Fete Lifestyle Magazine July 2016 - Tech Issue | Page 32

FLM: How did you come up with the idea for desirelist and why do you think it will resonate with your target audience.

Eric: It came from a simple need. When I sold part of Music Dealers to Coca-Cola, I wanted to buy everyone in my family a nice, thoughtful gift for the holidays. I spent hours and hours trying to shop for everyone and had no idea what to get. It was a very frustrating experience and by the end, I just bought everyone the exact same gift, which made me look lazy and careless -- the exact opposite of what I wanted to accomplish in the first place. For my nieces I got them something different. My sister told me what her 6-year-old girl wanted, so it made everything easy. I loved watching her excitement knowing I got her something she truly wanted. But for my brother’s 4-year-old-girl, I thought I had found a really great gift, so I didn't ask. When she opened it, I knew immediately I messed up. She started crying, dropped it, and called me the worst uncle ever. It was heartbreaking! I learned later it all could have been avoided when my brother said, "You should have asked me, I keep a list of the things she wants on my phone." That's when the idea for desirelist was born. If I had access to not only my niece’s list, but all my family members’, I would have been like Santa Claus instead of looking like I didn't care. When I looked into the business effects of this issue, I learned that of the 200 billion dollars’ worth of gifts bought during the holidays in the US alone, over $63 billion is returned and an additional $14 billion goes wasted or unused. That seems like a nice sized market to create a solution which helps people improve relationships and give more meaningful gifts while exerting much less effort.