111. Gift Cards for Small Businesses

This episode is a conversation between Heroku developer advocate, Chris Castle and James Dong, developer and owner of Last Minute Gear. The business enables San Francisco residents to buy, rent, and borrow clothing and outdoor gear for activities such as camping, snow sports, and climbing. During the early days of the pandemic, the business was forced to close to comply with shelter-in-place regulations. There was an outpouring of support for small businesses, but not everyone has a Venmo account or wants to donate to a GoFundMe appeal.

While many used the pandemic to catch up on Netflix and banana bread baking, James spent a day coding a website and platform where businesses could sell gift cards. It not only helped his own anxiety and insomnia but helped brick-and-mortar businesses like gyms and restaurants (and his own shop) to still earn revenue.

It allowed customers to purchase gift cards to be remunerated once businesses reopened. While other platforms with this functionality already existed, James’ project included business-critical functions, such as processing payments and gift cards.

James talks about his experiences of anxiety and insomnia which acted as catalysts in making his website operational in just one day. Support from Stripe and Heroku meant there were no fees—all money generated went to the businesses.

The conversation offers interesting insights into the value of using a decision logger to document ideas and milestones as well as notes and commit messages to explain why particular decisions were made at certain points in time. It’s also a great example of what can happen when developers build projects that help others in need.

Links from this episode

• Last minute gear — James’ outdoor sports store.
• Gift Cards for Small Businesses