TouchNote is one of the world’s largest subscription card-sending services having sent over 15 million cards to 200 different countries and territories. Through our mobile apps and website people send printed, personalised postcards, greeting cards and other photo-related products.
TouchNote is on a mission to help people nurture their most meaningful relationships. We are a midpoint between personalised gifting and communications apps; a fun, easy way for people to keep in touch. Our subscription-based model makes card sending an everyday option. Kindness should not just be for special occasions. We want to use the power of personalisation to create long-lasting, meaningful points of connection.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
TouchNote was not actually my idea. It was founded in London in 2008 by Raam Thakrar and Paul Burdin and I joined the company in 2016 as Chief Product Officer. In 2018, we were one of the early movers to pivot into a subscription-based model. I became CEO in 2019 to focus and build out this transformation.
Kindness and communication go hand-in-hand. And for our users, we know that kindness is not a one-off activity, rather something they do regularly. This pivot was a brave move for us; we have become a service that our customers regularly turn to for sharing their most meaningful moments, rather than just using us as a one-off. We now seeing other UK companies transform their operating models as well.
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How has the company evolved during the pandemic?
We’ve grown significantly during the pandemic as our customers looked for more human ways to communicate with their friends, family and loved ones.
We doubled our member base in 2020 and created 2 million connections with over half a million customers. Our revenue passed £10m for the year ending 31 December 2020 which validates our approach and reinforces that consumers want more meaningful communications.
We can see that during this very uncertain time, there are many demands on our customers. It’s up to us to continue to adapt and innovate to make sure we keep providing meaningful ways to nurture relationships and connect with loved ones.
What can we hope to see from TouchNote in the future?
It’s interesting to note that for companies in the card space, one of the largest growing segments for us is 18–25-year-olds. So much of our lives are online, and this age group is rediscovering the magic of sending something more tangible. Because of this we’re seeing a resurgence of this classic, meaningful way of communicating; sending a physical card to friends and family.
The rise of social media was also supposed to help society come closer together but, in reality, friends and families often find it harder to communicate meaningfully across generations using these new mediums.
So, what does this mean for TouchNote? We continue to focus on helping our customers nurture their most valuable relationships, by creating meaningful moments of connection through new products and services. We are committed to bringing the digital-intangible into the physical world.
