Peter Imburg is the founder and CEO of Elfster, the world’s most widely used Secret Santa and gift exchange platform, now serving over 40 million users globally. He bootstrapped the company from a side project in his basement into a profitable, affiliate-driven e‑commerce engine—without taking a dollar of venture capital or angel money.

On this episode we talk about:

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  How Peter went from paper routes and grocery bagging to tech consulting and then founding Elfster.

  
  


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  The origin story of Elfster and how a frustrating family Secret Santa experience sparked a global platform.

  
  


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  Bootstrapping for years without outside funding, including early experiments with sponsorships and brand campaigns.

  
  


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  The pivotal shift from seasonal ad deals to an affiliate/e‑commerce model that finally aligned user growth with revenue.

  
  


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  What Elfster looks like today: tens of millions of users, hundreds of millions in gross merchandise volume, and a lean global team.

  
  

Top 3 Takeaways

1. 
   

   You don’t need VC money to build something big; you do need a real problem, relentless iteration, and patience through years of “keeping the lights on.”

   
   


2. 
   

   Business models matter as much as product—Elfster didn’t really turn the corner until it aligned its product with an evergreen revenue engine (affiliate commerce) instead of one‑off ad experiments.

   
   


3. 
   

   Long-term success often comes from saying yes to “small” opportunities (like a late‑season campaign) and then spotting the bigger strategic insight hidden inside them.

   
   

Notable Quotes

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  “There’s got to be somebody doing this online…I looked all around, there’s nothing.”

  
  


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  “For years we were getting enough money to keep the lights on, but user growth didn’t translate into revenue growth.”

  
  


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  “Once we made the shift, as we grew users, our revenue grew too—that was the pivotal moment.”

  
  

Connect with Elfster:

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  Website: elfster.com

  
  

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