3 Things: Holiday Edition - Summon a Santa, Reconnect Bot, Happy Unholidays

Happy Holidays! In the spirit of taking a bit of time off, this week’s edition will be a mini-version with 3 short holiday related ideas. Enjoy and I hope you all have a fantastic Holidays and New Year. Who knows what 2022 will bring but here’s to hoping for both a less and more eventful year depending on what we’re talking about ;-) This week’s ideas are:

• Summon a Santa

• Reconnect Bot

• Happy Unholidays

1. Summon a Santa

The business of Santa is actually insanely lucrative. The average mall Santa can earn between $10-60k in a 5-6 week period during the holidays. The malls benefit too, generating up to $1M each year from their Santas and Elves. With the decline of malls, the multi-year pandemic, and the rise of the gig economy, a company can create a Santa-on-demand service where families can literally summon a Santa to come to them. Android tablet style photo booths like you have at weddings and holiday parties could be transported in trunks and set up at people’s homes (fully equipped with holiday themed filters) for instant holiday photos. You could even offer a service where you allow customers to select their favorite photos and turn that into their holiday cards.

2. Reconnect Bot

The new year is a great time to reconnect with people in your life and network that you’ve either lost touch or want to build a stronger relationship with. An app could allow you to put in some criteria (like seed investors based in SF or NY that I spoke with in the first half of 2021 as an example in my world), connect your email, calendar, and any other messengers you want and a bot would go through each contact and use public web info to match against your criteria and create a list of possible folks to reconnect with. You could create some templatized emails/messages and select who you want to reach out to and the bot will do so on your behalf. You’ll look like the most organized/on top of your sh*t person ever and who knows where those relationships may lead in the future.

3. Happy Unholidays

Over the last week, my inbox has been filled with an innumerable number of “Happy Holidays from XX” emails from companies or people in my professional world. My mailbox has been stuffed with Christmas/Holiday cards from friends and family. I’ve also received various gifts from people I do business with. While it’s never a bad idea to give tokens of appreciation to those in your life, everyone chooses to do so at the exact same time which means it’s unlikely that a single show of gratitude will leave a lasting impression on the recipient. This year, I intend on choosing the time between President’s Day and Memorial Day (the longest stretch between federal holidays each year in the US) as an opportunity to send “Happy Unholidays” messages, gifts, and displays of acknowledgement. I guarantee it will stand out and at least my messages/gifts will not go unnoticed!

That’s all for today! I hope you all enjoy your last few days of the year and see ya in 2022! If you have thoughts, comments, or want to get in touch, find me on Twitter at @ezelby and if you enjoyed this, please share with a friend or two!

~ Elaine