What do you value more? An experience, or a physical gift? Chances are you’ve already got enough stuff in your apartment, and what you’d appreciate doing something fun and exciting instead. As a startup founder and curator of experiences, it makes sense that I met Tinggly founder Linas Ceikus at the Surf Summit, an after-event from the Dublin Web Summit taking 100 entrepreneurs out to the west coast of Ireland for surfing and other adventures.
Talking to Ceikus over dinner you realize he’s that certain breed of businessperson you seem to run into in the Baltics that knows how to spot an opportunity and grow up a business. Seeing more and more tourists come into the Baltics though Ryanair flights, eight years ago he set up his first experience and activity company, developing one brick-and-mortar business at a time with eight local brands and teams across Northern Europe. “Tinggly is a natural extension or progression of where the activity gift group is going and I always want to expand it further,” he tells us.
So with Christmas coming up, say you want to give a gift to someone. Through Tinggly you could gift them a €100 experience voucher for a huge and growing list of activities in over 50 countries. While there’s some bread-and-butter stuff like a visit to the London Eye, most of these things are experiences like a Jeep safari in Jordan, walking with a Monk in Nepal, or a cloud forest and butterfly farm tour in Costa Rica – something you normally wouldn’t search out on your own.
That’s the cool thing about Tinggly, you’re giving a person a chance to dream about the stuff they want to do and with so many options and locations, even a light traveler can find something they wouldn’t normally do in New York or Copenhagen. “People tend to gift what they like, and that doesn’t always mean the person that gets it really wants it,” says Ceikus. Tinggly then changes it up from allowing you to just gift a kayaking trip, for instance.
For the Christmas push they’re focusing on Europe and the UK as their primary markets to sell to, which is evident by the somewhat empty map in the US, while Europe and Asia is filled with plenty of tags. In the first quarter of next year they’ll be releasing two higher price points, like a €200 and €500 option for even crazier activities.
“This is the first of its kind global gift solution, says Ceikus, “and I love the idea that we’re picking out the best experiences we have on the planet. Its difficult and enjoyable work.”
