[Alyson Kuhn] Chris Wu’s motivation for founding Paper Culture came from two perspectives. One side of Chris’s brain had worked at Snapfish {subsequently acquired by Hewlett Packard} and then at HP, incubating new businesses, primarily in web-to-print. The other side of Chris’s brain was an expectant father… with a wife who had put him in full charge of the baby announcements. So, they weren’t twinspirations exactly, more like the two earpieces on a great pair of headphones.
Chris recalls, “I looked around on-line and was surprised to find that nobody was really offering what I had assumed I would find. I wanted modern designs to choose from, high quality production – and eco-friendly.” Chris saw his baby dilemma as a big opportunity, and decided to do more research. He comments, “Many businesses start from your personal pain points.” The result, at the beginning of the year, was the soft launch of Paper Culture… which didn’t stay soft for long, thanks to some stellar exposure in the goody bags at the Tony Awards.
Paper Culture’s products are digitally-printed, with a customizable twist they call Mail & Message. Chris elaborates, “What is really the purpose of great stationery? It’s about personal communication. By offering free addressing and stamping {yes, with a real stamp} and giving our customer the option to enter a unique message on the back of each person’s card, what we’re really doing is making the stationery experience more convenient, and by doing so, making sharing life’s incredible events much easier.” Paper Culture is sincere: Mail & Message service is merely the actual cost of the stamp {44¢} until the end of this year.
Paper Culture also aspires to leave a very small carbon footprint. Chris again: “We’re using only 100% PC stocks, both for our cards and for our envelopes. Our goal has been to build a company that is eco-friendly not just in terms of products but also in terms of how we run the business. As an example, our partnership with CarbonFund.org enables us to offset our carbon footprint.” Paper Culture’s line is printed on both Mohawk Options and Strathmore Script {100t for envelopes and 130dtc for cards}. They are packed inside a die-cut box made from 100% recycled materials. Thoroughly modern and simply mahvelous.
P.S. You don’t have to be having a baby, or even having a party, to get some paper culture. Want to send some Thank You notes in a sublimely timely way?
