
Show HN: Thankbox – collect messages and cash for team occasions - ValCanBuild
https://thankbox.co
======
ValCanBuild
Hi HN,

Thankbox is idea I started working on last year but had to park due to other
commitments. At the start of March, when I realized that everyone is going to
be working remotely, I decided to dedicate to it completely and get it out for
teams to use.

The idea is super simple - it's a better, online alternative to the paper card
+ envelope collection that you'd have for a team member occasion. It's also
great for remote groups of friends.

In 2 minutes you create a Thankbox for someone, share a link to your team to
add messages, gifs & (optional) money contributions. Once it's done you pop in
the recipients email and they get a secure link where they can see all the
messages and claim any money as a gift card to whatever merchant they want.

On a technical note, this product has forced me to learn frontend coding, as
I've been a pure native mobile engineer for ages. I've done this all in Vue.js
(with Laravel in the backend) and have been having _so much_ fun. Definitely
more enjoyable than working on apps - the iteration cycle alone is incredible.

------
itworkedforme
Hey - this looks awesome, especially now that more folk are having to embrace
remote working - definitely going to be trying it out. And welcome to the
frontend ;-)

One thing that often happens when folk move on is that they pass out their
contact details - usually email address to enable people to keep in touch with
them - does thankbox allow the recipient to send a message to all those that
contributed? This would allow them to express thanks (should they want to!)
and possibly share contact details.

~~~
ValCanBuild
>And welcome to the frontend Thanks! I can't believe it took me so long to
embrace it haha.

Yeah, so anyone that adds a message to a Thankbox can leave their email in
order to get a link to edit their message before the box is sent. This is
optional - I really only aim to collect data that's necessary.

I'm currently working on a feature to allow the recipient to respond to
everyone who contributed (if they left their email) which I think would
address what you mention.

------
dasboth
I was invited by a friend to contribute to a birthday card on it and loved the
experience. Great job, will use this in the future!

------
joe-pritchard
Looks great, we'll definitely take a look for our next birthday! Will it be
subscription based for teams or priced per contribution?

