Featured Startup Pitch: Loop & Tie – Curated gift collections for corporate giving

COMPANY: Loop & Tie

ELEVATOR PITCH

Curated gift collections for friends, family, clients and colleagues.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DESCRIPTION

Loop & Tie is a simplified, personalized gift-giving service. It is targeted at large businesses, organizations, and busy professionals who want to provide non-generic gifts and cards for their colleagues, clients, friends, and families.

The Loop & Tie online interface lets customers select the desired gift collection (ranging from $25-$500), create a personalized online card, and enter the contact information for the recipient. The gift collections are extensive and varied so gift recipients can choose anything from pocket flasks and black truffle sea salt to bicycles and golf simulators. The recipient receives a notification through email with the card included. They are then able to choose their own gift from the collection available. The price is never revealed to the gift recipient.

Loop & Tie customers are able to add photos, videos and logos to personalize their online cards. They are also able to use the Loop & Tie gifting dashboard to see what their recipients selected so that they have a better idea of what to give in the future. Customers can track the gift-giving process every step of the way, as well as cancel any unused gifts in their own dashboard.

DIFFERENTIATORS VS. THE COMPETITION

Giving the right gift is a difficult, time-consuming process, especially for large companies. People have specific tastes and eccentricities that make it impossible to please everyone with the same gift. As a result, most gift-giving startups focus their services on individuals, as opposed to corporations or business professionals.

Loop & Tie approaches gift-giving from a B2B angle by forming partnerships with large businesses. The service overcomes the problem of unique preferences in large companies by offering a personalized solution for corporate gifting in which recipients can select the gift that they most desire out of a variety of gift options, and companies can include their own style and branding in the experience.

FOUNDER’S STORY

Founder and CEO Sara Rodell spent years working for UBS in institutional equity sales. During the holidays, she offered to handle client gifts for her group and was frustrated by how difficult it was to find unique gifts. As a result, she settled on sending gift baskets to clients just so she could complete the task, though this left her feeling unsatisfied. This inspired Sara to create a way to send gifts that was quick, but that still provided clients with a unique experience and meaningful gifts. This idea became the foundation of Loop & Tie.

BUSINESS MODEL

Loop & Tie groups gift choices into collections ranging from $25-to-$500. Companies can customize the experience with their own logo and choose to include branded products or services in gift collections. Loop & Tie works directly with small businesses and makers to curate collections with gifts that are defined by their quality, craftsmanship and distinctiveness.

HEADQUARTERS: Austin

WEBSITE: loopandtie.com

YEAR FOUNDED: 2013

TWITTER: @LoopAndTie

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/loopandtie

LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/company/loop-&-tie