

How Spoil (YC W15) avoided paying for the word 'gift' during the holidays - mlevkovsky

As a startup that curates and delivers gifts we wanted to avoid bidding and paying for clicks on the word gift. That competition would be way to expensive this time of year, and we need to be as frugal as possible.
What we did was approach a bunch of companies here in Montreal and offered to be their official secret santa provider. This allowed us to get free exposure, orders and even if companies said no, people still found out about us and ordered gifts individually.
If you guys want to send out some awesome gifts this holiday season, check us out at https:&#x2F;&#x2F;spoil.io! 
Any feedback on the experience would be super appreciated.
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minimaxir
Er, are you actually YC W15?

If so, this is an incredibly terrible way to announce your affiliation.
Spamming HN? The batch hasn't even started yet!

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mlevkovsky
Sorry you feel that way. I don't mean to be spamming, but I wanted to take
Paul Buchheit's advice that he posted on our Google group today. I thought I
had an interesting story and wanted to share with you guys. Didn't mean to
come of as spammy, honest mistake if I did. Still learning the ropes around
here.

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Artemis2
Looks really sleek! Too bad your service isn't available in Europe :<.

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mlevkovsky
Thanks for the kind words! ya sorry about that, we wish we could open up in
Europe but impossible for now :(

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eyaltoledano
Loooove the service. You _actually_ deliver the experience you promise. Props.

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mlevkovsky
many thanks! ya we are always trying to improve the experience people have
with us. Started off pretty rough lol, but as of late people are loving what
they are getting

