Gift wrapping? There's an app for that – thanks to a Honolulu entrepreneur.
Swipewrap is an interactive, web-based software that lets users wrap a digital, 3-D box online then send it electronically to others. It allows those who receive digital gifts, as well as gifts shipped from online retailers, to still have a full gifting experience.
"The goal is to separate that fun, joyful experience of gifting with [from] the items themselves," Founder Tom Knapp-Ramos told Pacific Business News. "You can send that fun experience, then the items can arrive later."
The company said in an announcement that users can even send a digital picture of a physical gift and enclose it in the Swipewrap. Swipewrap also is partnering with
Tango Card so individuals can send a gift card and let the recipient decide which major retailer to spend it on.
In addition to free, pre-set features, users can upgrade their experience for only 99 cents and personalize their digital paper to feature any color or design.
Knapp-Ramos, 28, said in high school, he would create games for his friends' birthdays. He first wanted "anyone to be able to create a game for anyone [else]," much like he used to.
He started Games for Gifts while a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Knapp-Ramos participated in the UH Summer Startup Launchpad, where he did customer interviews but found there was little interest in the idea.
So he pivoted.
Knapp-Ramos wanted to make interactive media "to give people joy," and began looking for unfilled niches.
"Rather than the gift itself be a game, let's make an experience that augments other gifts," he said.
He wanted to create a gift experience for digital items, but Knapp-Ramos said he realized the idea could be used for all presents.
"It's like a paradigm shift in the way we perceive gifting, and the big shift is you don't need to have the physical item to give that experience," he said.
Swipewrap, which launched its beta version in 2018, recently announced its full public release.
As a developer, Knapp-Ramos said he's able to do much of the work himself, but also works with a small, remote team of seven.
His team received $2,000 from the Summer Startup Launchpad program, along with another $2,500 after taking third place in a business plan competition at UH Manoa's Shidler College of Business. A majority of the company's initial seed money – Knapp-Ramos declined to specify the total amount – came from the UH Ventures Accelerator.
"[There has] been a lot of bootstrapping beyond that," he said.
Knapp-Ramos, who is originally from San Diego, received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master's degree in computer science from UH Manoa, along with a graduate certificate of entrepreneurship from Shidler College of Business.
