Bond was conceived as an “Uber for
gifts” in 2013 and its twist on e-commerce was each carefully curated
bauble had to be accompanied by a handwritten note. The business
generated $200,000 in its first 90 days of operation, but the most
positive feedback was focused on the custom communiqués.Frustrated the by the challenges of managing gift inventory and invigorated by the interest in the handwritten cards, Bond founder Sonny Caberwal changed course. “We made a strategic decision to focus on building handwritten note technology, because it was most core to our goal of helping people articulate the appreciation of their relationship.”
Written Like a Human, Not Like a Bot
Originally, Bond used mid-century autopen technology to craft the letters, but such systems weren’t flexible enough to meet Bond’s needs at scale. In order to mass produce personalized notes, Caberwal assembled a team of roboticists, software engineers, and typographers. “We pair our engineering efforts with our own team of handwriting experts, all of whom have advanced degrees in type design,” says Caberwal. “The design-focused handwriting team overlaps with hardware and software engineering and operations in a very unique way, to inform software design, hardware design, hardware maintenance, and operational execution.”Unlike fonts that are rendered instantaneously with pixels or printer toner, Caberwal insists that the Bond robots write letters the way a human would, rather than relying on algorithmic shortcuts. For instance, it’s theoretically possible to draw a lower-case “t” with just two strokes, but often humans are less efficient, creating and up and down stroke with a cross. It’s little details like this that Bond captures to make notes you’ve paid a robot to write seem more human. “The order in which strokes are made actually effects the physical output, and is a visible example of how we consider letter design in all aspects of not just software, but hardware,” says Caberwal.
This dedication to human handwriting practices requires the team to fine-tune the robots to balance their flawless execution with the quirks of letters written by real, live people. “We’re always thinking about speed optimization versus the natural rate of ink flow from a traditional pen, and how we can re-engineer that rate of flow while increasing the speed of the movement of the pen,” says Caberwal.
Caberwal’s passion for craft were honed while playing in a band in college and working as a fashion model for Kenneth Cole after law school. “It’s shown me that people gravitate toward things that make them feel,” he says. “It’s why we love certain musicians, actors, chefs, and designers—because they inspire emotion in us, and make us feel something.”
“That’s core to our mission as an organization: we believe that we can be happier by simply making those around us happy,” he says. “We hope Bond makes it easier to do that.”