His new app, JustBecause, just might do that for small businesses looking to acquire new customers. Written up in TechCrunch as a “no brainer” for small companies, Hartman answered a few more questions about entrepreneurship from a young age and how business school helped him shore up some of the things he didn’t know about startups before he landed on his Big Idea.

What does your company do, and how did you get the idea?

JustBecause lets people send gifts for less, while discovering and sharing exciting new products and services. Gifts cost $1 and are worth $10-100 – e.g., a free Uber ride up to $20, a Betabrand t-shirt, or $15 to spend at the Birchbox online store.

I got the idea while working on another company, ReferBoost, which helped create incentives for people to share their apartments online. We had the real estate properties pay for gift cards and I realized that there were some companies that were willing to give away gift cards as a customer acquisition tool. Uber Chicago and Birchbox were early partners in validating that there were lots of early stage companies that would want to get the word out about their products and services through gift-giving.

Did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur before you started business school?

Yes. I’ve always enjoyed starting businesses. Before I could drive, I started a food delivery service to my local pool, as well as a web consulting business in high school to build websites for small businesses.  My goal with business school was to understand the different aspects of high growth, scalable businesses and to learn how to innovate on both product and business model.

What resources did you use at business school?

I was part of the Kellogg Entrepreneurs Organization (KEO), took the interdisciplinary NUvention innovation class, and participated in Kellogg’s Venture Lab. Those are just a few resources I used at school, but they were extraordinarily impactful. I also went into the career office practically every other week my first year to make sure I got the perfect internship to teach me to do what I wanted to do. While I didn’t find my summer internship through career services, their advice was invaluable.

What was the best advice you received while at business school?

Take the job that seems the most scary/challenging/exciting. For my summer internship, that was joining a consumer-facing startup (which ended up being acquired by Facebook while I was there).  After school, that meant starting my own company.

What is your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs or MBA applicants interested in entrepreneurship?

Just do it. It’s so tempting to take a job or to say “I’ll do it later” to entrepreneurship. Taking the leap was really scary for me, but I can’t imagine having done anything else.

Anything else you’d like to add?

We’re constantly looking for feedback on the JustBecause app. Please download it, send some gifts, and let me know what you think at matt@justbecauseapp.com

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• This MBA Quit Investment Banking to Start an Online Fashion Business
• 10 Things I Learned About Startups

The past year has been a crash course for me in MBA living. I’ve experienced the highs and lows the prep books don’t tell you about.

Because I know most MBA types and their significant others are big on planning and research, here is what I wish someone would have told me before we began our journey.

You don’t enjoy being alone.

You’re going to be alone. A lot. If you have kids they may be the only company you have twelve to fourteen hours a day. If your significant other is on a recruiting trek or traveling for interviews you may be alone for days or weeks. It’s rough and takes some getting used to.

There are ways to combat the loneliness. Most schools have excellent programs for partners, spouses, and families but if you have small children it might be challenging for you to find the time and motivation to get out of your apartment. Getting involved with the local community helps. Stay on top of local events and make an effort to attend at least once per month. You will make new friends and so will your kids.

Connecting with friends and family via the Internet helped me, too. I Skyped with my family, Tweeted like a madwoman with other MBA spouses when my husband was out of town, and shared my experiences on my blog. Find what works for you and stick to it. Set up weekly video chat dates with a friend. It will give you something to look forward to and will eventually become a great habit.

Your relationship is not secure.

Your partner will spend all of his or her time with ambitious and intelligent members of the opposite sex many of whom you’ve never met before. There is no way around this. If there are cracks in your relationship before you arrive to campus they could be magnified.

If you’re the jealous type or have a reason to distrust your significant other this is not going to be a good time for you. The only way to prevent this issue is working on your relationship before moving with your partner to his or her new school or by buying this and stealthily following your significant other around campus.

It is perfectly natural to be curious about your partner’s new friends and classmates. Get to know them yourself. Don’t be shy. These people might become lifelong friends or colleagues and could become a significant part of your life for years to come. An added bonus is deterring any would be creepers from moving in on your partner. It’s not fool-proof and you definitely don’t want to become a crazy, uninvited guest; at the end of the day, if your partner isn’t commiteed to you nothing will change that, but at the very least you’ll make some friends.

Don’t forget that this experience is equally stressful for your partner. Set up a dedicated date night where you discuss anything but business school.

My husband and I hired an undergrad as a mother’s helper/babysitter and it was a huge help. We used the time we booked her to grab a coffee or enjoy a rare breakfast at a restaurant. It’s well worth the $10 an hour and if you don’t have kids there is no excuse. Get out there and have some regular fun. Just the two of you.

You don’t handle uncertainty well.

The first year of business school is full of question marks. Your partner may have applied with one post-MBA profession in mind and may change his/her mind two or three times before accepting an employment offer during second year. Nothing’s guaranteed; the company that hired your significant other for an internship may not extend him or her a full-time offer, for example. MBA life is exciting, but the uncertainty is taxing.

After struggling with this issue for months I forced myself to let go. I stopped the countdowns, constant question asking, and looking forward with uncertainty. I made a sincere effort to live in the moment and let go of my anxiety about the future.

Business school occupies a sliver of time and it passes quickly. There is plenty to enjoy and I didn’t want to waste once in a lifetime opportunities by obsessing about the future. I’m much happier this way. I take the adventures as they come and live in the present. I don’t know what post business school life holds for my family but I have faith that it will be wonderful.

Photos courtesy Technori Pitch, o5com (all Flickr).

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You might also enjoy from MBAsocial:

• 6 Must-Have Items Every MBA Spouse Should Have in Their Toolkit

• Are you a Significant Other? Get Involved. Here’s how.

• When the Significant Other Is A Guy

Unfortunately this terrific speech not the only reason HBS has lately been in the news. We join the MBA community in mourning Nate Bihlmaier, to whom Sandberg also gives tribute, and send our thoughts to his classmates and the community for their tragic loss. Jon Byrne of Poets & Quants writes an excellent piece on just what happened, and why Nate was so great.

We hope you enjoy the coming summer season, and good luck to the recent grads.

(1) A New Metaphor for Your Career: Sheryl Sandberg’s Class Day Address to the HBS Class of 2012 [Huffington Post]

(2) The Tragic Death of A Harvard MBA [Poets & Quants]

(3) More Stanford MBAs are Becoming Entrepreneurs [Forbes]

(4) The New GMAT: Thanks, But No Thanks [Businessweek]

(5) Why MBAs Leave Their Jobs After 3 Years and How To Avoid It [MBAsocial]

Photo courtesy of the World Economic Forum (Flickr).

But there are other realities we face after we earn our MBAs, namely, many of us leave these coveted roles within three years of graduation. While there are many reasons for it, the overarching one seems to be lack of fulfillment. We say things like, “I feel like I’m not adding value,” or “I realize that I’m not a salesperson, and I don’t want to be something I’m not.”

While these things may be true, it could also be because we didn’t do what we all learned in business school – leverage our strengths. Perhaps we were so enamored with the signing bonus and pride of saying, “I work at [prestigious company x],” and we didn’t fully embrace our values and how they aligned with the organization. Or, maybe we didn’t fully leverage our powerful alumni networks to find the best opportunities out there.

Looking ahead, how can we ensure that we are moving in the right direction professionally? Here are a few things that my mentor taught me, as well as some insights from fellow MBA peers:

Know thyself is only two words, but packs a powerful punch. It’s important for us to understand our values, as well as our passions and strengths — before, during, and after our education. Remember, knowing what you want and applying that to things such as your job search (active or passive), will ultimately help you in the future.

“Remember what you want to do, and to stay true to that. As long as you do that, you are going to be successful,” says Chirag Saraiya, Principal at TrainingtheStreet and graduate of the Kellogg School of Management.

“While most MBAs are driven by the company’s name or the title of the position, this should not be the leading factor. Finding a good fit, where you are happy and will do well, is much more beneficial over the long-term and will make you more successful,” explains Max Dufour, Principal of SunGardGlobalServices and Fuqua School of Business alum.

Engaging with your network on a regular basis ensures you are not missing out on any potential opportunities. Although it’s not advisable to blindly reach out to your network for your own agenda, know that your MBA network can be a valuable asset in anything from a job search to connecting with the right people.

“When in doubt, reach out. If there’s someone you think would be interesting to talk to, shoot them an email. I was shocked at how much my hit rate improved just by putting ‘Harvard Business School student/alum reaching out’ in the subject line,” said Alan Ginsberg, manager at L.E.K. Consulting and graduate of Harvard Business School.

In closing, I remember some advice one of my mentors offered. He said to continue to make investments in yourself today, tomorrow, and every day after that. Earning an MBA is a huge accomplishment. However, remember that it’s important to keep learning, even after graduation. By continuing to learn about yourself and how you can reach your highest level, you can positively affect how your career is shaped in the future.

“To continue growing professionally with your MBA, do not become too specialized. Constantly challenge yourself with new industries and functions. This varied experience will best prepare you to land in the C-suite someday,” said Shawn O’Connor, Founder and CEO of StratusPrep / StratusCareers and Harvard Business School alum.

What do you think? What advice has your mentor(s) given you regarding your MBA career path?

Comment below, or connect with Chris and BetterWeekdays on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• Thinking About Your 2nd  Job Out of Business School? Some Questions to Ask Yourself

• This MBA Quit Investment Banking to Start an Online Fashion Business

Photo courtesy eric.beasley (Flickr)

Depending on the school selected, it can mean moving from the only state you’ve called home, giving up your car, seeing your spouse less than you’re used to, and a whole host of other challenges that can seem overwhelming at times. It doesn’t have to be, though, if you manage your expectations and set yourself up for success.

If you’re new to this world, however, and you’re looking for a toolkit that can help make the transition a little bit easier, I offer the following suggestions:

Skype. If joining your MBA student at school means moving, there is no better way to keep in touch with family and friends than a computer with webcam access and Skype. I realized this pretty quickly, and since my mom’s desktop PC wasn’t equipped with a camera, I bought her one and shipped it back to Michigan with a note saying I looked forward to chatting with her as often as possible. Yes, phone calls are great, but nothing replaces seeing the fam face-to-face.

Google calendar. This has been a lifesaver. When your MBA student is running between informational interviews, class, group projects and rugby happy hour, it’s easy to lose track of where they are on any given day. A shared Google calendar will give you a general idea of their class schedule and any major upcoming events. This saves you from having to send multiple texts or make phone calls asking if they’ll be home for dinner or not. It’s also a great way for you, the spouse, to plug in important dates that might get overlooked by your stretched-too-thin student.

Library card. Everybody likes books, right? And if you’re a reading purist who prefers to have that book in your hand — as opposed to, say, a Kindle Fire — the library can be the perfect place to spend some quality time while your student is busy with his MBA duties. And if you live in a trendy city like New York, for example, it’s kind of cool to say you’re a card-carrying member of the New York Public Library.

Business cards. If you move to a new city, and depending on your status, you may be pursuing a new job. In addition to utilizing social media to jump-start your search, it’s always a good idea to have business cards with you at all times. You never know who you might run into at one of your spouse’s networking events, and your fellow better halves are excellent resources as well. Just know that having to write your name and number down on a napkin for someone who’s interested in you tends to look unprofessional, so visit a site like Vistaprint.com or Moo.com, and have some quality business cards made for an affordable price.

A pet. I would never advocate adopting a pet out of boredom, but if you’ve seriously been considering adding a dog or cat to your family, the time during business school can be a perfect opportunity. If you have the patience and resources to devote to a pet, they can provide unconditional love and companionship (and excuses to exercise), which really comes in handy when your MBA student’s responsibilities keep them out of the house for extended periods of time. Puppies are great, but can add additional stress, so consider adopting an older pet, one that is already housetrained and simply looking for its forever family. Petfinder.com is a great way to find vetted, adoptable dogs, cats (and more) by zip code.

Valid driver’s license. Having a current driver’s license is important for significant others because it ensures that you can rent a car — or drive your own — whenever you have the desire to get out of dodge for a few days. I swear some days my apartment walls are closing in on me, so knowing that I have the option to rent a car if I need a quick getaway is a big deal. If you’re not living in your home state, or if you’re in a city with convenient public transportation, it can be easy to forget this minor detail, and there’s little you can do about it at the last minute.

I should add that I polled my fellow better halves while writing this post, and one item was, by far, the top must-have tool in one’s arsenal: wine. What else would you add to the list?

Erica Moss is the wife of an awesome Columbia Business School student, and mom to a lovable English bulldog named Mona. She is also the social media coordinator for the online MSN Degree program at Georgetown University. Follow her on Twitter @ericajmoss.

Photos courtesy erix!, AndyRobertsPhotos, osde8info (all Flickr).

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• Are You A Significant Other? Get involved. Here’s how.

• When the Significant Other is a Guy

• 5 Tips for Surviving Business School as a Significant Other

Songhua Hu and Richard Lim

Songhua Hu and Richard Lim will tell you that they are future serial entrepreneurs…and anyone who meets them absolutely believes this.

The two co-founders of Dezzia, a social-media couponing site, are good friends who graduated from Kellogg the same year and became passionate about starting a business together. They both took full-time jobs, but spent nights, weekends and waking moments figuring out how they could disrupt one of the many industries in which they were interested.

They landed on couponing.

Songhua and Richard spent some time with MBAsocial to talk about Dezzia, their new business, why social media is the future of couponing, and their best advice for doing what they did: launch a company in their spare time.

What does your company do?

Dezzia collects and shares coupons from premium brands by leveraging social media. We got the idea by observing the intersection of the coupon business and technology.

Coupons have probably existed as long as any kind of commerce. Traditionally, coupons were delivered to people’s doorstep in print, and the way to target was based on geography and mining of consumer behavior. The Internet has really transformed the coupon business. Coupons started arriving in digital format, and the way to target was based on search intention (SEO, pay-per-click, etc.)  With the emergence of social media, we believe that coupon business is up for another disruption. In the future, coupon will still be delivered in digital format, but the way to target is through networked individuals and groups. The power of social media is yet to be fully explored, and we are here to push the envelope towards a future we believe in.

Dezzia’s core technology is a “Like Gate” that locks the curated coupon code until customers “Like” the coupon.  When a customer unlocks a coupon, they broadcast the coupon to his/her friends.

What’s the future for Dezzia?

We see the company evolving in three stages:

1. Establish a large fan base by curating attractive coupons via social media
2. Negotiate with major brands for exclusive deals with the power of a large fan base
3. Help small businesses to make more sales via coupons and establish a foothold in social media by extending Dezzia’s fan base

Did you know you two know you wanted to be entrepreneurs before you started business school?

Songhua: I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur of some sort.  However, I did not have any actionable plan to get to that point before business school.  Kellogg provided me with three key ingredients: 1) a variety of start-up classes and competitions that turn my startup dream into an actionable plan, 2) a large pool of student entrepreneurs that serve as my role models, 3) a group of close friends and partners that I can always turn to in formulating the business.

Richard: It’s cliché, but too important not to mention. The most important advice I got was to follow your passion.  Life is too short to do something you don’t want to do, and this is even more important when it comes to starting your own business.  There are so many roadblocks, disappointments, and risks involved that if you’re not truly passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll most likely quit.

Songhua: Be world-class in anything you do.  It is an anti-“follow your passion” advice.  Once you commit, never just go half-way.

What is your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs or MBA applicants interested in entrepreneurship?

Richard: Be bold.  It’s easy to come up with ideas, very difficult to execute them.  One of the realizations we had was that we had never failed…and yet we never had a business to call our own.  I feel like MBAs sometimes over-analyze…I have that same problem. But if you never fail, then you can’t iterate and make it work. So my advice – make sure you’re passionate about the idea then just do it.

Songhua: Do not do it alone.  The path of entrepreneurship is lonely and full of self-doubt.  You need someone to sanity-check your vision, provide moral support and help you execute.  If you get to a point that you believe nobody else deserves to (wants to) be your business partner, it is time to doubt yourself.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Richard and Songhua are business classmates from Kellogg. Both have tons of ideas but this is their first execution.  Dezzia is the first, but will not be last.  Stay tuned for more.  We are always looking for advisers and business partners.  Please feel from to contact us at dezziacoupon@gmail.com.

Featured photo courtesy of Kyz (Flickr).

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• This MBA Quit Investment Banking to Start an Online Fashion Business

• 10 Things I Learned About Startups

• Entrepreneur Spotlight: Austin Asamoa-Tutu (Kellogg ’11), SweetPerk

In some ways, Vivek Agarwal is your typical startup founder: business smarts, a passion for starting things, and a family history of entrepreneurship.

In other ways, he’s really not.

Vivek Agarwal

“Most people seem to be surprised when I tell them I did oil and gas M&A at a bulge bracket investment bank, and now I run an online fashion business,” he laughed.

Vivek is an IESE MBA and the founder of Strand of Silk, an online retail store for high-end designer fashions from India. After spending a few post-MBA years working in investment banking, “…like any honorable Indian MBA graduate,” he revisited an old business plan he wrote at school, and decided in 2011 that the opportunity was ripe to leave his job and try his hand at selling high-end Indian garb.

He spent some time with MBAsocial to talk about how he made the decision to leave his lucrative banking career, and his best advice for aspiring MBA entrepreneurs.

What is Strand of Silk?

Strand of Silk is an online retail store for high-end designers from India. The collections are contemporary in nature and are selected to appeal to a wide range of audiences, both Indians and non-Indians.

Who is the target market?

The affluent women we are targeting have a refined taste and want to be different, but in an elegant manner. She appreciates good quality when she sees it. We bring to the Western market high-quality designer wear from some of the best Indian designers that can be styled for Indian events, or for other evening events.

The site was started with “Western” collections from Indian designers, and we tried to target people of Indian origin, primarily affluent women in their late 20s-40s. These women have a more mature sense of style. Based on consumer purchases and behavior, we also launched a new collection that reflects more ethnic and traditional Indian clothes.

Does having an MBA make a difference as a startup entrepreneur?

I chatted with many classmates to discuss idea (Indians, non-Indians), literally showing them pictures of products, and collecting feedback. There were my Initial focus groups.

In later stages, I have also used classmates as a sounding board for new ideas and they’ve been great for a reality check, they will sometimes tell me, “What are you smoking? That’s not going to work.”

What are some words of wisdom you have for other MBAs considering a change in their careers toward entrepreneurship?

When I was exploring the idea of leaving my company, my friend said to me, very bluntly,

“You are a chartered accountant. You have an MBA, you can always find a job. You won’t starve to death. If you don’t try now, when will you try? When you get older, you’ll have more responsibilities, and more to take care of. Don’t’ worry about a steady stream of income. If you do things with a passion, money will follow.”

I took this to heart. I thought, ‘If I could get a job in an industry like banking, I’ll always be able to get a job.’ I’ve also noticed that 2-3 years out of business school is an inflection point for me and my MBA graduate peers. I see people realizing that they took a job that might not have been right for them. You want to be able to look at the past two years and think that you’ve added value to your life, and to your company.

Follow your heart and do things with a passion, the professional satisfaction and money will come.

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• MBA Style: Puja, Kellogg School of Management

• Entrepreneur Spotlight with the Founder of Luxemi, Swapna Chandamuri (Kellogg ’10)

• Why You Should Start a Company at B-School

Now imagine that you are arrested for those beliefs. Pepper-sprayed.  Beaten.

How do NYU MBAs view Occupy Wall Street? As a new student at Stern I’ve been surprised at the categorical acknowledgement by my peers of how bankrupt our country is both economically and politically.

That said, acknowledgement hasn’t translated into action.  We are apathetic, disinterested, and tired.  We focus on what we can control & influence: our careers.  But, we are also victims of cognitive dissonance — the corporations we hope to one day lead are the very ones extending the money-lined handshakes eroding our country.

These companies are motivated. They are winning. The names change, but for each issue (e.g. fracking, copyright, bailouts) they have an asymmetric stake in the outcome, says Charles Hugh Smith of oftwominds. For each special interest, it means massive rewards – rewards worth fighting and paying for.  Meanwhile, the disenfranchised individual voter endures a thousand paper cuts. The private market for government influence is thriving.

Occupy Wall Street threatens this paradigm by showing that the people can still fight.  They are not fighting for one small reform, they are fighting to change everything. In this battle, the stakes are balanced. This is not a one-sided battle, and the other side doesn’t like a fair fight.

We are at an important crossroads. The injustices perpetrated against peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators (whether you support the movement or not) exemplify the systematic rape of our personal freedoms — freedoms that have been assaulted for a decade under the banner of security and order.  At the same time that our constitutional rights and power as a citizenry are being stripped from us, corporations with their “free speech” money are exacting more influence than ever.  The hypocrisy that corporate rights are now more revered and protected in this country than human rights, should not be lost on any of us.

This is not matter of party, both Democrats and Republicans are addicted to the money teat.  This is a matter of democracy at its most fundamental level.

We as MBAs consider ourselves leaders, now is the time to lead. Here’s how to get started:

• Sign: Put your signature on this petition for an amendment to end corporate money in politics (then get everyone you know to do the same).

• Vote: Refuse to vote for or give money to any candidate (of any party) that does not put campaign finance and corruption as their first priority.

• Move: Transfer your money to a local bank or credit union (Apple Bank is a good option in NYC).

• Read: Educate yourself by seeking out information from credible sources (e.g.  Business Insider, Naked Capitalism, oftwominds, and Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig).

• Lead: If you have any way to influence your own company’s lobbying, drive them to support getting money out of politics, not short sighted giveaways/tax breaks.

• Suggest: Add your ideas in the comments section below.

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• How to Get a Job on Wall Street

• How to Make Sure a Recruiter Remembers You by Esther Choy

• 2 Perks, 2 Challenges and 1 Good Reason to Become an MBA Social Entrepreneur by Naomi Korb Weiss

My wife and I read our fair share of parenting materials to learn about caring for the baby, but the is no primer for the emotions and changes in your life that you will experience once a life is dependent on you for everything. The love you feel for your child will forever change you as a human – and it will no doubt alter your perspective as a student.

It can be challenging to excel in the classroom and fulfill your heart’s needs with your new baby, but you can strive to achieve both and here’s how:

• Communicate with your partner: You will need a support system. I rely on my wife to care for the baby when I need to devote time to my studies. We discuss a schedule, and try to keep to it as best we can. My wife is my rock through this journey, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without her.

• Work ahead: Procrastination is the worst enemy of the MBA parent. At every opportunity, I tried to work ahead with my required readings and assignments. You simply never know when you little one is rearing up for a crabby evening or weekend afternoon. Working ahead will help you to keep on track when you lose unexpected time.

• Rally from disappointment: During this first term as a new dad, I did not do as well as I hoped on all my coursework. However, I continued to look for opportunities to excel and used my organizational and time management skills to earn an “A” for my final grade. It wasn’t easy, but the challenge was as rewarding as it was draining.

• Ask for help: When my daughter arrived, I realized early that I would need help with some of my responsibilities outside the classroom. For me, yard work had become a unrelenting burden. For five long months my father shouldered this responsibility for me. I am eternally grateful for the unconditional love and support he gave me, and a large portion of my success this term was due to his willingness to help me when I needed it most.

• Intermingle your responsibilities: A baby is so grateful for your love and affection, even the smallest amount of tenderness will strengthen your connection. For me, I would read my text and case studies on the floor while my daughter played next to me on her blanket. Time like this is so very precious, and it is very reasonable to think that everyone can find moments where being a student and a parent cross paths.

• There will be tough moments: When I would arrive home from class exhausted from a long day I knew that had I missed irreplaceable time with my little one. During these difficult times, I reminded myself that to earn my MBA and give my daughter the best life possible, I must sacrifice time with her now. Although this paradox is hard to accept it is a necessary facet of life for an MBA parent.

We live our life according to the syllabus created by children, not our professors – because while business school is temporary, we will forever be parents. New parents like myself need to understand that although this syllabus can be demanding, it is filled with love, hope and positive energy for a bright future ahead.

(Featured photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon [Flickr]; blanket photo courtesy of the author)

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You  might also like from MBAsocial:

• Lessons Learned from a New MBA Parent

• MBA Style [Baby Edition]: Summer Jane, Columbia Business School

• 6 Tips for Applying the Business School as Husband and Wife

Gift-shopping for adults is difficult. Kids are easy – they want the latest toys or video games. But adults are harder, for many reasons, the following among them:

• He already has everything
• The only things he doesn’t have are the things he can’t afford, and I can’t afford them either
• He won’t tell me what he wants
• He doesn’t know what he wants
• I don’t have time to shop
• etc.

Here’s the rub: finding gifts for your special someone means discovering things that they haven’t already found. And in order to do that, you have to spend more time searching for gifts than they spend shopping for themselves. It’s an arms race!

Lately there are a few interesting sources of unique products cropping up – first and foremost Etsy, a marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy is a phenomenal resource because since most of their artists sell only small quantities of products, everything on the site is unique.

The downside, however, is that there’s a lot of kitsch and crap to sift through. Anyone can sell on Etsy, and they do, so the gems are buried in mountains of crochet owls and more crochet owls. Disclaimer: I do think these crochet owls are kind of cute.

This is exactly why I created my site, Hex Goods; I wanted to create a retail experience where amazingly talented independent designers can really shine. And while I do think we’ve found a few gems, we’re still very early and our selection is limited. So while we get our merchandising engine up and running, let me offer a few pieces of advice for those who are searching for unique gifts.

Pinterest has been getting quite a bit of attention lately for making discovery quick and easy. People post pictures that they like on ‘pinboards’, and you can look at an endless supply of pictures of things that people like. Pinterest is great for getting ideas for gifts, because you can quickly absorb hundreds of pictures at once. The only downside is that most of the things you’ll find on Pinterest aren’t available for purchase (or at least aren’t linked to), so it’s better for generating ideas than it is for shopping. Once you’ve found something you like on Pinterest, you can see if it’s available on other sites like Amazon or Etsy.

2. Let someone else search for you

There are a number of folks out there who do their own curation of sites like Etsy, including Etsy Stalker and Etsy Dudes. They help find the diamonds in the rough, so you don’t have to spend all your time digging through Etsy. Design blogs like Design Milk and Design*Sponge are great as well, although many of the products they feature are not available for purchase.

3. Find almost-available products on Kickstarter and Quirky

Kickstarter, a crowd-funding site for new creative ideas, and Quirky, a “social product development” site, both feature many products that are not-quite-available, in slightly different forms. Kickstarter’s products are made by individuals who are looking to fund their projects (and for many of them if you fund, you get the product when it becomes available). Quirky lets groups of people come together to design new products, and you can put down your credit card to purchase them when they are manufactured (some products that they’ve already started manufacturing are available now). Both of these sites will help you be on the cutting-edge of gift-giving, but you may be leaving an IOU for a future gift under the tree.

Finally, be sure to check out what we’ve got to offer at Hex Goods! If you like our concept but don’t find a product you’re in love with, be sure to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Facebook to stay informed when we receive new products!

Happy shopping,
Zach