Name: Joy Gendusa
Company: PostcardMania
Position: Founder & CEO
Website: https://www.postcardmania.com/
About Joy Gendusa
Founder and CEO Joy Gendusa — who stopped all formal education at age 16 — started PostcardMania in 1998 in a 600-square-foot cottage with just a computer and passion for small business.
Over the past 27 years, Joy has grown PostcardMania to $119 million in annual revenue, a campus that spans 75,000 square feet, 390 staff and 121,976 clients — all 100% bootstrapped on the back of her own hustle, with ZERO outside funding or capital.
Today, PostcardMania is one of the most effective tech-driven multi-channel marketing companies specializing in lead generation for small to mid-sized businesses. They offer fully integrated, automated, and results-based campaigns that seamlessly bring online and offline channels together to generate leads, increase revenue and drive growth. PostcardMania’s larger purpose is to strengthen the U.S. economy by helping independent business owners — the backbone of our economy — grow and prosper. When small businesses win, we all win.
But it hasn’t always been rosy for Joy and PostcardMania.
Joy’s come up against a number of challenges since founding PostcardMania, but it’s her latest pivot that I’ll focus on today.
Joy’s latest saga is a little like David versus Goliath — a high school dropout versus Big Money and Tech.
Lately, PostcardMania has faced mounting competition from large, VC-funded direct mail companies increasingly dominating the market. These VC-backed companies raised over $165 million combined. Their customers include enterprise-sized businesses like Expedia and X by offering triggered direct mail campaigns.
These campaigns target prospects based on online behaviors — like abandoning a shopping cart — by sending a postcard to that prospect’s home in the hopes of tempting them back to complete the sale. However, these VC darlings don’t print or mail anything. They farm out that work to other companies — like PostcardMania — while skimming off the top and charging exorbitant tech fees. They’re like Uber, making big bucks being the middle man.
Joy and 27-year-old PostcardMania needed to come up with a way to compete with these young and nimble software companies while also:
• Offering a product that would be easier for everyday SMBs to use
• Avoiding charging tech fees so that SMBs only pay for mail they send
• And make this big pivot to tech while supporting a staff of over 390
But Joy buckled down and got it done.
Since launching these tech-driven triggered postcards, PostcardMania is soaring:
• Added roughly $15 million in revenue in 2024 to reach $119 million annual gross
• Average revenue growth has tripled to 15% after averaging 5% growth the previous decade
• Annual revenue from PostcardMania’s tech-driven division, PCM Integrations, has grown 2,614% and the number of pieces mailed annually/ has grown 8,468%
• Since 2023, PostcardMania’s growth has added 51 new jobs brand new jobs to their roster
Plus, PostcardMania’s automated postcards can change the entire trajectory of a business. A roofer signed a new contract worth $40,000 after mailing just 17 postcards. A real estate investor acquired a new property worth $70,000 in revenue after sending only 111 postcards. That’s what it’s all about!
