Interview with Unwrapit co-founder Linsay Moran

My name is Dustin Betts. I'm the content editor at the Founder Institute, and I'm here today with Lindsay Moran of Unwrapit. It's an FI Toronto company creating a better way for enterprises to gift virtually and experientially. Lindsay Moran, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me, Dustin.

So before we dive into your startup Unwrapit, can you tell us first a little bit about yourself or your personal startup story? You know, what were those experiences of yours professional or personal that led you to founding this company focused on improving, improving gifting for enterprises?

Sure, yeah, I can absolutely tell you about a bit about that. I think, you know, for me, I think I've always been pretty firmly rooted in what I would call sort of a social impact space. So whether it be starting my career in events, and I did some amazing events starting in the UK and then coming back to Canada, in the charitable sector, for example. I worked in the charitable sector for a number of years. And more recently, I worked for a company that actually repurposed car tires and made them into products for the construction industry. So I've always been involved in sort of a social impact, either for-profit or nonprofit business. I worked in the women's leadership space for a long time. And so this concept of like business for good has always been really key for me. And I think that that's sort of what ultimately, I think ultimately, Ultimately led me here for sure. You know, I met Peter. Peter's my co-founder at Unwrapped. I met him in, you know, this infamous 2020 year. And he and I started chatting about the concept of Unwrapped and what it could be and what it would mean. I mentioned that I come from the events industry and I really saw a huge potential for it in that industry because obviously events has been so challenged and, you know, as a result of the pandemic. But not just that, you know, for other purposes as well. So he and I chatted, you know, he was looking for, someone to join him in the Unwrap It journey, I suppose. And, you know, we also came together and found our third co-founder, Taylan, and together here we are. So it's sort of a, you know, a little bit of a journey through social impact starting from events, you know, going into sort of business operations, always working in that sort of space where I'm able to help other people, etc. And here we go. So that's a little bit about me.

Awesome, perfect. That really, yeah, cues it up because my next question is sort of, you know, I'm a little bit familiar with Unwrapped as an FI company that is virtual and enterprise-ready gifting, but let's kind of hear it straight from you, the founder.

Give us your story. Straight from me.

Yeah, what is Unwrapped?

All right, Unwrapped is a virtual gifting platform and we help organizations spark and maintain meaningful connections through this fun, personalized Unwrapped experience. The gifts that we offer are digital, they're experiential, they're practical and charitable, but they're never physical and they don't require shipping, they don't require logistics, and therefore they won't end up in landfill. So that's just a quick little snapshot about us.

Perfect. Yeah, we'll dive into all of those kind of aspects. And to kind of, for the first part, you know, a lot of enterprise swag is basically destined for the landfill, right? Kind of talk to us about the scope of of challenges or in the past that enterprises have faced in gifting, you know, not just for the event attendees, but also their employees and supporters.

Yeah, yeah. And it's not just, I would say it's also just not only enterprise, right? It's anybody who wants to give a corporate gift. So yeah, I mean, the corporate gifting market in North America is huge. It's just absolutely massive. The amount of money that's spent annually on gifting. I'm sure we'll get new, new stats stats that come out of 2020 that might have shifted that slightly. But, you know, I actually think that those statistics could be higher because people are actually doing different things, unique things because of the pandemic, of course. But the reality is that giving gifts in a corporate setting, it's hard, right? And it's been, you know, it's hard. It's hard to find the right thing. And it's been made harder, obviously, by everything that's happened over the last little while. So, you know, the challenge, as you just said, is, you know, have we, have you been to an event? You know, have you been to an event? Did you get, swag, did you get promotional materials, do you remember what you got, do you use what you got, did you take it, did you even take it home with you in the first place is one of the big challenges, right? And that in and of itself is a huge problem. And so, you know, really, this is all, these are for all of these reasons we felt like there was a different way. There's got to be a better way to do this. You know, some of the challenges that we're looking at, as I said, that we're in this sort of digital-first world that we're all living in at the moment, whether it be attending events virtually, you know, you're in an office setting and you're hybrid remote with your your team, whatever the case may be. There's a whole sustainability piece around it, which will— I'm sure we'll get to, you know, people are more and more conscious of that. And, you know, people are, people are looking for, you know, different things, they're looking for things, something that is more personal to them, that one size fits all doesn't really work so well anymore. And so, for all of these reasons, all of these challenges, you know, as I said, we felt like there's, there's got to be, there's got to be a better way to do this. That's not physical, that doesn't require the logistical headache that traditional gifting has done in the past.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Perfect. And now I understand that you've officially launched, so congrats. Thanks. Yeah, in contrast, I guess, to those traditional challenges. Yeah. Talk to us about this sort of experience for a first-time person coming on to Unwrap It.

Yeah, great. Great question. I mean, if you look at what the traditional way of giving gifts, whether it be, you know, to event attendees, employees, etc., it always starts with the thing, right? The thing, the procurement of it, figuring out what you're going to give. It's often, as I said, you know, a moment ago, one-size-fits-all sort of what do we get that everybody will like. Inevitably, you're forcing something upon people. They don't necessarily want it or need it, you know, and whatever it is, it has to be manufactured, often overseas. It has to be packaged, often excessively, has to be shipped. And then there's obviously the logistics of it and getting it to the people. And then the actual recipient experience itself, not traditionally, hasn't really been factored in. So what we did, you know, and looked at that is basically turned it on its head. We sort of said like, what if we looked at all the traditional ways of doing this and we turned it around? What if we made it, you know, less corporate, more connected? And instead of starting with the thing, start with the recipient, start with them and start with their experience as the focus. And, you know, they aren't just getting a gift, they unwrap the gift. It's personalized, it's fun, it's a little bit quirky, it offers a gift, a choice of a gift that they can actually like and use. For the individual giving the gift, the procurement, the heavy lifting of that is done. They're able to choose from a curated list of these sort of digital options that we've brought together in a shop for them. The logistics aren't necessary. You can send one gift to one VIP person or 10,000 gifts to 10,000 event attendees, and there's no need to package it and ship it and deliver it. And obviously the bonus of it all is that it's sustainable, right? That it's not adding to landfill. And in the end of all of that, it's creating this really cool, meaningful connection, we call it, for the individual who's receiving the gift because they feel as though they've been really thought of, right? Like it talks to them, it gives them a choice, they're having this experience. And so it, you know, as I said, traditionally we've started with the thing and then we've pushed it out to the person. This way around, we're looking at the person and what their experience is like. And then offering them the thing by choice and digitally.

Yeah, that's perfect. I'm glad you spoke to that phrase meaningful connections because I wanted to ask you about it. And like an example, I think that I— from your website, that just to tease it out a little bit would be like, um, you're providing somebody with a professional headshot appointment with a photographer. Yeah, I just— that one really jumped out at me as like something where, oh yeah, I can see how meaningful and it has like real utility. I don't know if you want to speak to like any other examples, um, that kind of fit that meaningful connection. So I thought that one was like super interesting as a gift.

Yeah, no, that's a great one to pick out. Yeah, I mean, I think we've done, you know, prior to all of this, of course, we've done a lot of reading, a lot of research, and, you know, I think most people will agree that ultimately the best gift is the gift that someone wants, right? So that may mean that they can enjoy it or they can use it or, you know, even that they can pay it forward. And so that example that you've just given, you know, I know I need new professional headshots, so I need someone to give me that gift. Um, but yeah, I mean, if I was offered that as one, you know, not necessarily just given that, that offer that as one of a choice of gifts, like that would resonate with me for sure. It may not resonate with everyone, and that kind of goes back to the whole, the meaningful connections piece is, you know, giving the person a choice and curating a list of options that we think that might, you know, matter to them. Giving something, the sentiment is always there in a positive way when you give something, right? But, you know, feeling like you receive something that's personal and sort of more tailored, obviously it's going to resonate further. So yeah, we have all kinds of really fun options. We did a little sort of crowdsourcing campaign back around Black Friday to sort of expand our thinking, and things that bubbled up were sort of learning and experiential things like MasterClass. And we got suggestions for practical things like TaskRabbit and Jiffy on Demand. And we've, you know, have sourced some fun ones like Covitar, which is really cool. It's a gift of a premium portrait. So it's basically your portrait handmade by a digital artist, and then people can use it on social media. In work settings and that sort of thing. So, you know, there's lots of cool things. We've, you know, really focused also on the pay-it-forward element as well. We feel like that's really important. And it allows an organization to give a gift at an event or whatever it may be at scale in a really meaningful way. And obviously, you know, without the hassle of having to arrange all of those individual gifts themselves. So Yeah, that's, that's sort of like gives you a little snapshot of all the different things. But we're trying to cover all the bases. So again, the choice is there, and that there are choices that resonate.

Perfect. Next topic I want to ask you about is the circular economy, because I think you have a sort of a different take. Most people think about repurposing products, but talk to us how you're thinking about the circular economy at Adon Rapid.

Yeah, I mean, I even thought of the circular economy in the more traditional way, I think, you know, prior to coming to Peter and Taylor and I coming together to form Unwrap It. Because, you know, traditionally, the circular economy is you take something and you bring it back and you reuse it, reuse, repurpose, the whole reduce, reuse, recycle, right? It's that kind of concept. But beyond that, you know, there is an actual concept around the circular economy of designing out waste. So design it out right at the outset. And so for us, that has been one of our big focus is like we can solve part of this waste problem by creating this, you know, meaningful way to give a gift again in a variety of different settings. And that gift doesn't have to be manufactured, right? It doesn't have to be shipped, it doesn't have to end up in landfill. Corporate gifting generally is traditionally sort of a— I would say it's a stuff business. We give stuff to show thanks, and that relationship between stuff and resources and economic growth is sort of— it's hard to break it. So to design out that waste element right at the, you know, as part of the concept at the very beginning, I think is key. And we're proud of that.

I love that thinking and just combining it with Unwrapped itself because it's like a scalable way for an organization to do that. Exactly. And so, yeah, I just think that that's really cool. Next one, I wanna ask you to go out on a limb a little bit, make a prediction for us. You know, obviously COVID, as you talked about, totally changed the event space at least, but what's your prediction for how, I guess, gifting is gonna change change, you know, over the next 5 years? And feel free to toot your own horn or recap some of the other things that we've talked about, but is this coming fast and never looking back, do you think? Or what changes are coming?

Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I just said a few moments ago that once we sort of see what all of the trends are fully out of 2020 and early 2021, but I think, you know, the events industry has traditionally given gifts. They've given, you know, gifts, swag, whatever it looks like. That won't change. We're really connected into that industry. And, you know, the events industry is probably going to end up becoming, I would say, more hybrid, which is actually excellent. You know, people, there will be an in-person element of events, but then people can also attend virtually. And actually for us, there's a little, our little toot our own horn moment. You know, I think we can actually help to level that playing field a little bit, right? Because it gives an opportunity to, for event organizers and sponsors and everyone else engaged in the event to be able to offer a similar experience to those who are in person and attending virtually. But notwithstanding that, if we look at, you know, corporate gifting, more traditional, in, you know, in an office setting or, you know, team engagement, you know, team and employee engagement, you know, I think that the role of gifting will continue to be more important. I think as teams potentially end up being in more of a hybrid work environment and not having everyone under the same roof all working together in the same office, those little moments of reaching out to someone and offering them a small little thank you and a small little thing will be key. And HR managers can certainly use Unwrapit to do that for sure and do it in a way that isn't, again, isn't logistically burdensome for them. So I mean, there will always be gifting. Gifting is a part of what we do. It's in pretty much, it's in every culture. It's what we do. And so I think this is just offering people a different way to do it and in a unique way too.

Yeah, I like that prediction and how you kind of dovetailed it with what's happening overall with just as we move back to post-pandemic and hybridized basically being the future. And how it levels the playing field. I think that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, and that will be across industries, I think, right? And I think the other thing too is, you know, people are becoming, thank goodness, more and more sustainably minded. I think as consumers generally, people are becoming more aware of that. And, you know, dare I say that going back to normal and returning to going to in-person events, for example, or, you know, getting physical things from you know, from a, you know, a potential customer or something like that going forward. It won't be great brand connection and brand recognition if those things are not thought of. So, you know, that's our whole thing as well as like people are— it's that consumer preferences thing. They're looking for, they're looking for things with meaning and that meaning could also be something that's sustainable.

Perfect. You've obviously done a huge amount to build Unwrapit to where it is today. At the product launch, talk to us about some of the biggest challenges that you've overcome as a founder so far in getting the company off the ground?

Yeah, I mean, we're still really early days, so I'm sure if we had this conversation a year from now, my answers would be completely different. But yeah, it's the common challenges, right, of just wearing all the hats and making sure that, you know, 3 of us, Peter, Talon, and I are wearing all the hats right now, that we're keeping a pretty focused effort on the, you know, what we're doing for the product. It's so easy to get distracted and have talked to people who give us all of these amazing ideas about what we can do with the product. And some of them we have integrated, and some of them we've said, that's got to be a parking lot that we'll do at some point. There's been a ton of inbound interest. And so, you know, honing in on that has been a big focus for sure. But I would say like our only challenge really is, is a good challenge in the sense that, you know, this is different, right? It's not the term disruptive, I think gets thrown around an awful lot, maybe overused in some ways, potentially. And, but I think, you know, here it's like, I think it's more, it's innovative, right, which is like a new method, a new way of doing things. And, you know, frankly, that can be a bit hard for people to wrap their head around, right? Like, I've always done it this way, and so to do it any differently is a bit tough. So it's just been about honing in on that messaging and making sure that people understand that. So not a challenge per se, but just a good ongoing kind of learning for us. Yes.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I want to ask about advice that you might offer for other early-stage or aspiring entrepreneurs who are just getting started. So I don't know, really early stage and a little bit generic, but is there anything you wish you had known getting started a year ago?

Not anything I would have known. I'm just so glad. I think it's so important in this situation to be working with people that you really enjoy working with and that you trust. You know, starting a business in the middle of a pandemic is not for the faint of heart, I can tell you that right now. You know, Peter and Taylor and I have logged a lot of hours on Zoom, as many, many, many people have over the last year. But, you know, we haven't had the opportunity to build a rapport with each other in person, as you normally would. And so I think, you know, what that has kind of like really, really honed in for me is how important that, again, meaningful connection, but how important that connection is with those that you're working with in those early days, and that you have each other's backs, and that you're, you know, you're plugging the holes in the dam as you need to, and you know that everyone's pitching in to do that, which I think is really key. So pandemic or not, that will always be important, I think, in an early day, early days of a startup.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, final question I have is just sort of where is Unrapid headed next? I mean, any news or updates to share with the FI community? Or any asks for anybody who might be watching the video? Yeah.

Well, we're, as you mentioned, we're officially launched. We will have a new website up momentarily, so I'm really excited about that. So I would encourage the community to keep an eye on our site, unwrapit.com. We plan to launch a sort of a self-serve admin portal element of Unwrapit later on this year, which means that people will be able to create and implement their own campaigns. Right now, you know, we're helping, we're supporting that to make sure that everyone has a great experience. And we can get a sense of where the pain points are, but we're excited about that sort of self-serve element. So my only ask, I guess, would be, you know, if people are considering giving corporate gifts this year, whether it be at an event or to their team or to their clients, you know, obviously we'd love for people to reach out and connect with us and see if it might be a fit and chat, chat further. That's my only ask.

Perfect. Yeah. And the URL is really easy, unwrapit.com.

So unwrapit.com. So that's us.

Yeah, to go check it out right now. This has been really interesting learning a bit about the gifting space and how it's changing. I think it's really interesting how you tied everything back into hybridize as we now sort of look beyond the pandemic, but see that this like hybridized work as well as hybridized events is sort of here to stay. So I think that's all super interesting. And yeah, at Founder Institute, we're really looking forward to keeping up with Unwrapped and where you're headed next. But Lindsay Moran, thank you so much again for joining us today.

Thank you, Dustin. Thanks so much.