Well… we tried. We tried to get Giftomi out to you yesterday, but guess what? Life just ain’t that easy sometimes. :)
There has been some necessary unhappiness with Giftomi for us in the past two days.
First off, Facebook integration not as easy as they make it sound. :) My partner, Gerald Truong, will be posting more information on the issues he has faced later. We love Facebook! And for you noobs out there, reading his posts will hopefully help everyone be more prepared for integration.
Second, Tokbox was down this morning (we are using Tokbox API for Giftomi) so we’ve been delayed in testing. (We love you, Tokbox! You guys are the best). :)
My true disappointment is our vendor for the gift cards. We have been working with a company (to remain nameless) for the past months. We had some informal talks about how this would be implemented, got some test codes, and were ready to go (or so we thought.)
Giftomi is in essence a unique way for multiple users to send a personalized gift card and video message to your friends. MONTHS of talking, and our (ex)vendor told us he still didn’t know what Giftomi was! MONTHS of a “gentleman’s agreement” of how we would work together, how this would all come together, and all of the sudden, last minute (right before launch), they asked for a huge deposit upfront, and was trying to force us not to take any commission for the first month (basically sell their product for free).
It baffles my mind the logic behind the CEO who has been personally working with us on this matter. I feel like this company was trying to screw us out of the deal since Giftomi in essence promotes whatever gift card vendor we will be using to the nth degree. And then, come to find out, they have been “looking” to develop a Facebook app for gift cards. Way to go. No NDA was signed, but we are confident we can work in the Facebook space and they will be a slim competitor, if at all. Pardon my french, but #$%^&*@#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&*!
I am kicking myself in the foot for this. When first talking to this company, they were a bit flaky, but the CEO was so straight-to-the-point, I figured he was just being a sales guy and would understand the benefit of this viable business venture. I should have gone with my gut. So goes @zappos CEO Tony’s saying- “Hire slow, fire fast”. This morning, this rang through my head.
At first, I was going to go through with the vendor and say “to hell with it, we need to get Giftomi out the door”, but then I realized that we need to choose wisely, hire slowly, and be careful with what vendors we work with. This company is no doubt in my mind sue-happy, and we don’t want any weak links (even if we are a small guy right now). It’s not worth it, no matter how much we want to launch.
The delay of Giftomi was a very tough decision for us. But we had to do it. We expect to choose another gift card partner in the coming week.
What would I do differently in the next week when choosing a partner and what should you do as an entrepreneur:
1. Have a solid business proposition
2. Have a demo of the product ready
3. Get things in writing/contracts in place
4. Choose wisely. Hire slowly
We apologize for all those excited to see the revealing of Giftomi, but we promise to keep you updated.
For business friends viewing this, if you have any leads, we are prospecting partners now. (email LiveUmbrella [at] gmail [dot] com).
If you’re interested in the speech that helped us make this decision, and is helping shape our company’s core values and culture, @zappos Tony’s emphasis on company culture slides and speech are here http://startup2startup.com/.
We hope you’re enjoying tagging along for LiveUmbrella’s ride! We love you all for the support you’ve shown us.
-Lady Leet and the LiveUmbrella Team
