GiftBuster App

The perfect gift idea.

August 2014. My wife and I were sitting and drinking coffee in Bryant Park. We were talking about our friend's upcoming birthday. Even though she a was good friend of ours, we didn't know what to buy her for her birthday. We wanted to give her something that she needed. We believe people should always get gifts they want, rather than surprise gifts that they will never use.

My wife wished that there would be an app that would allow you to just look up what other people need. Even if there was one like that out there, our friend wasn’t using it. Neither were we. Actually, none of our friends were using such a thing. There had to be a reason why...

Money, time and stress.

We already knew that finding the perfect gift could be a headache. We were even more shocked when we read a study which showed that 75% of Americans don't like the gifts they receive! That means the majority of gifts are never used; they are exchanged, sold or passed along. That's not only a waste of billions of dollars-- a waste of a tremendous amount of time on shopping-- but this also causes so much stress the gift givers, receivers and stores.

Give them what they need.

We have a friend who is a teacher. Every year for Christmas, he receives ties and coffee from his friends and students . The problem is that he doesn't drink coffee and he already has hundreds of ties. However, he likes to read and watch movies. When it comes to getting gifts, he has said that all he wants are magazine and Netflix subscriptions. How can he suggest to his family and friends what he really wants without hurting their feelings?

Get what you want.

We asked ourselves, "what if the gift you want to receive is really expensive?" Let's say you love good coffee and you just have to have the newest $1500 espresso machine on the market. Unless you have a rich uncle, It's not likely that you will get this kind of gift.

So we thought, "what if all of your family & friends, let's say 30 people, will each chip in $50?" So we designed the “chip in” feature. You can just simply contribute (send money via paypal) towards a more valuable gift. We thought about situations when your family may be spread out all over the country, or you may need to give a last minute gift. It's incredibly convenient. And it's always nicer to get one big gift that you really want or can't afford to buy yourself, than several throw-away gifts.