How did Blue Mountain Cards survive the dot com

Have you heard of Blue Mountain Cards? It all started back when ecards became big in the 1990s. 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 has no changed with people wanting to know where the real revenue is coming from. 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 thats been around forever and a day. It seems like the classic case of doing something through technology that was previously manual. But I dont think its that simple. eCards are not exactly the same product as paper greeting cards. You buy a paper card at a store and physically write on it. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. The products here are just not the same. So in essence, the technology is really impacted the very product. You see this also in pcs, telephones, tvs and other electronic products.
How exactly did blue mountain cards dig out of this hole? Im not entirely sure, but I think that Blue Mountain Cards had a serious 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 wouldnt last. So the company was sold while things were still really really hot in the dot com sector. What a move that was.. Ill bet many people wish they had that type of timing.
So now its 2008 and what is a business model like Blue Mountain Cards still doing around? You could argue that the management team at Blue Mountain Cards were the luckiest people on earth to have gotten such a valuation at such a time when that was seen as appropriate. 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 think this accounts for why they are here today. They built a brand and have a name worth something. The part this is far from any text book case study is how they exited at the height of the crazy valuations. We should all be so lucky in our careers.
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