Lovepop, founded in 2014 by the young entrepreneurs John Wise and Wombi Rose, is a company that seeks to help people gift thoughtfully through unique, 3-D cards. With hundreds of different designs to choose from, there is a card for every occasion, ranging from graduation to Disney to Easter. Additionally, Lovepop has expanded its product options to include pop-up bouquets, gifts, handmade paper flowers, decor, notecards, advent calendars, ornaments, pop-up stickers, and gift wrap. By doing so, they were able to more successfully meet the needs of their customers and be a part of every step in the gifting process!
“Lovepop is on a mission to create one billion magical moments.”
Lovepop was created as a combination of art and engineering, both of which were passions of Wise and Rose. These two entrepreneurs met at Webb Institute where they were training to become naval architects. After learning about the paper art from of kirigami on a trip to the Harvard Business School, they began to develop Lovepop. A year later, they were able to earn an investment from the Shark Kevin O’Leary on ABC’s Sharktank, allowing them to further expand their business and reach new customer bases!
The story behind Lovepop is inspiring because it shows the great potential of combining different passions to create a unique value for customers. By focusing on the customers’ needs, Wise and Rose were able to creative a fun product and brand that helps people give thoughtfully and creatively.
Cool and interesting to hear how they became a success. I liked how they had a unique value proposition to their product and this was a well-written blog.
I like how these two entrepreneurs didn’t just stop at the pop-up cards, but expanded into more unique items such as bouquets, gifts, handmade paper flowers, decor, notecards, advent calendars, ornaments, pop-up stickers, and gift wrap. I’ve seen many brands that sell pop-up cards, but they found a way to make Lovepop stand out. It’s a great example of good innovation and idea development.
As someone who is trying to develop a more entrepreneurial mindset, I still would never think of this as a “need.” However, when I saw the picture of the card, I instantly wanted it. What would I do with it? Not sure. To sell something that has little to no practical purpose takes a different and more creative type of advertising that appeals more towards someone’s right brain. Lovepop did a good job of using pathos to make me easily want to put money into a funky piece of paper to make someone happy. Lovepop establishes MEANING for their product.