Mariam Naficy, co-founder of failed beauty startup Eve.com (which went belly up when the bubble burst in 2000), has launched her latest venture: Minted, an online stationery store with a competitive marketplace reminiscent of the one found on custom t-shirt store Threadless.
The site offers graphic designers a community to showcase and (hopefully) sell their designs, which are voted on by customers. The best designs are printed and sold, with about 5% of the retail price going to the designer (this may sound small, but Naficy says it is near double what a designer might get from a traditional card company like Hallmark). On top of the revenue sharing, the site will also hold regular competitions, with winning entries winning on the order of $1000. To further sweeten the deal for the designers, all cards have the artists’ name emblazoned in fine print on the back (another thing you won’t see on typical greeting cads).
The store will sell a mix of designer-submitted cards and cards from established independent card companies. While Minted is starting with stationery, it will likely expand to other products in the future. Minted will initially only sell its cards through its online storefront, but Naficy says that there ample opportunities for partnerships and alternative distribution channels down the line. If the site is going to succeed, it will need to establish these ties quickly – few people are going to buy from a stationery store they’ve never heard of, giving designers little reason to submit their designs in the first place.
Stationary/Stationery
Station(e)ry because you write l(e)tters
“Stationary” store? You mean the store doesn’t move?!
Zak: Another (and easier, from my POV) way to remember it is that a “stationer” is a person who sells “stationery.” “er” is a common suffix for a person, whereas “ar” is not. “Stationar” just looks crazy wrong.
Gees, talk about branding infringement to Mint.com (or is not?). Is that what Papyrus is about (www.papyrusonline.com). Hmmm…
web 2.0 lingo. Brick and mortar = stationary stores.
Peter, another great way to remember the difference between the two! I’ll tuck that away for future use.
James — point taken, but in referring to any store as stationary, wouldn’t that be pointing out the obvious? It’s not nearly as newsworthy as a stationery store launch now that letter writing is a lost art.
There are quite a few of us in the crowdsourcing space at the moment.
Paper?
Who still uses stationary? What a waste of paper and resources. With electronic communication being more and more common, the use of stationary or paper in general is a waste.
wow.. this conversation woke me up to the fact that the only things i ACTUALLY write with a pen are hexadecimal values and my signature..
spooky..
This site is way too heavy. Lose some text, really. With 2.5 milllion in funding the home page optimization and user experience should be worked out.
They may have great designers, but they are not designing for the web.
the site works just fine for me on Safari 3. Doesn’t feel heavy at all. The js drop downs are crisp… I don’t see the problem.
Have techcrunch got a vested interest in this ??? because you removed my “deadpool” comment but i will say it again “deadpool”
You guys are idiots. This finally brings hard to find paper brands and the coolest underground designs to the masses. It’s one of the last untapped industries to not be online.
If you knew anything about paper or customized invitations you’d know they have the very best brands around.
Am I the only one who sees the value of this? As a design fanatic, I see this as a great opportunity for artists to put their work to a good use. I’m not so sure I would call it stationery, it seems that the majority of their business will go do printing invitations and such. Just keep in mind, my dear fellow web-addicts, there are still people out there (somewhere) that don’t use the computer for everything…
not to mention they have the coolest brands on their site…this isn’t your mother’s crane’s store people
This place is REALLY expensive. For that kind of money, you could work with a designer and custom-design your own wedding invitations, with a lot more of the cash going to the actual artist. Letterpress and other types of engraving isn’t cheap, but I would think the idea of this place would be to offer well-designed stationery at more affordable rates.
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James — point taken, but in referring to any store as stationary, wouldn’t that be pointing out the obvious?
Nice looking service- it will be interesting to see their impact on the industry.