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Launchpad IGNITION: Giftmeo
 

Edmundo Braverman's picture
ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 8:00am
giftmeo.png

There's no question that Facebook is the biggest thing to hit the Internet in the last five years. With that type of hyper-adoption, it was only natural for folks to try to tag along and turn a buck. Unfortunately this usually translated into nuisance social gaming apps from companies like Zynga, who is already planning a secondary offering in order to keep insiders from jumping ship after having gone public a mere three months ago.

So you can imagine my relief when I found a company in New Orleans that leverages the power of Facebook and other social media to a useful and practical end. The company is called Giftmeo and it is launching into the "crowd-gifting" space.

You know how, when you log into Facebook, it shows you which of your friends has a birthday today? It's usually one of the first things you notice. Suppose you felt like giving that person a gift but didn't want to spend more than a couple bucks just to remember them on their birthday? Well, if you and 40 or 50 of his other friends kicked in two buck apiece, that would add up to a pretty nice birthday gift. And that's what Giftmeo is all about.

The concept behind Giftmeo is dead simple, and that's what I love about it. You give your buddy two bucks and so do 49 of his other friends, and now he's got $100 at Giftmeo to redeem for the gift card of his choice. That could mean $100 to spend on Amazon, a couple dinners at Chili's, that new band saw he's had his eye on at Home Depot, whatever.

The API is seamless and once you've signed up it's integrated with your Facebook account (and your Twitter account if you choose). It's free to use, and they plan to launch in the next 30 days.

It's not only applicable to gift giving, however. Giftmeo is also a powerful tool for fundraising. People can use it to raise money for everything from charities to the Friday office party.

So how does Giftmeo make any money? Because they're a bulk buyer of the gift cards, they receive a discount from the vendors. So that $100 Amazon gift card might only cost Giftmeo $90. The gift cards are all transmitted electronically, so there's no shipping costs and no physical inventory.

The company has successfully completed a round of angel funding, so I asked founders Michael Angle and Martin Roth what the plan was going forward.

Gift cards, group gifting and this entire space is very exciting and is just now starting to see changes and companies entering the space.There will be, in our opinion over the next 6+ months, a large influx of companies all taking a swing at their market share with a unique strategy. The company that gets the user experiance correct will emerge from the noise.

Also, we are currently seeking a round of funding to ensure we have the right team in place, a solid marketing budget, and the flexibility to adapt features as we see our user base interact with Giftmeo.

When I asked them how large the potential market was they laughed and said, "How many people have birthdays?"

It's a compelling idea, especially in this era of what I call "peripheral friends". You know, the kind of people that you sort of know and sort of like, but wouldn't go all out and buy a present for? I can also see it being a great way to raise money for office events like happy hours or office birthday parties.

Michael Angle has agreed to answer any questions you guys have in the comments, so fire away.

Tags:

Comments

blastoise's picture

Edmundo Braverman

O
 
Points)
 on 3/14/12 at 7:05am
Edmundo Braverman:

There's no question that Facebook is the biggest thing to hit the Internet in the last five years. With that type of hyper-adoption, it was only natural for folks to try to tag along and turn a buck. Unfortunately this usually translated into nuisance social gaming apps from companies like Zynga, who is already planning a secondary offering in order to keep insiders from jumping ship after having gone public a mere three months ago.

So you can imagine my relief when I found a company in New Orleans that leverages the power of Facebook and other social media to a useful and practical end. The company is called Giftmeo

sound like some one trying to sell something :/

Nouveau Richie's picture

Pretty sure blastoise is the

IB
(Neanderthal, 2,785
 
Points)
 on 3/14/12 at 7:06am

Pretty sure blastoise is the only one that could publically get away with throwing ms at Eddie, haha.

Anyway Eddie, what sort of equity cut are they giving you for evangelizing this? You heard about the mural painter at Facebook, right? Hope you got something good.

Edmundo Braverman's picture

Quick note: A two-paragraph

ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 4:45am

Quick note:

A two-paragraph stub of this post went up for a few minutes yesterday by mistake. It was, however, enough time for blastoise to hit me with monkey shit (thanks bro), and for Nouveau Richie to make his comment - in case you were wondering why their comments are dated yesterday.

@Nouveau Richie - I didn't work these guys for any equity. I'm just writing this series to highlight some of the exciting start-ups that are happening in New Orleans. If I have any ulterior motive at all, it's to attract even more top flight entrepreneurial talent to the Big Easy.

@blastoise - Die in a fire, lol.

APAE's picture

Sounds really interesting.

(Neanderthal, 3,660
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 6:13am

Sounds really interesting. Kind of in the vein of the "game-ification" that social media has brought to our modern hyperconnected world.

I'm more interested to see how it stacks up in the charitable giving arena ... maybe against existing ventures like Crowdrise/etc.

A lot of people do certain things to add days to their life. I do things to add life to my days.

WallStreetOasis.com's picture

could work....but who is

EN
(Human, 12,073
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 7:44am

could work....but who is their competition? how do they gain traction?

I like the simplicity, but if I am not willing to spend $20 on someone, why would I even spend $2? Also, do they hide the amount you donate / give?

Wouldnt that be a bit embarrassing if some pseudo friend saw that you "valued" their friendship at a whopping $2? Kind of funny, because we are definitely in the age of the "peripheral friend"...just not sure anyone would spend 1 penny or $1 dollar on one of these friends instead of just sending them a nice note.

Now as a platform for fundraising, I could definitely see some potential there. But who knows, I've been dead wrong before - maybe giving a $1 to a peripheral friend will make sense to the new generation? Or you make it "gamey" enough so that it's fun to chip in?

Good luck Giftmeo!

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happypantsmcgee's picture

I find it hilarious that

O
(Almost Human, 9,621
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 9:50am

I find it hilarious that blastoise has turned into a little brother type figure for all of WSO.

Another reason not having a facebook is awesome, I don't have to give 3 bucks to some slag from high school that have me a cleveland steamer behind the gym after wrestling practice. Pretty sure she gets more than 3 bucks from the taxes I pay as it is anyway.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford

Downeasta's picture

Braverman- You double-posted

IB
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:01am

Braverman- You double-posted on Twitter, just a heads up.

Edit: Never mind, I guess my Twitter was just being stupid.

Unforseen's picture

This is great for people like

(King Kong, 1,099
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:19am

This is great for people like me who have family and friends all over the world.

It also opens the door to Money Laundering. How's Giftmeo going to tackle this issue Eddie?

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swagon's picture

This is the remix to

EN
(Neanderthal, 2,970
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:30am

This is the remix to Ignition, hot and fresh out the kitchen. Mama rollin that body, got every man in here wishin.

Nouveau Richie's picture

swagon wrote: This is the

IB
(Neanderthal, 2,785
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:33am
swagon:

This is the remix to Ignition, hot and fresh out the kitchen. Mama rollin that body, got every man in here wishin.

I swear to god, you really are just the real life Jean-Ralphio, aren't you? (You should have thrown in an extra syllable at the end to screw it up like he does though.)

Edmundo Braverman's picture

Unforseen wrote: It also

ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:56am
Unforseen:

It also opens the door to Money Laundering. How's Giftmeo going to tackle this issue Eddie?

I'll let one of the founders give an official answer, because I'm sure it's something they've thought of, but I don't think the business model is particularly vulnerable to money laundering (unless I'm missing something).

You have to use an account with a paper trail (checking account, credit/debit card) to fund the gift. If you could use cash, then absolutely money laundering would be a concern. But by using a credit card or Paypal or whatever, you've pretty much eliminated any ability to launder money.

That said, since you set my mind on a nefarious train of thought, I have conceived a way that Giftmeo could enable tax evasion. Probably best if I don't go into the details here, though.

accountingbyday's picture

Maybe I'm missing something,

CF
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 10:59am

Maybe I'm missing something, but how are they monetizing donations?

I get the they'll take a cut of gift cards, but I'd assume that doesn't apply to donations. If I use Giftmeo to donate $50 to a good cause, I'd assume that $50 cash goes to that cause. If $45 goes to charity and $5 to Giftmeo, I definitely wouldn't be using Giftmeo.

It also seems like this would have to be a huge hit for these guys to be very successful on the Bday present idea. I'd have to assume that their pretax operating margin is ~7% or so on the Bday donations. If that's true they'd need ~75 million $2 donations to net $10M (pretax).

I think it's a cool idea, just not sure I see the $.

Unforseen's picture

Fair enough, in my business

(King Kong, 1,099
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:01am

Fair enough, in my business we always have to be on the lookout for AML. I guess looking into Paypal's Anti AML policies would be smart. (That is if they haven't really put much attention to this issue.)

Check out my Blog

Mr. Hansen's picture

If you receive money from a

(Gorilla, 519
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:10am

If you receive money from a lot of people, more than anticipated, now you will feel obligated to gift them all back. If you have a lot friends, you're going to have a birthday once a week. Instead of having cash, you're stuck with a gift card and paying out of your account. I'm not too sure about using it for fundraising... I believe there's already a couple websites that provide that service.

Edmundo Braverman's picture

accountingbyday wrote: I get

ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:12am
accountingbyday:

I get the they'll take a cut of gift cards, but I'd assume that doesn't apply to donations. If I use Giftmeo to donate $50 to a good cause, I'd assume that $50 cash goes to that cause. If $45 goes to charity and $5 to Giftmeo, I definitely wouldn't be using Giftmeo.

No no. They don't actually take a cut of the card. The card vendor sells the card to them at a discount. In other words, when you donate $100 the charity gets $100 gift card. It's just that the card only costs Giftmeo $90 to provide (for example, I don't know the actual discount/margin and it varies from vendor to vendor).

accountingbyday's picture

Edmundo Braverman

CF
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:17am
Edmundo Braverman's picture

Mr. Hansen wrote: If you

ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:19am

Edmundo Braverman's picture

accountingbyday

ST
(Human, 14,368
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:21am

happypantsmcgee's picture

The charity thing probably

O
(Almost Human, 9,621
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 11:29am

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford

go.with.the.flow's picture

Sounds like a charity rather

EN
(King Kong, 1,109
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 12:10pm

|| But feeling good and enjoying life are prerequisites to success, not by products of it- Midas Mulligan Magoo ||

mangle's picture

Wow, very excited to see such

(Chimp, 4
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 12:28pm
mangle's picture

MONEY LAUNDERING / FRAUD This

(Chimp, 4
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 12:46pm
mangle's picture

PRIVACY / COMPETITION The

(Chimp, 4
 
Points)
 on 3/15/12 at 12:56pm
Kools's picture

mangle wrote: MONEY

O
 
Points)
 on 3/16/12 at 12:59pm
happypantsmcgee's picture

Kools wrote: mangle

O
(Almost Human, 9,621
 
Points)
 on 3/16/12 at 1:59pm

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford

mangle's picture

happypantsmcgee wrote: Kools

(Chimp, 4
 
Points)
 on 3/16/12 at 2:12pm
blastoise's picture

Edmundo Braverman

O
 
Points)
 on 3/17/12 at 6:16am

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