Mays student’s startup could change the way we buy gifts

Kornher is part of Startup Aggieland, which is powered by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School. She is often one of the youngest people in the room. Shelly Brenckman, marketing coordinator for Startup Aggieland and Mays Lecturer for the introductory entrepreneurship course that encouraged Kornher to pursue her idea, describes Kornher as someone who is “very eager to try new things” and determined to achieve her goals.

Kornher was one of nine freshmen in Startup Aggieland’s Startup Living Learning Community who were accepted into 3-Day Startup / Texas A&M out of more than 200 applicants. She came up with the idea for GiftHer.com while enrolled in MGMT 289, which was open to all majors. She was inspired by the ineffective way that her dad picked out gifts: searching “gift” on the Costco website and choosing the first item that popped up. Kornher was determined to come up with a better way, so she created a system on GiftHer.gift in which customers take a quiz that uses an algorithm to select the perfect gifts for such occasions as holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.

3 Day Startup is a 72-hour workshop and competition in which student entrepreneurs can refine their startup ideas and pitch them to a wide range of students, mentors and faculty. Fifty students are chosen to pitch their idea to other students at the beginning of 3DS, and only eight ideas advance to the final pitch. Kornher competed against upperclassmen, including master’s and Ph.D. students, and secured one of the coveted eight spots. She formed her team from among some of the remaining students whose ideas were not selected.

Throughout the remainder of the event, the entrepreneurial students work with mentors to further develop their business ideas in preparation for the final pitch to highly respected mentors and investors. GiftHer.gift is one of the only startups featured in last fall’s 3DS that has continued launching through the spring semester as a client company of Startup Aggieland.

Kornher has used her business acumen to identify and target potential customers. She and the GiftHer.gift team have developed social media sites to work as marketing tools for their company. In their recent Facebook advertising campaign, the team saw impressive engagement rates that led to many qualified leads.

In addition to her success at 3DS, Kornher was one of 25 students in her region chosen to compete in Princeton University’s entrepreneurship competition, TigerLaunch. She was also accepted into Exosphere Academy, a two-month program in Chile in which participants learn about web design, coding and biohacking.

Most recently, GiftHer.gift was one of 40 ideas selected to advance in the Raymond Ideas Challenge powered by CNVE.

Kornher aspires to grow her company and, after securing a dedicated customer base within Texas A&M students, she hopes to expand to other universities as well.