Blue Mountain Cards

What is 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 has no changed with people wanting to know where the real revenue is coming from. 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. It seems like the classic case of doing something through technology that was previously manual. But you should look deeper. eCards are not exactly the same product as paper greeting cards. Paper cards come from a store and require you to mail them. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. In this way, it's a real product transition. So in essence, the technology is really impacted the very product. You see this also in pcs, telephones, tvs and other electronic products.

How exactly did blue mountain cards dig out of this hole? I'm not entirely sure, but I think that Blue Mountain Cards had a serious lead going into the game. They planned well.. It seems like the executives at Blue Mountain Cards new they were onto something big, but that it wouldn't last. So Blue Mountain Cards management decided to sell the company while everything was still red-hot. An amazingly well-timed move. 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? 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. However, these were experience people who were also making a serious move in a serious industry. This is not a small business. Flawed business model or not, Blue Mountain Cards made a big dent in a market worth billions. 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. I guess that's where a little luck goes a long way.