On the face of it, there is no more enjoyable job than that of Hani Goldstein, CEO and founder of Snappy, which was established as a platform for giving gifts to high-tech companies. “It’s fun to do good things most of the time, and it’s fun when all you do is make people happy and spread smiles,” says Goldstein. “We have no Another goal, and if this goal is not achieved – we have failed.” But there are also less enjoyable tasks within its mandatory role: “Snaphy is an operational company, we have to manage gift suppliers and make sure that their supply is in line with demand. We have large customers – if one company places an order for ten thousand gifts of the same type, there is a shortage that needs to be filled.”
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The significant growth came during the Corona days when the company grew and employed 300 employees. As a result, about a year ago the company moved to new offices in the Rubinstein Towers in Tel Aviv. Goldstein is proud of the special interior design of the company floor that resembles a gift factory taken from Roald Dahl’s fairy tale books: a production line and gifts in decorated packages, next to “Snappy” dolls, the mascot and trademark of the company – a sort of friendly blue monster that delivers gifts.
The trend has changed and it doesn’t seem like it will stop
No one would have imagined that that pastoral gift factory would turn into a scene of crisis a few months later. In fact as fast as Snape was growing, she was also shrinking. Last January, Goldstein called together her 300 employees, half of them in the US, and told them that a third of them would have to leave. “It was a very difficult decision, and it affected everyone,” Goldstein tells Globes. “It affected employees who stayed here whose friends were fired, managers who had to inform their employees about it. In the end, we came here to do good things, but along the way we have to make difficult decisions.”
Hani Goldstein
personal: 37 years old, married +1
professional: CEO and co-founder of Snappy – an online system for giving gifts to employees. To date, the company has raised $105 million, and its value is estimated at $400 million in the last round in 2021*. Today, the company employs about 220 people
After the growth that came, among other things, from the need of high-tech companies to woo their employees and keep them in the days of plenty, came the hangover. “We have grown significantly in recent years. 9.5 times between 2020 and 2021 and the following year 2.5 times,” describes Goldstein. “Now we see a different trend and mostly predict that it will continue.” According to her, the hiring freeze, the cuts in high-tech and the updated growth forecasts are also affecting Snappy.
Through you, the high-tech companies poured millions of dollars into the workers to woo them in the years of abundance. Could it be that you were euphoric?
“I have never been euphoric. Despite the situation in the market, even today we are signing many new customers. We see that the gift market is endless, it has no limit and I believe that one day we will be able to reach 10 billion dollars in revenue.” To prove this, Goldstein enters the Snappy system and presents gifts at a relatively low price of $25 per person. “You don’t need to pay a fortune to give an employee a gift,” claims Goldstein, “you can do it on a low budget, the intention is also important.”
Still, the tremendous growth in the company’s revenue in 2021 tells a different story. The use of Snappy’s system given to HR managers, team leaders and division managers has become almost unlimited. Every achievement became a reason for a party, and every small event was celebrated with a gift. Often the gift budget was not managed in a centralized manner and resulted in large wastes that were discovered in retrospect. Goldstein is careful when she describes the high-tech celebration, but she readily acknowledges that gifts were distributed through it, sometimes without any connection to performance. The waste and the lack of control caused Snappy to develop another service: consulting for their clients in human resources departments and organizations that would define how to use the system in days of economic austerity.
For that matter, one of the tips is to give big gifts, but on the really important occasions and without exaggerating. “I think there is a more correct way to use a system like ours, which is not sure that everyone is aware enough of it,” says Goldstein. “Each manager should define for himself the events he wants to cherish. I can testify about Snappy: we defined for ourselves which events or achievements deserve a gift and provided the managers with a budget that they can use at their discretion.” Goldstein claims that Snappy is in the top percentile in giving gifts in relation to its customers, “Gifts are not a large part of the budget – certainly not in relation to salaries, and they are not what will make the difference between profit and loss. Gifts are a good and nice thing that makes those who receive them satisfied and caring.”
Reducing dependence on high-tech and turning to private customers
For Hani Goldstein, gifts for employees are an essential commodity. According to her: “There are companies that have existed for a hundred years, that have gone through crises and at the end of the day continue to reward their employees with gifts.” On the other hand, Goldstein wants to fight the image that has stuck to Snappy – a company that helps the high-tech market pamper its employees and illustrates the waste in the industry. According to her, the high-tech companies make up only a part of the company’s income, “we serve a hundred industries” she says. “High-tech was a very large part that also influenced us, but there is no limit to the market that can be reached. Today we serve pest control, transportation, communication and real estate companies. There will be companies that give fewer gifts or more gifts, but you will not find companies that give up this practice.”
Today Snappy serves 3,000 companies, including giants such as Microsoft, Netflix, Uber and Comcast. It allows them to send gifts to thousands of employees around the world. The revenues of the company, which currently employs 220 people worldwide, of which 70 are in Israel, are estimated at tens of millions of dollars, but it is still far from profitable. In fact, one of the goals of the cutback process is to make the company profitable in the next two years and a billion dollars in revenue in the medium term.
The online gift market is large, but fragmented among many companies, including GiftSenda and Gift My Client. It is estimated worldwide at a trillion dollars and in the US alone at 600 million dollars a year, of which 240 billion dollars are initiated by companies and another 370 billion from private consumers. At Snappy, they tell about savings of a few percent just on the returns of gifts for the suppliers, which makes it attractive, partly in relation to competing companies.
In addition to this, Snappy defends itself from the economic crisis not only by reducing dependence on high-tech companies, but also by withdrawing from large organizations. As part of the move, last December the company launched a gift service for private customers. Also, they encourage potential customers to choose gifts from the company’s catalog over the gift card that is usually considered the default. “A gift card is seen as a very transactional gift, it’s like giving people money, it lacks the feeling that says – I thought of you and I want to say thank you.” According to her: “In every study, people value a gift twice as much as money. In fact, you have to pay twice as much to produce the same subjective feeling that a gift produces.”
To help choose the gifts, Snappy is engaged in building collections of sets and gifts and reviewing the hot trends. In addition to this, the company recently added several services such as an interface for creating a digital greeting and a system for managing gift campaigns, this as part of an employer branding concept.
The campaign management system, together with a proactive approach towards financial and human resources managers on the part of Snappy, are what may encourage the companies to be careful about their gift policies and in time to prevent waste. “We will help you manage your budget and you will be able to control the allocation of budgets for gifts to the various departments and define managers and exception options.”
One of the pieces of advice she gives to companies: give more important gifts on the more important occasions, and don’t overdo it. “I think there is a more correct way to use a system like ours, which is not sure that everyone is aware enough of it,” she says. “Each manager should tell himself the events he wants to cherish: an employee who celebrates a year at work, a customer who celebrates a year of contact with the supplier, closing a deal by a salesperson, a birthday, or a special achievement – above all, this policy should be defined and monitored for maintaining it. I can testify about Snappy: we defined for ourselves which events or achievements deserve a gift and provided the managers with a budget that they can use at their discretion.”
Isn’t it time that the gifts in companies are related to performance?
“There is room for gratitude even without proof of performance” Goldstein replies and adds “another time success should be rewarded”. According to her: “These two moments are equally important. Our gift management system will be able to better link performance and rewards in the future.”
When is it wrong to give gifts to employees?
“It’s a matter of culture and geography. In the US, for example, it’s customary to give a gift to employees in mourning, in Israel it’s not acceptable. People sometimes ask me whether it is worth giving gifts after a layoff – I think it’s beside the point. But in the end, gifts are a personal matter.”
Could it be that companies exaggerated in the other direction, and stopped giving gifts to employees?
“It should be balanced, and not dictated by market conditions. Have companies exaggerated their response? I don’t see companies that have closed this option completely. I think they understand the importance of happy employees who understand that the company cares about them. Especially when companies have to cut bonuses and raises, It’s a great way to show appreciation in a way that won’t break the budget. No need to worry, the gifts won’t go anywhere.”