One Sonic the Hedgehog and a Love Connection Later — Token Delivers
Your old college buddy just got married, your cousin had a baby, someone did something nice for you and you were compelled to do something in return …😖
All of these are moments where you may feel moved or even obligated to give a gift. We all know that one person who has a knack for finding the perfect gift, every time, no sweat. But for most people (me included), the current process of gift giving just sucks and probably involves you bumbling around a bunch of e-commerce sites, possibly going to your local mall (assuming it hasn’t closed down) or maybe just resorting to a simple e-gift card. There must be a better way, right?
Meet our latest Upfront investment — Token. It’s a combination of an incredibly easy-to-use mobile app, human curation, artificial intelligence and expertly managed fulfillment that streamlines the process of gift giving and makes the experience of receiving a gift that much better.
As amazing as that may sound, using is believing — so to better tell you how it works, let me share a few examples of my own experience during the closed beta program.
My buddy Jack just turned 40 and his wife was throwing a surprise birthday party. Confession: I totally forgot it was coming up until I was reminded by another friend less than seven days out. I wanted to get him something cool that stood out but had no idea what … the Token moment arrives!
I chose multiple gifts to be packaged together with specific delivery requests.
The above process took minutes to execute. With just a few datapoints provided to Token’s team, they were able to give me a number of options where the classic Sega Genesis Console and video game coffee table book were the perfect gifts specifically for Jack. He received the items exactly when I requested, together in one beautifully wrapped box.
And the proof of the perfect gift? It made the Gram!
In private beta up until now, the company has already made an impact on so many lives, helping to strengthen relationships by streamlining the entire end-to-end process of gift giving and elevating the unboxing experience.
True story: it even offered some fellow portfolio company value-add to Adam (CEO of TheWaveVR) in helping spark a love connection!
Token is bringing experiences like this to life every day. What I think is so amazing about the above experiences are the recipients documenting their experiences by taking pictures or posting on social media. It’s difficult for most of us to achieve that level of satisfaction on our own, even if you take all the time in the world to think of the perfect gift. The beauty of Token is that it helps you find the perfect gift and present it in a magical way. It’s assistance, not outsourcing. I find it dramatically easier to give better gifts and to gift more (we all have those moments where we feel like we should give a gift but something just prevents us from doing so).
And I’m not alone — gift-giving in the US is a $131 billion market. Jonathan Jarvis (CEO) and the Token team are looking to take a huge bite out of it by rethinking the approach from the ground up. He’s the right entrepreneur to do it, too — prior to starting Token, Jon was the Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab, leading high profile projects including Google’s new logo and identity rebrand and Google’s assistant products like Voice Search, Google Now and Search Actions. It’s the perfect background to tackle an opportunity where the subtle balance between experience/design and automation are crucial for success. In today’s world where so much attention is paid to machines accomplishing human tasks, it is refreshing to see a team so focused on putting humans and emotions first and properly leveraging machines to make experiences that much better. We at Upfront are excited to welcome the team into our family.
I highly encourage you to download the app and try sending someone a gift (don’t forget, Mothers Day is May 14th!) Not only will that person thank you, but you may thank yourself for giving this experience a token of your time…
