lovepop

Lovepop is a Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts-based maker of 3D pop-up greeting cards and paper-based gifts. Its products are engineered using a technique the company calls Slicegami, which applies the sliceform structures used in ship hull design to the paper art of kirigami, produced with 3D ship-design software and laser-cutting equipment. Beyond cards, the catalog spans birthday, holiday (Halloween, Christmas, fall), anniversary, wedding, sympathy, get-well and thank-you occasions, plus pop-up bouquets, advent calendars, ornament and bookmark cards, suncatcher cards and blank cards. The company also introduced a line of custom wedding invitations that use its patented pop-up architecture.

The company positions itself as a technology-driven entrant in the social expressions category, describing the traditional greeting card industry as a $7 billion market and the wedding invitation opportunity as an additional $2 billion. It sells direct-to-consumer through its website, through hundreds of specialty retailers and, as of early 2018, more than 15 company-owned retail locations, and also fulfills custom orders for retailers, businesses and event hosts. Manufacturing has included a production facility in Da Nang, Vietnam staffed by local craftspeople.

Lovepop frames its output in "Magical Moments" — defined as a card being bought by a giver and opened by a receiver, so each card counts as two — and states a mission of creating one billion of them. Its site reports more than 60 million Magical Moments created to date.

Founding story

Co-founders Wombi Rose and John Wise met as undergraduates at Webb Institute in New York, where they studied naval architecture and marine engineering, and later were classmates at Harvard Business School. On a business school trip to Vietnam they encountered sliceform kirigami and recognized its similarity to the sliced grid structures used in ship hull construction. Applying the same 3D ship design software and laser-cutting equipment to paper, they developed Slicegami and founded Lovepop in 2014.

Business model

Lovepop sells physical pop-up cards, gifts and custom stationery. Revenue comes from direct online sales on lovepop.com, from company-owned retail locations and kiosks, from wholesale distribution through specialty retailers and partner locations across the U.S., and from custom/bulk work for retailers, businesses and event hosts, including wedding invitations. The website offers paid add-ons such as sentiment card inserts ($2), personalization ($5) and a complete package ($7), with free basic U.S. shipping over $49 and a 10% discount on orders of five or more items.

Product sales of cards, gifts and invitations at consumer price points (cards were priced $8 to $13 in 2015), with optional paid personalization and insert upgrades, plus wholesale and custom-order revenue.

Traction

The company reported growth of more than 270% in the twelve months preceding its January 2018 Series A and said it nearly tripled in headcount during 2017 to a 600-person global team, with products in hundreds of specialty retailers and over 15 company-owned retail locations, and an NPS of 87. In late 2015 its Vietnam facility produced 20,000-40,000 cards per month. The company's site reports over 60 million Magical Moments created.

Latest developments

The company's storefront currently promotes a Halloween 2026 collection alongside new ornament and bookmark cards, advent calendars and a fall collection, and reports more than 60 million Magical Moments created.