Tribute Redefines the Gift Giving Experience

What if you could take the most meaningful gift of your life and turn it into a successful company?

That’s exactly what serial entrepreneur Andrew Horn did when for his 27th birthday, his girlfriend Miki presented him with a 20-minute video of all of his friends and family sharing what they love most about him.

It was the best thing I’ve ever received,” Horn tells Ivy Exec. “It’s like I watched my eulogy at 27.”

But when Horn heard exactly how much a labor of love the video was for his girlfriend, he was astonished: it had taken her more than 10 hours to compile all of the videos that his loved ones had sent in. Not to mention the headache she faced in uploading various types of files and storing them along the way to creating the project.

“This was my light bulb moment: to create something that did this much more effectively and simply,” Horn says. “More people should experience this type of gift but can’t because it’s too difficult to put together.”

And so Tribute was born.

After a year spent honing the brand and product, in 2015, Horn’s team posted the project on Kickstarter and swiftly became the crowd funding site’s 15th most successful app project in Kickstarter history. By January 2016, Tribute was ready to be launched to the public with much fanfare including an appearance on the Today Show and a write up in the New Yorker.

Now, for $25, anyone can invite friends and family to contribute videos that they shoot and upload to the site. Then, the person organizing the gift can easily compile a tribute without any video editing skills. If the person giving the gift wants concierge service, for $125, the Tribute team can do all of the legwork. In addition to an online video, the recipient can get a keepsake, bamboo USB drive containing his tribute. The company is also developing an LCD card that will feature the tributes for a high-tech, personalized version of the classic greeting card experience. The company now has tens of thousands of people worldwide using the site.

Already, Horn has big plans for Tribute’s future: he is looking to bring in $10 million in revenue within the first three years and foresees doubling his workforce to 15 employees by 2017. Later this year, the company will be launching a new app called Tribute Video Greetings that allows users to share meaningful messages for major life occasions and milestones.

“Social media isn’t curated or thoughtful enough: it’s so automated now,” Horn explains. “We provide meaningful interactions that have actual impact on the receiver, creating prompts that articulate why you love and appreciate someone. That kind of messaging is oftentimes left out with automated congratulations on social media.”

Tribute is not the first company that Horn has launched with a feel-good message at its heart. In 2009, the then 22-year-old launched a nonprofit called Dreams for Kids DC that enabled children with disabilities to play sports with professional athletes and sports teams. By 2011, he started another nonprofit called AbilityList which he describes as a type of Craigslist for people with disabilities.

Now Horn has plans for Tribute to give back as well. The company is currently working with a clinic in Cleveland to help people deliver positive and uplifting messages to loved ones who are going through a health crisis.

Whether they’re exploring partnerships with wedding planners or hospitals, the positivity of what Tribute delivers guides much of the culture for the growing company.

“We have a lot of purpose,” Horn says. “We say that our product invokes a reaction from people and that energizes us.  We want to bring gratitude into people’s lives and have an important impact on our customers.”