Blue mountain cards survives

What is Blue Mountain Cards? Back in the 90's there was a huge rush of companies trying to provide online ecard services. I'm 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 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. 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 in essence, the technology is really impacted the very product. This is not unique, just look at tvs, video games or any other electronic based market.

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 had a good plan. It seems like the executives at Blue Mountain Cards new they were onto something big, but that it wouldn't last. 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.

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 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.