gifting
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Flowwow learned the hard way: a bouquet is a promise
Half the orders in an early holiday test went unfulfilled. Flowwow built a business by closing that gap - then took its local-shop model into cakes, gifts and an international operation now called Udora.
Backer
Backer is a San Francisco fintech company that makes it easy for families to open and grow tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts, letting relatives and friends chip in through shareable gifting pages. Founded in 2016 as CollegeBacker, the company acquired the education-savings resource Saving For College in December 2023 alongside a $9.5M Series A round, pairing its consumer savings app with one of the web's most-used 529 research destinations.
Jimmy Lion
Jimmy Lion is a New York-founded designer sock brand launched in 2014 by two Spanish MBA classmates, Felipe Cortina and Alvaro Gomis, who left banking to make original, premium-quality socks at accessible prices. Known for bold prints and licensed collaborations spanning artists and pop culture (Basquiat, Friends, Alfred Hitchcock, Jurassic World), the brand sells direct-to-consumer online and through roughly 400 multi-brand and department stores across 50+ countries, and has expanded beyond socks into tees, underwear, swimwear and slippers.