Dmitriy Peregudov and staff members from Giftsenda.com and GiftBasketsOverseas.com at a team-building retreat. / Photo courtesy of Peregudov
Anyone who has attempted to ship a gift overseas knows that it is an expensive and challenging process with no guarantees. Packages often never reach the intended recipient, having been held up at customs. Or worse, the package arrives damaged, having been opened at customs, inspected and repacked inadequately.
Private shipping vendors who specialize in international shipping may charge $50 to $75 on top of the cost of the gift. Having emigrated from Russia in 1997, software engineer and entrepreneur Dmitriy Peregudov was often challenged with sending flowers overseas to his mother and other loved ones.
Living in Arlington and equipped with an MBA in entrepreneurship from Babson’s FW Olin Graduate School of Business, he saw an opportunity to solve a problem and make a profit by founding his first start-up, GoodChoiceFlowers.com, which makes it quick and easy to select and send flowers to friends, family and colleagues overseas in more than 180 countries.
Business blooms
His success with the flower venture, led him to his next — GiftBasketsOverseas.com, an e-commerce platform that facilitates consumer to consumer giving in the form of lavish but reasonably priced gift baskets containing a range of goodies, including gourmet chocolates, wines, cheeses and wellness items such as scented candles and lotions.
With 100 employees situated around the globe, GiftBasketsOverseas grew rapidly into a $14 million business during the Covid pandemic, when people, working from home and prohibited from in person gatherings and travel, were seeking a personal connection through gift giving. Speaking to YourArlington from his current residence in Bedford, Peregudov credits some of his success to his education at Babson, which taught him to be more open to taking risks and garnering investor support when pursuing a viable business idea.
Peregudov
Realizing that many of his gift-basket customers were corporations looking to build relationships and brand loyalty through gift-giving, Peregudov saw an opportunity to found his next venture, Giftsenda.com, in 2021.
For corporate gifts
Giftsenda is a subscription-based platform that offers customizable gift-giving for corporate clients on demand and at scale. The platform can be fully integrated with a corporation’s customer-management system, making it quick and easy to send gifts to hundreds of corporate clients, vendors or employees — saving time and money. As with Peregudov’s previous ventures, gift items are sourced and delivered locally in more than 200 countries worldwide.
A unique selling point of Giftsenda is that it empowers the recipient of the gift to choose whether to keep, swap or donate the value of the gift to a preferred charity. In turn, the corporate giver is assured that the recipient is satisfied with the gift, and nothing is wasted.
Included in a corporate subscription are Giftsenda’s design services for customizing swag with corporate branding as well as for distributing it. Three years into its life as a start-up, Giftsenda is breaking even and aims to increase its customer base to generate $6 million in revenue in 2025, with a five-year target of as much as $50 million.
What’s popular?
So what are the popular gifts to give this holiday season? Peregudov said Giftsenda’s corporate clients are sending branded Yeti mugs with matching branded coasters, health-and-wellness items such as massage guns and sleep masks, and the always-popular fitness trackers, Airpods and Apple watches.
What drives people and businesses to give? Peregudov references the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest study ever conducted on human happiness. Over the 80 year life of the study, researchers found that the No. 1 predictor for a healthy and long life are personal relationships and social connections. Peregudov’s belief in the value of person to person connection informs his entire approach to building businesses that help people build lasting relationships.
The address for Giftsenda is a mailbox in Arlington Heights.
Dec. 24, 2023: Christmas gifts presented to kids by police officers, firefighters, housing employees
This news feature by YourArlington freelancer Maura Shea Crowley was published Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024.
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