: Insights hosted by the Penn State Smeal Center for Supply Chain Research™. Thank you for joining us! Visit our website: https://www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr Guest Bio: Chieh Huang is a Co-founder and the CEO of Pelgo. Prior to Pelgo, Chieh was the President of the World Economic Forum's Global Collaboration Village. Throughout his career, Chieh has founded and led both public and private companies. He was the CEO of Astro Ape, an early pioneer in mobile social gaming later acquired by Zynga. During his time at Zynga, Huang led Zynga Mobile's New York studio, which produced one of the company's first homegrown, chart-topping mobile games. He was also a co-founder and the CEO of Boxed, an NYSE listed online retailer, and Spresso, an AI-powered pricing optimization company acquired by Blackrock. Before his days as an entrepreneur, Huang was a corporate attorney at a leading law firm after attending The Johns Hopkins University and Fordham Law School. Huang currently serves on the Board of Six Flags, the world's largest regional theme park operator and has also served on several non-profit boards, including New York Cares and The Museum of Chinese in America. Chieh also serves on the Advisory Board for Mclaren Racing, with entries in Formula 1, Indycar and WEC. Huang's personal honors include being named to Bloomberg's "50 people to watch", Crain's "40 Under 40", Goldman Sachs' list of "100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs" and Entrepreneur Magazine's "The 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs." People Magazine profiled Chieh for their "American Dream" series, tracking his growth from humble beginnings to leading industry-changing initiatives like the Pink Tax and college tuition reimbursement. You can also catch more of him at TED.com delivering a talk about his lifelong battle against micromanagers.

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13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

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Unpacked: Insights hosted by the Penn State Smeal Center for Supply Chain Research™

From Garage to Global: Chieh Huang on Building Boxed and Launching Pelgo

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other recent transcribed episodes

13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

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