449. Gift Guide 🎅
Shopping ideas to delight your people
Hellooo 👋 So happy to have you here. I’m Kevan. I have spent 15+ years as a head of marketing for some cool tech startups. Now I’m co-founding a brand storytelling business called Bonfire. We do coaching, advisory, and content, and we’d love to hear from you, anytime. Come say hello.
2023 Gift Guide
One of my most joyful activities when leading marketing teams was finding reasons to give my team gifts. I would occasionally do it after big launches or meaningful milestones. I would try to do it as an end-of-year treat, too.
(And apologies to all my international teammates who probably got about half of the things I sent them ever!)
So for anyone looking to delight their team or colleagues — or friends and family — I thought I would put together a list of a few of my favorite shopping sites and gift ideas. As always, the less materialistic one can be, the better. So shop with full hearts and consumerism discretion!
1 - Make a donation
Here are a few of my favorite non-profits doing work with diversity in tech:
Code2040 — Their mission is racial equity in tech, particularly with leadership opportunities for Black and Latinx people
Black Girls Code — Computer programming education for girls of color
LGBT Tech — Working to bridge the technology gap for all LGBTQ individuals
If you’re interested in even more non-profits that support diversity in tech, check out this list from Launch Darkly.
2 - Give the gift of content
I’ve used content as a learning and development gift for my team, grabbing subscriptions to magazines or websites or newsletters that we can all share. Especially for teams in tech, website subscriptions to The Information or The New Consumer are great options.
Substacks, too, are a popular choice. There are big ones like Lenny’s Newsletter, but there are plenty of others that have valuable content you can subscribe to.
To see the leaderboard of top paid business substacks, check out this link (you have to be logged in).
And … shameless plug … you can start a paid subscription or gift a subscription to my substack also, which will give you access to my personal Notion library of templates and resources.
3 - Cool office tech
For infinite cool office inspiration, check out workspaces.xyz. The newsletter features workspaces from remote workers around the world, including links to all their cool stuff.
I wish my office setup looked like this 👆(it belongs to Michael Soledad). Nevertheless, I keep bookmarking cool office stuff that one day I might add to a wishlist or gift to others. Here are some highlights:
Opal webcams — for desktop computers and laptops
Halo desktop light for cool background lighting effects
4 - Books!
I write a newsletter about my favorite books every year (this year’s version is coming soon!), so I have no shortage of book recommendations to share with folks. Here’s a list of some of my favorite business books, marketing books, and creativity books.
If you must gift a book about business or writing or life, I’d highly recommend one of these:
Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Obsessed by Emily Heyward
5 - Fun little things
Nothing beats fun, original gift ideas — that are easy to mail or ship to your friends. Speaking of friends, Allison Stadd put together a fantastic gift guide just the other day, which I highly recommend. Check out the mini Zodiac puzzles; they’re a treat.
Here are a few other neat and fun little things from some of my favorite original and offbeat Internet shops.
Keychains (like the one below), art prints, and lots more at BuyOlympia.
Happy shopping!
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I previously built brands at Oyster, Buffer, and Vox. Now I am cofounder at Bonfire, a brand storytelling company.
Each week on this substack, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
Thank you for being here! 🙇♂️
I’m lucky to count folks from great brands like these (and many more) as part of this newsletter community.
