I first heard about PS Post via one of their writers, Clair, either on Twitter or Instagram. I can’t remember because this past year has been a blur of social media. Regardless, I loved the concept from jump.
A gift card that is also a greeting card that is also eco-friendly? What an amazing idea! I love gift cards as a concept, but I am embarrassed to say that it has happened on more than one occasion that I physically lose them or lose them in my mess of an e-mail inbox to be found (hopefully) much later. I literally had to apologize to my cousin for never thanking her for a gift certificate to J. Crew from my birthday that I didn’t see until close to Christmas this year. YIKES.
Clair put me in touch with the founder at PS Post, Keller Anne, who was gracious enough to answer my question about what I think is one of the coolest startups! In a time where we all are working harder than ever to stay connected, fun mail like a card from PS Post is the best surprise! (Not to mention- the cards are AH-MAZE-ING and are an easily-frameable 5×7 size!)
Flowers in Concrete
Did you always know you were going to start a business? What is your background as far as what you studied and what you did in your “past life”?
No, never. My background is very “Jill of all Trades.” My academic background is in history, economics, and public policy, and my professional background is in early childhood public policy and nonprofit finance. Starting a business has always been the furthest thing from my mind. However at my last job at a local philanthropy/impact investing firm, I worked closely with a lot of entrepreneurs and social-impact-oriented innovators and was always energized at the ways they threw their whole selves at the problems they’re trying to solve.
Even though I never thought of myself owning my own business, I grew up around small business ownership. My second home basically was my dad’s dental practice. My mom is his office manager and is exceptionally business-savvy. I grew up watching her negotiate contracts, manage finances and keep the books balanced, and work with vendors for the best prices. Seeing all the emotional labor that goes into building a business helped me go in with eyes open a little wider than they would be otherwise.
How did the idea of PS Post come about? And how did you form your (mostly female!) team?
In truth, I am terrible at sending gifts. I love sending cards and notes to friends but when it comes to putting physical gifts in the mail, I struggle. But I don’t want to send them something from an online retailer and have it come with a tiny little note on receipt paper that says “enjoy your gift from Keller Anne.” The idea came to me one night as I was trying to fall asleep, I thought “wait, wouldn’t it be cool to put a QR code on the inside of a greeting card so that you can send everything all at once, all for the price of a stamp?” I immediately turned on the light, got up, and sketched it out. Once I had the basic concept the ideas for growth just kept tumbling out. I have always loved making my own cards and finding really fun and funny greeting cards at boutiques, and the idea just consumed me. I couldn’t find anything like it on the market anywhere, so I asked a senior developer friend of mine to help me think through the feasibility of the tech. With the confidence of feasibility, I decided to just go for it and make this a reality myself!
When it came to building the team I really had to think creatively and strategically. We couldn’t afford to pay people, so we had to find people who both could devote time outside of their 9-5s and who were excited enough about this idea they’d just work for equity stakes. We had some people join the team who in the end decided it wasn’t the right time for different reasons.
PS Post’s co founder and COO is a good friend of mine who has incredibly dynamic professional chops. She and I complement each other in many ways, and when I shared the idea with her and asked her if she wanted to build it together, she was all in. Not only did she design our aesthetic and build the front end of the website, she is the true bolt to my nut, always looking at opportunities and product developments from every angle.
For the creative team, I thought a lot about our customer. Greeting cards are our core product, and so we needed to create cards that people wanted to buy, both aesthetically and message-wise. We needed a balance of writing styles to have range, and a graphic designer who could match that emotional range. I reached out to friends and friends of friends first whose work I respected, and found 2 incredible writers and a phenomenal graphic designer.
Finding a developer and technical co-founder was more challenging but through putting out calls on various forms of social media and vetting a lot of people, we found a great full-stack developer who has tons of experience with growing startups and inventory management-oriented dev work.
Our team is full of rock stars. The really amazing thing is that we get along very well with one another and share similar philosophies around continual learning, iterative development, and constructive feedback. I’m so proud of all that we’ve built together so far.
Happy Birthday, Pisces
What was the hardest part about getting PS Post off the ground? (During a pandemic, no less!)
Getting over my own fears. Truly. I dragged my feet a lot out of fear I’d make mistakes. Which is really silly, because not only are mistakes totally and completely inevitable, but you learn the most from your mistakes.
Lizzo Your Way Through
I love the PS Post has a sustainability mission! Was this part of the original plan for PS Post? And how did you end up sourcing recycled paper?
Thank you so much! Sustainability was always core to our mission and something we refused to deviate from. Part of the inspiration to encode e-gift cards onto a QR code was to dramatically reduce plastic gift card usage. They’re so wasteful! Gift cards are made of the most toxic types of plastics, aren’t recyclable, and frequently littered. Sure, e-gift cards are already an option, but opening an email with your gift card is really impersonal and unexciting.
We’re proud to only use 100% recycled paper for our cards and envelopes. Choosing recycled paper over virgin paper reduces production waste by ~45% and greenhouse emissions by ~37%.
My cofounder and I are personally dedicated to environmental conservation and more sustainable living, so not only are we only using 100% recycled paper, we’re also only working with printing companies who are committed to corporate social responsibility and who use environmentally friendly printing practices.
Miss Your Smile
Can you describe the process of your card creations? What are the steps from inspiration to finished product?
It looks different every time! Sometimes we have more formal idea generating meetings but often ideas come from us shooting the shit with each other. Inspiration strikes a lot, so we workshop ideas a lot via Slack and have a robust database to organize ideas by category and work them through the editorial and design processes.
Now Is Not Forever
Do you have a favorite card? What makes it stand out for you?
This is SO hard! I love so many of them. My current favorite is one that we’ll be releasing very soon: “Your Now Is Not Your Forever.”
The cards that have meant the most to me over the years are the ones from friends that come during the hard times. They communicate a simple and beautiful, “I see you and I’m here for you.”
Getting mail that isn’t a bill or a piece of junk mail is refreshing and exciting. We built PS Post so that it is easy to give that feeling. Seeing a luxurious, forest green envelope with a sleek address label
I wanted people to feel the same joy, comfort, and the warmth I feel when I get a card for a friend, and to make that process way easier for people.
What’s some great advice you received while starting your business?
My dear friend and mentor Sara Gibson often says, “If you aren’t hearing no, you aren’t pushing hard enough.” While nos are hard to hear, each no presents a new learning opportunity. Sometimes you realize that a hurdle was really just a speed bump or the wall you can’t climb over has a path around it.
12 Ft Skeleton
Have you learned anything the hard way as a startup that you wish you had been warned about?
Ugh, yes. Remember your team’s skills and expertise and go to them when you’re having trouble with things! I sometimes have a tendency to want to fix any problem I create on my own but why work harder when you can work smarter? Just yesterday I stressed and fumed and tried to troubleshoot an issue for 3 hours before I slacked my cofounder my exact problem. She called me and we solved the problem in 10 minutes. It was a really humbling reminder that the team is a team for a reason: we all bring different skills to the table that complement one another.
Do you have advice for other women looking to start their own business?
Asking for money can be super intimidating. It helped me to reframe it not as asking for money but offering investors an opportunity to make more money by betting on you. It helped even more to think about how much not asking is costing you. Claire Wasserman, the founder of Ladies Get Paid, wrote in a blog post, “how much is your discomfort worth? How much money are you willing to lose because of your silence? If not asking or talking about money will lose you say, $20,000, will you stay quiet?”
I believe in myself, my team, and our ability to provide an exceptional new service for people. If you do too, project that as much as you can to your investors. Even if you’re nervous as hell to talk to whoever you’re talking to, faking confidence will eventually turn into authentic confidence.
Thank you so much to Keller Anne for taking the time to answer these questions! I wish her and her team every success with this amazing venture!
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