Giftiki

Giftiki was a collaborative gifting platform built in 2011. We were a seed funded startup capitalizing on an explosive social space.

On your birthday, friends  far and near could give together, helping you get the big ticket item you really wanted. Highly illustrative and colorful, Giftiki felt like a celebration—the way birthdays ought to.

As co-founder of the design studio Public School in Austin, I had been working as a designer & art director for various web and marketing projects. When Bryan Jowers, friend and founder of Giftiki, sold me on his startup dream, I picked up and moved to San Francisco. It was an opportunity to work with friends, build a meaningful product, and set up the foundation for a career in design.

Over the next year and half, we worked hard on the dream. We launched mobile first but released the first web version soon after.

From web version 1

From web version 2

Several feature roll outs, two app versions, a few marketing stunts, celebrity relationships, a huge SXSW decentralized dance party, and many illustrations later we hadn't found our product-market fit. I'll forever love this project for the countless lessons and relationships made. It served as an incredible launchpad for my career in product design.





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