MAY 22, 2017
There’s never a dull moment when you’re Phil Rugile, who pulls double duty as director of the hyperactive LaunchPad Huntington and as “human capital strategist” at eGifter, the Huntington-based digital gifting/corporate prepaid solutions specialist that remains one of Long Island’s great innovation success stories. When Innovate LI last Debriefed the media-savvy entrepreneur, LaunchPad Huntington was barely a year old and still finding its way; two years hence, Rugile has honed the co-working space into a precision instrument of invention and job-creation, as evidenced by economic-development partnerships with the Workforce Development Institute, Stony Brook University and others. The director comes up for air long enough to note:
eGifted: We continue to close investment rounds to expedite eGifter’s growth. The staff has doubled since moving into LaunchPad Huntigton, and we are looking at potentially doubling the current staff of 24 in the next year or so.
Not to brag, but…: Our Software as a Service platform now supports over 50 corporate clients, including Target, Panera Bread, Williams-Sonoma and others. eGifter for School, a gift service that allows students and their families to privately collect funds and leave personal messages for teachers and support staff, launched in April in the Great Lakes Region. And we’ve launched Version 2.0 of our Group Gifting platform, which added features to specifically make it easier than ever to create group gifts for coaches, co-workers, the holidays, baby showers, new homes, weddings, birthdays, graduations or any occasion at all.
