What is 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. Business models based on advertising revenue were quite frequent 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.

Ecards are a difficult business space for me to understand. This is the space that is eating the lunch from the old paper greeting card space that's been around forever and a day. In some ways it's a normal case study of technology advancement over a paper based product. But you should look deeper. An ecard is not the same thing as a paper card. Paper cards come from a store and require you to mail them. 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? 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 the company was sold while things were still really really hot in the dot com sector. 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? 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. However, these were experience people who were also making a serious move in a serious industry. This is not a small business. 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 that is not text book is how Blue Mountain Cards got out at the top of the market. I guess that's where a little luck goes a long way.