About us
Meet Vanja and Vaida. We’re the two women behind Pebble Gifts.
One rainy London evening in a Shoreditch bar (Without Papers, if you must know), we met up for a drink before heading to a party. Over a bottle of wine in a dark bar, we got to know each other and very quickly discovered we’re both obsessed with gifts. Vanja was so obsessed that she built an AI gifting engine just for fun. Vaida was so obsessed that she built a gifting company, Shilta.
Vaida knew she needed to bring gifting into technology (and had tried and failed many times). Vanja knew the engine she’d built wasn’t living up to its potential (yet).
So we decided to join forces. Our experience, our passion, and our stubborn belief that gifting can be better.
That’s how Pebble Gifts was born.
We always love hearing from you - what you like, what you don't, if it helped you and any suggestions or your gift stories. Please reach out to us on social media or e-mail.
I genuinely hate buying gifts.
Not because I don't care (I usually do!) but because I'm basically Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Every gift I give has to be of equal value, if not more, than what I received. It's a compulsion. And it makes the whole process agonising.
Here's the thing though. I've spent my entire career trying to understand people. Really understand them. Through my PhD, through years as a global consultant, I became obsessed with one question - what actually makes people tick? I've decoded customer behaviour for some of the world's biggest brands.
And then I'd get invited to a friend's birthday and stand in a shop for 45 minutes holding a scented candle thinking… I literally study human decision-making for a living and I can't figure out what to get Dave.
If I can decode what drives customers for my clients, why can't I decode what makes a gift actually land?
So I took everything I know - the research, the behavioural frameworks, the data - and built an engine that analyses the psychology of the person you're buying for. Not just "they like cooking" but what makes them feel truly seen.
That's Pebble. It gives you a real shot at making someone feel known - and maybe teaches you something about them you didn't expect.
When I was 7, I figured out Santa was actually my mum.
Most kids would’ve been devastated. I was… kind of relieved?
Because it meant I could finally do something I’d been wanting to do all along - choose gifts myself.
I went to the corner shop with whatever coins I had.
Came back with a beautiful box of bonbons for mum, chilli crisps for dad (he was very manly, apparently only he could handle the heat 😄), and colourful jellies for my brother.
They were simple and cost almost nothing. But I remember putting so much thought into every single one.
That was the beginning of my gifting journey… and I’ve given a fair share of terrible gifts since then, believe me…
But somewhere along the way I started understanding something - a good gift doesn’t just say ‘I bought you something.’ It says I see you, I know you, I get you.
The problem is, giving good gifts has never been harder. We have more options than ever, more next-day delivery, more ‘personalised’ everything… and somehow we’re still panic-buying candles at 11pm.
There are just too many options and not enough guidance. Finding the right gift can feel like finding a needle in a haystack.
That’s why I’m building Pebble - a gift helper that finds you something meaningful, without the overwhelm.
We’re just getting started. Try it and send me the feedback x
