How exactly did Blue Mountain Cards survive the dot com crash

Have you heard of Blue Mountain Cards? It all started back when ecards became big in the 1990's. It seemed like everyone thought somehow giving away ecards was going to be a business model. What you must remember is that advertising revenue models were seen as very acceptable back then. This is a difference with today's focus on real revenue. However, there are some painful similarities in web 2.0 to this idea of building big applications that will make money only from advertising.

The ecard space is a funny one. This is the space that is eating the lunch from the old paper greeting card space that's been around forever and a day. It seems like the classic case of doing something through technology that was previously manual. But you should look deeper. An ecard is not the same thing as a paper card. You buy a paper card at a store and physically write on it. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. In this way, it's a real product transition. So we are actually seeing technology change the wants and desires of the buyer here. You see this also in pcs, telephones, tvs and other electronic products.

How exactly did blue mountain cards dig out of this hole? First, Blue Mountain Cards had a big 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 Blue Mountain Cards management decided to sell the company while everything was still red-hot. What a move that was.. I'll bet many people wish they had that type of timing.

How is that in 2008 Blue Mountain Cards is still a going concern? One view is that the original builders of the business picked an once-in-a-lifetime period to exit the business and made an unprecedented amount of money.. I often wonder if management teams like that are really lucky or create luck due to their experience. The greeting card business is huge. Regardless of their underlying financials, this business made a name for itself in a multi billion dollar business space. I am betting that this is why they are still around today. It's a textbook case of building a brand in a new market. The part that is not text book is how Blue Mountain Cards got out at the top of the market. We should all be so lucky in our careers.