I have been married for four years now and have been officially appointed the “gift-giver” of our immediate family. I should tell you that my husband does about 75% of all the cooking so I have been taking this “gift-giving” title very seriously. In the words of Spiderman (or to be completely accurate… Uncle Ben) – “with great power, comes great responsibility” and boy, will I tell you that the responsibility that comes with this gift-giving title has been immense. Supposedly, giving a gift is easy; it only requires the internet, the giftee’s address, and a pocketbook. However, giving a thoughtful, cherished, and wonderful gift that is not stored on a shelf until the next garage sale has truly been a daunting task.
I never really thought about the fact that as soon as I got married, I would have two additional birthdays to shop for and an additional giftee for both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It does not help that both my in-law’s birthdays are in mid spring, right before Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I hate to admit it, but I have really phoned in my gift-giving duties a few times. In one attempt to get my father-in-law a local potted plant, he ended up receiving a plant with a larger-than-life, tacky, cartoon frog pinwheel attached. He sent a picture of the gift after it was dropped off and I was mortified. Did he think I had no idea what his style was? Did he throw away the unsightly pinwheel the next day? I will never know because I prefer to never actually acknowledge the frog pinwheel ever again. Ignorance is bliss, right?
I know we have all phoned in our gift-giving duties before. I mean, we are all humans and humans are busy. Work. School. After-school activities. Social events. House cleaning. Car maintenance. Well… you get the point. Do you remember a time when you handed over a gift, and kept your head low to the ground because you were embarrassed? Embarrassed that you had no idea what the giftee liked, so you just bought them something that you liked instead. I promise you – we have all been there and we never have to go back. I am sick of buying gifts that are just filling up shelves and then donated a few years later. I want to be a better gifter, but I do not have hours and hours to find the “perfect” gift.
It was in this epiphany that Occasional.ly was born. Occasional.ly is here to reinvent the way that gifts are picked out. Occasional.ly is a web-based platform that provides occasion reminders and uses a data-driven algorithm to recommend relevant, personalized, and unique gift suggestions for all your giftees for every important occasion. There is no more forgetting your anniversary and then rushing to a local Kroger store (no offense Kroger) in the hopes of salvaging the occasion. Our vision is to take the headache out of gift-giving and replace it with an effortless experience.
My husband, Lukas, the CPO of Occasional.ly, has already built the alpha version of Occasional.ly in his free time after work. However, we want to take Occasional.ly to the next level. We believe that with research and development efforts, Occasional.ly can be a one-stop-shop for “gifters” that will provide a synchronized interface recommending relevant products from thousands of retailers. With the funding that we receive, we want to conduct research and development to get to Version One of our mass-marketed Occasional.ly platform. These research and development efforts include: beefing up Occasional.ly’s AI suggestions, sharpening the UX of Occasional.ly, increasing the product variety on Occasional.ly, and creating the Occasional.ly advertising platform.
Occasional.ly values culture and we value our investors and employees and want to make sure that our values align as we proceed through the funding process. Our values not only reflect how we want to build the culture at Occasional.ly but also how we live our lives on a daily basis.
· Occasional.ly is here to reclaim the controversial term, “weirdos”, as we believe that unorthodox, misfit, unique, eccentric, oddball, nonconformist beings redefine the world. We stand behind you and your freak flag and we encourage you to fly it high.
· Occasional.ly believes that generosity will never be a lost art. We strive to spread compassion and generosity in every aspect of our lives.
· Occasional.ly aims to reinvent the way gifts are purchased by repeatedly pushing the envelope. We do not settle because we know that when we do, we miss out on essential growth as an organization and as individuals.
· Occasional.ly strives to create symbiosis in the workplace. Teamwork runs in our blood and inclusivity is not just something we preach; it is something we live by.
· Occasional.ly marches to the upbeat of its own drum. We are a self-proclaimed Pollyanna and even when the water spills, the glass is always half-full.
Lukas and I have determined the ideal starting product team that we need to deliver the aforementioned enhancements to the Occasional.ly platform. Additionally, I have identified the sales and marketing team needed to help Occasional.ly permeate the market and start generating revenue. I have put together a comprehensive budget that outlines the capital needed to fund each department through 2021. I would love to schedule a video call to get to know you, present our official pitch deck and budget, and answer any questions you might have. We believe that with your help, there will be less “gift waste” in the world; one occasion at a time.
Management Team
My name is Abbee and I am the CEO of Occasional.ly who oversees all aspects of the business. I began my career in public accounting at a large accounting firm in San Francisco. I worked with both public and private enterprises in several different industries including technology, agriculture, and healthcare. I enjoyed using my technical knowledge to help clients find strategies to save tax dollars. I then transitioned to a small, local firm in Oregon where I worked with small owner-operated businesses to help operationalize their business processes. I enjoyed the challenge of working with the owners directly and applying my financial knowledge to help business owners make real-time, data-backed decisions to drive revenue growth as well as tax savings.
In 2017, I decided to round out my experience and move to the private accounting sector, so I moved to Indiana to work for a private equity firm. I implemented accounting processes and solutions to help streamline operations as well as the monthly-close process across more than seven technology businesses. I helped grow the businesses both through organic and inorganic growth by helping integrate several business acquisitions as well as providing timely and accurate financial statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Working so closely with the management of so many different tech companies gave me so much insight into the development and growth of tech startups.
I am a licensed CPA in California, Indiana, and Oregon. I currently live with my husband, Lukas, and dog, Sam, in Ann Arbor where I enjoy the beauty of every mid-west season and delicious, healthy food. I am very intrigued by people and cultures and love to travel. Lukas and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a trip to Bali, which was worth every minute of the 24-hour flight. I look forward to getting to know you and showing you what Occasional.ly is all about.
My husband, Lukas, is the Chief Product Officer, and the primary engineer behind the Occasional.ly platform. Lukas spent the first part of his career in the world of sales and marketing. Early on, he got a taste of web development and could not get enough. After that, Lukas became a full-time code addict and product-tinkerer. Soon, he became a full-stack engineer who could take a feature from the back-end trenches of the database layer all the way to the user interface on the front-end. The full-stack mentality really unleashed Lukas’ product-building appetite and allowed him to gracefully build features end-to-end for Occasional.ly. Lukas also has a serious love for design and over time has gained a lot of design skills across UI design to illustrative graphics. These visual and technical skills have given Lukas the tools to breathe life into the Occasional.ly platform.
Besides software development, Lukas brings another important trait to product leadership at Occasional.ly. Lukas’ main love language, for giving, is gifts. Yes, you read that right. That means when it comes to Valentine’s day, Christmas, or my birthday to name a few, Lukas takes the quality of his gift-giving very seriously. As a result, Lukas already has the mindset of a true “gifter” which helps drive the product roadmap for Occasional.ly.
Outside of Occasional.ly, Lukas’ career has brought him to a couple startups in the payment processing space. Most recently, he has worked at a startup focused on small business banking in Detroit. At this company, Lukas has helped deliver new product features that allow small businesses to get paid faster.
When Lukas is not slinging code or envisioning the Occasional.ly product roadmap, he enjoys cherishing Abbee, having fun with his dog Sam, relishing the outdoors, and dabbling in woodworking.
The Deal
Class B Units Offered
$12.50 Price/Unit
Minimum Investment: $100,000
Total Units Authorized: 1,000,000
Goal Capital Raise: $2,500,000