GiftCrowd offers an easy way to give gifts together without much effort, whether you’re buying a gift for your child’s friend or a colleague. Pulse 2.0 interviewed GiftCrowd’s CEO and founder, Eshed Doni, to learn more about the company.
Eshed Donis Background
Eshed Doni of Claritas Rx, photographed at SRK Headshot Day in San Francisco, California
What is Eshed Doni’s background? Doni said:
“I was born and raised in a small Israeli town near Tel Aviv. As a child, I was much more interested in outdoor activities than technology – although there wasn’t much of it back then. I started my career in engineering with the Israeli Air Force and moved to New Jersey with my wife and children in 2012.”
“The first company I started was an early mobile application developer. It was profitable within 18 months and was acquired shortly thereafter. In my second company, we developed a mobile group messaging solution similar to WhatsApp, and GiftCrowd is my third company.”
Founding of GiftCrowd
How did the idea for GiftCrowd come about? Doni explained:
“A few years ago, I noticed that no one was collecting money for my son’s Christmas present to the teacher and made the grave mistake of volunteering. I was sure it would take no more than a few emails, as I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I sent numerous emails and reminders, and almost begged the other parents to come forward. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the teacher – in fact, we all loved what she did for our children and appreciated all her efforts – but collecting the money was tedious and frustrating.”
“Two weeks after I started my collection, I thought I had already collected the money from everyone who wanted to participate. I had no idea what to buy, so I went to a pharmacy where they were selling dozens of gift cards and bought one with all the money I had collected. Five minutes later, another parent texted me and said they wanted to participate too. What was I supposed to do?”
“I was shocked at how a simple task turned into a nightmare, and I was convinced there had to be a better way. However, an internet search revealed that there was nothing like it. I started asking other parents how they collected group gifts for teachers, coaches and counselors at summer camp. I learned that everyone had the same difficulties.”
“When I founded GiftCrowd, my goal was to make group gifting – and gifting in general – as simple, hassle-free and fee-free as possible.”
Favorite memory
What was Doni’s best memory of his work for the company so far? Doni recalled:
“While the number of gifts purchased through GiftCrowd has become too large to track, I always enjoy listening to user stories. Last year, I heard from a PTO that a school janitor who had worked at the same school for over 30 years retired and received a meaningful gift valued at over $1,000 with dozens of participants and shoutouts.”
Core products
What are the company’s core products and features? Doni explained:
“GiftCrowd is an online group gifting solution. We have a unique solution for parent-teacher organizations and a consumer solution that makes it as easy as possible for anyone to create a gift, invite others to co-gift, and let recipients choose how they want to spend their gift amount across over 450 brands.”
challenges
What challenges did Doni and the team face while building the company? Doni admitted:
“Our biggest challenge was getting the message out efficiently and cost-effectively. GiftCrowd can be used for many purposes and our goal is to become the website that people go to whenever someone needs a gift.”
“Given our unique solution for teacher gifting, we decided to focus on parent-teacher organizations. Once they start using GiftCrowd, we gradually show them other ways to use GiftCrowd beyond teacher gifting.”
Development of GiftCrowd technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Doni noted:
“At GiftCrowd, we aim to always listen to our users, and many of the features we’ve added over the years have been developed by customers. We strive to simplify the user experience as much as possible and have put a lot of effort into making GiftCrowd as self-explanatory as possible. In addition, our usage has grown exponentially and we’ve invested in scaling our infrastructure.”
Important milestones
What were the company’s key milestones? Doni mentioned:
“Over the years, we’ve achieved several significant milestones – the 100th school to use GiftCrowd, the 100,000th user, reaching $1 million in annual revenue for the first time, and more.”
Success stories of our customers
After we asked Doni about customer success stories, he emphasized:
“One of our parent association presidents reached out to us after completing her gift drive and was thrilled with the results. They had raised three times as much as the year before – this time with no effort. Both parents and teachers were happy and grateful. When I read her unsolicited endorsement, it felt like a marketer’s dream come true!”
Growth metrics
When we asked Doni about the company’s growth metrics, he revealed:
“GiftCrowd has demonstrated continued commitment to its mission to make group gifting easier. In 2023, we were able to distribute over 27,000 gifts to 17,500 individual recipients from more than 36,000 participants, and we expect those numbers to continue to grow in 2024.”
Total addressable market
What size total addressable market (TAM) is the company targeting? Doni estimated:
“The gift market in the US is worth about $180 billion, of which $50 billion is group gifts. Gifts for teachers alone amount to $5 billion per year in the US.”
Differentiation from the competition
What sets GiftCrowd apart from the competition? Doni confirmed:
“GiftCrowd is the only gifting solution for teachers that allows you to collect as many gifts as you want in parallel – with almost zero effort. In addition, GiftCrowd offers the most extensive functionality without charging users anything for using the service. We place great emphasis on the user experience and on maintaining the psychology behind giving and receiving gifts.”
Future corporate goals
What are the company’s future goals? Doni explained:
“We hope to continue to grow and increase our sales.”
Further considerations
Are there any other topics you would like to discuss? Doni concluded:
“I must mention that at GiftCrowd we have several unwavering core values. We never offer users options or opportunities that we as users wouldn’t use ourselves and believe in complete transparency, including sharing our business model with customers. We are also still a small team, but we enjoy every minute of working together.”
“We are a company without hierarchy, which means that everyone has a seat at the table. It doesn’t matter whether we are discussing products, marketing or strategy; every opinion is valued on its merits, regardless of who put it forward.”
