Tamsin Driscoll
Building Better Gift Experiences
Back in 2018, I was working for one of those big corporate gift companies. You know the type—everything gets outsourced, nobody actually talks to clients, and the flowers arrive looking nothing like what was ordered. One day a client called me directly, bypassing the usual support channels, just to say thank you because their order actually arrived on time. That conversation stuck with me.
The problem wasn't that people didn't care. It was that the whole system was built around efficiency metrics instead of actual human interactions. So when I left that job, I wanted to build something different. Not revolutionary or disruptive—those words get thrown around too much. Just better.
We started small in 2019, working with three local businesses in Baku. Now we work with about forty companies across Azerbaijan. That's not massive growth by startup standards, but it's sustainable. More importantly, I can still personally check in with most of our clients throughout the year. That matters to me more than scaling fast.
These days, I spend most of my time working with our suppliers and training the team. We've lost some clients over the years—usually because their budget changed or they went with someone cheaper. That's fine. The ones who stay appreciate what we do differently, and that makes the work worth it.