Have you heard of Blue Mountain Cards? It all started back when ecards became big in the 1990’s. It seemed like everyone thought somehow giving away ecards was going to be a business model. Business models based on advertising revenue were quite frequent back then. This is a difference with today’s focus on real revenue. However, with web 2.0, you could argue that it’s started all over again.
The ecard space is a funny one. The business model is essentially one where you are killing another business model, the paper greeting cards space. In some ways it’s a normal case study of technology advancement over a paper based product. But I don’t think it’s that simple. An ecard is not the same thing as a paper card. Paper cards come from a store and require you to mail them. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. The products here are just not the same. So in essence, the technology is really impacted the very product. This is not unique, just look at tvs, video games or any other electronic based market.
So what exactly did blue mountain cards do that was so special? I’m not entirely sure, but I think that Blue Mountain Cards had a serious lead going into the game. They planned well.. The top management at Blue Mountain Cards seemed to know that the ride would not last forever. So Blue mountain cards management decided to sell the company while everything was still red-hot. What a move that was.. Looking back, there are many things I wish I had done differently.
How is that in 2008 Blue Mountain Cards is still a going concern? One view is that the original builders of the business picked an once-in-a-lifetime period to exit the business and made an unprecedented amount of money.. However, these were experience people who were also making a serious move in a serious industry. This is not a small business. Regardless of their underlying financials, this business made a name for itself in a multi billion dollar business space. I think this accounts for why they are here today. They built a brand and have a name worth something. The part this is far from any text book case study is how they exited at the height of the crazy valuations. We should all be so lucky in our careers.