From St. Louis Business Journal: Greenvelope was participating ITEN E-commerce Program.
A few years ago, Sam Franklin was reading a USA Today article that said 1.2 million wedding invitations had been sent that past year using the popular free online invitation service, evite.
"I was surprised that people would send wedding invitations with it," he said, since evite has ads and a limited selection of templates that are more suitable for backyard barbecues and bowling parties than something as elegant and important as a wedding.
So Franklin, 21, decided to launch a classier, more formal, advertising-free option to see if users would be willing to pay $19.99 to $360 to send paperless invitations.
They are.
Franklin, who launched Greenvelope from his dorm room at Washington University .. in January, now has 5,000 customers who have sent more than 150,000 invitations. In addition to brides, clients ranges from nonprofits to insurance companies to CPAs and other businesses that want an eco-friendly and cheaper way to send out invitations to corporate events and product launches.
"The younger generation sees that you can save so much time to do it this way because they don't need to track down physical addresses," Franklin said.
Monthly revenue is expected to hit $9,000 for September, and Franklin expects first-year revenue to reach $100,000. Franklin donates 5 percent of revenue each quarter to Mountains to Sound, a nonprofit that protects greenways in his native Seattle.
Franklin had $50,000 in startup funding, which he raised by launching a pressure-washing business and by delivering pizzas as well as through a loan from a family member. His competitors include Paperless Post, evite and old-fashioned snail mail.
Next up: adding the ability for users to sell tickets through the invitations.
Franklin, a college junior, comes from a family of doctors but has switched his major from pre-med to business: "I decided this is what I really loved." Full Article
