A startup year contains more than a corporate one and usually has less money behind it. That combination is actually an advantage: the team lived through something specific, they all know what it was, and a record of it costs less than a round of branded jackets.
Why a startup year is good material
Everyone was there for all of it. In a company of twelve, there is no department that missed the difficult quarter. A shared record works because the experience genuinely was shared — which is not true at two hundred people.
The year had a shape. A launch, a raise, a pivot, a customer who nearly left. Corporate years blur; startup years have events in them that everybody can date.
Turnover is visible. People who joined and people who left are individually noticeable at this size, and a record that includes both says something a generic gift cannot.
What to give
| Idea | Suits | Per head |
|---|---|---|
| A record of the year, one copy each | 5–25 people | ₹499–699 |
| One shared album for the office | Any size | Split, from ₹1,299 |
| 30 prints of the year, each | Tight budget | ₹270 |
| A magazine with a varied page per person | 10–30 people | ₹599–699 |
| Something for the household, not the desk | Any | Varies |
Flat ₹70 delivery per address. At twelve people that is ₹840 of delivery, which is worth knowing before you set a per-head number.
The version that works best at this size
One book, a page per person, one copy each.
Each page is that person’s year — what they shipped, when they joined, one line from somebody who worked with them. Everyone gets the same book, so nobody is comparing gifts, and everyone’s own page is in it, so nobody feels like a line item.
At twelve to twenty-five people it is genuinely achievable in a fortnight, and the unit cost barely moves for the varied page because it is a text and image slot rather than a fresh layout.
How ordering bulk gifts works →
The budget conversation, honestly
Startups usually land at ₹300 to ₹800 a head at year end, and that band buys more than it sounds like.
Thirty polaroid-style prints at ₹270 of the actual year — the office before the furniture, the whiteboard, the launch night, the person who left — beats a ₹900 branded object for a team that was there. The constraint is not money at this scale, it is whether anyone bothered to collect the photographs.
Corporate gifting budget per employee →
Timing at year end
5 to 14 days from order to doorstep, 5 to 12 to Delhi NCR. We dispatch every Monday, so ordering by a Friday rather than over a weekend saves a full week.
Two things about December specifically: courier networks are busy, and half your team will be travelling to family from the third week. Order in the last week of November and ship to home addresses rather than the office, or a third of the parcels will sit in an empty workspace until January.
Collecting, at a small company
Easier than at scale and still the part that runs late.
Photographs already exist in the team channel — the launch, the offsite, the whiteboard. Scrolling back an hour produces more than asking everyone does.
One line each about somebody else, not about themselves. It is a better prompt, it produces specifics rather than modesty, and it means each person’s page is written by colleagues.
Deadline a week before you order. Two people will miss it even at twelve.
When to do something else
When the year was bad. A layoff, a failed raise, a team that halved. A celebratory record of that year is the wrong object, and everyone will feel it. Something simple and generous is honest.
When half the team joined in November. Not enough shared year. Wait and do it properly at the twelve-month mark.
When cash is genuinely tight. A written note from a founder that names what each person actually did costs nothing and is remembered longer than most objects. This is not a consolation prize.
When it is 20 December. Courier networks and travel make it unreliable. Do it in January as a start-of-year gift instead, which arrives when nothing else does.
Frequently asked
What is a good year-end gift for a startup team? A record of the year with a page per person — one book, everyone gets the same one, and everyone’s own year is in it.
How much should a startup spend per head? ₹300 to ₹800 covers it. At that size the constraint is whether anyone collected the photographs, not the budget.
When should we order for year end? The last week of November. December courier networks are busy and much of the team will have travelled home by the third week.
Should we ship to the office or to homes? Homes, at year end. Parcels arriving at an emptying office sit there until January.
What if the year went badly? Do not make a celebratory record of it. A straightforward, generous gift and an honest note is the better answer.
Part of our guide to gifting for large teams. See also: corporate gifting for small teams and work anniversary gift ideas.
For teams and bulk orders: Corporate & bulk gifting · Photo magazines from ₹499