Would You Walk Away From A Thriving 20-year Career To Become A First-Time Tech Founder?

Gratofy CEO Stefanie Carniato shares her journey and the reason behind her decision to become a tech entrepreneur.

Some days I wake up and think, “what on earth am I doing?”, “why did I think I could do this?” “Gosh, things would feel easier with a co-founder.”

Being a solo female founder in the tech space feels pretty hard most days. In the early stages of building and growing, of course, you wear all the hats… Founder, CEO, product manager, sales, rubbish collector, your own shoulder to cry on, your own high-five buddy.

But most days, I also remember the other feeling. The feeling of an idea that keeps tapping on the heart strings. The kind that wakes you up in the middle of the night. The feeling of the idea that keeps, evolving and growing. The feeling that forces you to remember that this idea wouldn’t have come and pitched a tent inside your mind if you weren’t the person to bring it to life. The feeling that reminds you that no matter what, you’ve got this.

Plus… I know I’ve had this feeling before.

It was April 2020… those early days of Covid-19. Sitting on my couch, long black, no sugar, staring aimlessly outside the window to the fire-escape of my fifth-floor walk-up apartment in Manhattan.

At 30, I had moved myself and my marketing agency to New York City. That same feeling that had tapped away at my heart… “the time is now”, “do it now”. It got so loud that my move to NYC almost felt impromptu, even though I’d been thinking and dreaming about it for years.

I packed one suitcase, had no friends, no clients and no visa. But what I did know is that I would work it out.

There were so many times I was pushed to my limits, nearly homeless, feeling lost (but maybe also a little found) and often questioned “why did I make such a bold move?”

Through all the noise in my mind, though, what I still knew was that it was all going to work out.

And it did… after a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, I was working with some of the biggest brands in the world, learnt and had experiences that I could only have dreamed of and collected stories for a lifetime. 20 years in Branding and Marketing covering Australia, USA, Europe and Asia, 20 years of building, 20 years of hard work, I felt like I finally, FINALLY hit my stride…

And that stride collided with a brick wall called Covid-19.

Long black, no sugar. My mind constantly thought about my friends, my clients and my colleagues in NYC during those early stages – the tiny spaces, the isolation, the loneliness.

The phone calls were frequent, the days were long. I wanted to show people I cared and was thinking of them with a gesture, a gift, a surprise to brighten their day.

Admittedly, I’d always been a pretty terrible gift-giver (just ask my sister). The last-minute kind that would default to a bottle of alcohol on the way to a party.

During those early times in Covid though, it became clear – people had either ramped up their consumption, or they stopped drinking altogether rendering my go-to gift completely (and responsibly) redundant. When I thought about buying people groceries or a hamper, I realised I didn’t know their dietary requirements. Could I buy something for their home? Perhaps, but with NYC apartments being historically small, would it fit? Would it match? A gift card? Well, that wasn’t going to cut it.

And that’s when it hit me… “I’d love to give people the gift of choice but still make it meaningful.”

For the next six months, it’s all I could think about and the more I researched the state of modern gifting, the more my passion grew. Did you know that nearly 600,000 tonnes of unwanted gifts end up in landfill each year? Me neither. That’s 330 Olympic-sized swimming pools! Or that over $1B is lost or wasted on gift-card credit?

Long black, no sugar. I moved home to Melbourne to build Gratofy, the gifting platform that gives people the Gift of Choice. 

A platform where the gift-giver chooses 5 gifts they think their gift recipient will like, and then they choose from the selections what they really want and have it delivered to their preferred address.

It’s the perfect balance of “it’s the thought that counts” and “I really want you to have something you want, need or value”

With a mission to put more Gratitude into Gifting, while reducing the enormous amount of unwanted gifts that go to waste, it turns out the answer to the question was pretty simple…

“Stefanie, are you really going to walk away from a thriving 20-year career to become a first-time tech founder?”

Damn straight I am.

Go to Gratofy.com.au to browse our gift range and start gifting now.