What helped Blue Mountain Cards survive the dot com bubble
What is Blue Mountain Cards? Back in the 90s there was a huge rush of companies trying to provide online ecard services. Im not sure exactly how they built a business model on the idea of giving away a free ecard, but they did. Business models based on advertising revenue were quite frequent back then. This is a difference with todays focus on real revenue. However, with web 2.0, you could argue that its started all over again.
Ecards are a difficult business space for me to understand. 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. You buy a paper card at a store and physically write on it. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. The products here are just not the same. So we are actually seeing technology change the wants and desires of the buyer here. You see this also in pcs, telephones, tvs and other electronic products.
How exactly did blue mountain cards dig out of this hole? Im not entirely sure, but I think that Blue Mountain Cards had a serious lead going into the game. They had a good plan. The top management at Blue Mountain Cards seemed to know that the ride would not last forever. So the company was sold while things were still really really hot in the dot com sector. What a move that was.. Looking back, there are many things I wish I had done differently.
So now its 2008 and what is a business model like Blue Mountain Cards still doing around? 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.. I often wonder if management teams like that are really lucky or create luck due to their experience. The greeting card business is huge. 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 thats where a little luck goes a long way.
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by: al.sones
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