How it started

Gift giving is an art. It’s about granting a secret wish for somebody without obligation. It makes other people happy.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Most people like getting gifts, but for me, giving gifts was always more exciting and meaningful. To see somebody smile—or to surprise them with an unexpected treat—was the best feeling ever.

They say there are no accidents in life, so when I landed a job as an event planner at Apple Computer and learned that one of my responsibilities would be to find unique, extraordinary gifts for our conference attendees, I thought all my dreams had come true. Imagination was rewarded at Apple: If I could think it, I could do it.

Early on, I worked with the clothing company Esprit to design a one-of-a-kind Hawaiian shirt. It became an instant phenomenon—we actually had to keep the shirts under lock-and-key to prevent thieves from raiding our event. But for me, it was an aha moment: I knew I wanted to keep creating unusual gifts for special people.

A few years later, I started to do just that, creating my own company to work with other Silicon Valley companies. By now, I was a seasoned gift master who would go to the ends of the earth—literally—to find items that clients would never forget. In Paris, we worked with Baccarat and Veuve Clicquot for a bubbly sendoff gift. For MINI Cooper, we took clients on a road trip through five European countries, then gave them a sterling-silver beer can that looked like the original MINI Cooper exhaust pipe. It was an inside joke—during production of the original car, somebody forgot to include the exhaust pipe and stuck a beer can in it’s place to pass inspection. People got it and absolutely loved it—so much so that attendees stole cans from each other to build six-packs.