PPB October 2015

several local startup experts—

Rebecca Lovell, the startup liaison

for the city of Seattle; Andy Sack, an

investor who also ran TechStars and

Founders Coop; Dave Parker, who

runs a pre-accelerator called Next;

and Enrique Godreau, co-founder of

9Mile Labs. We joined the 9Mile

Labs accelerator a couple months

later.

Once we built a minimum viable

experience for GiftStarter, we pur-

sued funds from local angel

investors to help us on-board over

1,000 paying customers for further

validation, to work on product

enhancements and to nail down our

product’s market fit.

PPB

How do retailers partner with

GiftStarter to offer their products

to your site users?

They can partner with GiftStarter

in multiple ways, mainly to use our

platform to enhance their customers’

experiences to afford better gifts.

We can take a product feed (10,000

or more products) and add it to our

search experience. We can also cre-

ate a curated “storefront” on

GiftStarter for a retailer with their

giftable products on that page.

Additionally, we can provide a

quick-button widget that allows cus-

tomers on the retailer’s site to buy

any gift with family and friends.

PPB

How does founding and run-

ning a company like GiftStarter

allow you to strike a work-life bal-

ance?

For us, the founders, the job is a

major part of the work, which is a

major part of our personal life’s

work. We were able to design the

business in a way that creates an

ecosystem that adds value to our

customers, our employees, and our

partners. One of the things we know

is that starting a company from

scratch requires a person to have

their own personal foundations in

place first. For us, it takes a village

of support to keep “balance”—the

support of parents, siblings, friends,

communities, and most importantly,

the full support of a spouse/signifi-

cant other.

Those who work with GiftStarter

know that this is a passion busi-

ness—passion that grows from

enabling human interactions, com-

munal giving and communities to be

created from a person’s own circle

of family and friends. We believe in

holacracy and in prioritizing work

that creates/adds value to the cus-

tomer. There are no managers here,

and everyone on the team is encour-

aged to work freely on projects they

are most compelled to work on.

Everyone is responsible for bringing

their brains, their own expertise and

skills to what they feel GiftStarter

needs at any given point —

always

creating value for our customers

PPB

What advice would you give

others who believe they have a

great idea for a product or busi-

ness solution, but don’t know the

first steps to take?

One of the first things we did

was think about and document the

following:

1. What kind of company do you

want to build (or not build) for the

next 10 years or more?

2. Do people actually need your

product or business solution, and

how have you validated it?

3. What kind of business or market-

place will you be entering?

Have a clear idea and words to

speak intelligently about all of the

above. But above all else, listen.

Look for advice that opposes your

great idea. Look for customers who

will tell you what’s wrong with your

idea. That brutal honesty is the dif-

ference between an idea and a busi-

ness that can actually grow.

72 •

PPB

• OCTOBER 2015

THINK

FAST FORWARD

Plagiarism isn’t a crime unto words alone,

something Olympic Games organizers in Tokyo

discovered late this summer when the designer

of a Belgian theater logo, Olivier Debie, accused

Tokyo designer Kenjiro Sano of copying his

design. Though Sano claims his work was origi-

nal, Tokyo 2020 Olympics officials have since

sent the design back to the drawing board.

After news of the design debacle entered

social media, Japanese illustrator KanKan cre-

ated a logo incorporating Olympic colors into

the image of a traditional hand fan. “The

folding fan symbolizes good omens in the way

it spreads out, and the tool has been used to

cheer others on since ancient times,” KanKan

wrote of the design on his Twitter feed.

“I believe it’s the best design for an

Olympic motif and it perfectly captures the

Olympic quality of harmony. The theme of

‘Japan (the red suns) being supported by many

peoples’ is also represented in its design.”

That Logo Looks

Familiar …

AD-ITIVES

Continued From Previous Page

TOP

The Théâtre de Liege logo

MIDDLE

The original logo for the 2020 Olympic and

Paralympic Games

BOTTOM

A proposed

design for the Olympic and Paralympic

Games logos.