Atlanta Startup My Panda Redefines Employee Gifts with ‘Time Back’ This Holiday Season
What employees really want this holiday season is their time back, says My Panda CEO and founder Tamara Lucas.
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Atlanta-based startup My Panda is betting that employees don't want another gift card or branded mug for the holidays.
What they really want is their time back, says CEO and founder Tamara Lucas.
The startup, which provides local personal assistants to busy individuals and families, recently launched a holiday gift and bonus package offering that gives employees dedicated hours with a personal assistant to tackle their to-do lists.
Employers pick the level of support and number of hours of help they would like to gift. Employees in Atlanta and Charlottesville (where My Panda currently has an in-person presence) can book time with local Pandas to help with anything from laundry to scheduling to prepping for a holiday party.
Those elsewhere in the country can tap into the Virtual Village of personal assistants, which My Panda recently launched.
Lucas said that law firms, marketing agencies, and professional service companies have bought packages for their employees.
“We’ve also sold packages to service-based businesses who wanted to treat their frontline teams, and even a tech startup that gifted hours to help their employees during a busy launch season,” she added. “That’s what makes it special: when you give someone the gift of time, it’s not just thoughtful, it’s genuinely useful.”
Other Signs Of Growth
Lucas brought My Panda to television this year, filming an episode of Go Fund Yourself in Los Angeles, a Shark Tank-style show where viewers can directly invest in companies that are pitching on stage.
She called her time on Go Fund Yourself as a “fun and pivotal experience” for My Panda.
“Viewers immediately got what we’re doing -real-life help for the things that pile up on your personal to-do list, and that really resonated,” Lucas told Hypepotamus. “The timing was perfect, too. Soon before the episode aired, My Panda received a 5 star rating from KingsCrowd, which evaluates startups in the equity crowdfunding space. Only about one percent of companies get that high of a rating, so it really helped de-risk the investment opportunity and show potential investors that we’re building something strong and credible. Between that and the national exposure from Go Fund Yourself, we saw a big surge in traffic, new users from across the country, and a wave of community investors who wanted to be part of what we’re doing. It also opened up some great conversations with potential partners and companies that we might not have reached otherwise.”
My Panda is now working to close out its community investment round on the popular platform Wefunder.
