Blue mountain cards still standing

Have you heard of Blue Mountain Cards? Back in the 90's there was a huge rush of companies trying to provide online ecard services. 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 has no changed with people wanting to know where the real revenue is coming from. However, there are some painful similarities in web 2.0 to this idea of building big applications that will make money only from advertising.

Ecards are a difficult business space for me to understand. This is the space that is eating the lunch from the old paper greeting card space that's been around forever and a day. In some ways it's a normal case study of technology advancement over a paper based product. But you should look deeper. eCards are not exactly the same product as paper greeting cards. You buy a paper card at a store and physically write on it. An ecard comes from a company like Blue Mountain Cards and is completely electronic. The products here are just not the same. So we are actually seeing technology change the wants and desires of the buyer here. 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? First, Blue Mountain Cards had a big 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. An amazingly well-timed move. I'll bet many people wish they had that type of timing.

So now it's 2008 and what is a business model like Blue Mountain Cards still doing around? You could argue that the management team at Blue Mountain Cards were the luckiest people on earth to have gotten such a valuation at such a time when that was seen as appropriate. I often wonder if management teams like that are really lucky or create luck due to their experience. The greeting card business is huge. 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. It's a textbook case of building a brand in a new market. The part that is not text book is how Blue Mountain Cards got out at the top of the market. I guess that's where a little luck goes a long way.