PAPER GIANTS
Meet the entrepreneurs who founded a tech brand designed to get people away from tech. By Zara Wong. Styled by Petta Chua. Photographed by Max Papendieck.
Meet the sibling entrepreneurs who founded a tech brand designed to get people away from tech.
“WE ARE ENGAGING WITH OUR CUSTOMERS ON HIGHSTAKE PARTS OF THEIR LIVES”
Paper has become an analogous, amorphous byword for another time. Do you read the news in print or on your phone? Do you use Google Calendar, or a Moleskine? Do you paper, or do you not paper? This is a binary that James and Alexa Hirschfeld quash with their company Paperless Post, where invitations and cards are sent and received with the same sense of ritualistic flourish as hard copy versions. The kicker? It’s all online, sent digitally, with RSVPs collected and sorted on one easy platform. “Paper invitations are beautiful and special. I understood why it was compelling, but also, that there was an opportunity for us to create a digital experience that captured all of that thoughtfulness and personal touch, but that allowed you to use a more efficient platform,” says James, Paperless Post’s CEO, who will be in Sydney as keynote speaker at Vogue Codes Summit and Live events on July 28 and 29 respectively. “We are not creating the relationships but we’re playing a role in making that part of life easier and more expressive and more exciting in our own way.”
It all started with a party: James’s 21st, to be specific. An undergraduate at Harvard, he was struck by the way sending invitations to an important event still happened by post, even though it was 2008, with communication increasingly going digital. While others were scrambling to create the next social media network – Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook had also gone to Harvard – James was fascinated by the idea of bringing premium invites online. “So, it was quite humble in that sense.” What began as digitising the experience of paper has now evolved into something larger and more meaningful – a way to cultivate existing relationships. Paperless Post, as Alexa and James see it, is a way for people to spend more time with each other in real life rather than through digital communication.
He called upon his older sister, Alexa, a Harvard alumna herself, who was working at a television station at the time. “She was a sceptic at first,” says James, laughing. Alexa, however, was soon convinced. “I thought: ‘I’m super-young and have absolutely nothing to lose, so might as well get myself into a situation where I can learn,’” she says of the memory of how she came on board. “I was 23 and James was 21, still in university at the time, which some people might see as negative, but I saw it as a positive.” Most importantly, she recognised her brother’s ability to bring the concept to reality. “I just had this instinct. It wasn’t just the idea, it was because of the way he talked about it and who he was and what his skills were,” she recalls. “The way he described it gave me confidence.”
James oversees brand and creative, while Alexa oversees product development, managing product and engineering teams. By virtue of being female, Alexa is often incorrectly assumed to be the creative force behind Paperless Post. “I’m not the person to ask about the coolest kind of Christmas party invitation designs, but I know what makes a good design tool or experience, or mobile versus desktop, and what it’s like to build a team,” she says of her role in the company. “Obviously, people expect those kinds of roles from us, but I’m happy with the reality.”
As siblings, they have always had a clear sense of each other’s strengths and were always close. “She’s an engine, and I’m a rudder,” James explains on how they work. “What I do is direct the vision and try to keep us focused on the goal.” James had always imagined they would someday end up working together. “I knew she would be a very good partner to me to knock down barriers and figure out something that was completely new to us, which was how to build a web application.” As the company has expanded and the brother-and-sister team has aged, they have come to understand other events of significance. “I was 21 when I started and I had never been to a 30th or an engagement party; everything in my mind was a 21st birthday party,” says James. “But even then I was thinking about how fun it is to throw a great party and how much we care as human beings to spend time with people we like, and it’s worth putting in time and effort, and that we wanted to be involved in that part of the consumer experience.” As is the way with start-ups, the two co-founders and siblings also ran customer support along with their partner, now chief operating officer, Lucy Grayson Deland. “I used to get the customer service emails directed to my inbox,” recalls James, who tells me about brides who would email about misspellings on wedding invitations. “Each event has a real story.” The technical aspect of Paperless Post is the quiet machine behind the flourish of paper brought to life via digital. “We’re engaging with customers on really high-stake parts of their lives,” says Alexa. This high level of client interaction meant Paperless Post customers took an active part in forming the company as it is today, from requesting customisation options to driving the launch of a small print arm in 2012, because, as the founders themselves attest, few people live exclusively online or offline.
The Hirschfelds have recently pushed to expand internationally, even though, by virtue of being a digital platform, the product is already international. “It’s not a question of taste whether people celebrate a wedding or a birthday; it’s a fundamental human social act,” James explains.
I ask about challenges: they did, after all, found a technology company with limited technology experience. It’s a factor now remedied, given their success: they sign up tens of thousands of new members daily, with significant growth in Australia. And also, perhaps it’s because they see their company as a collection of values, I ask about the importance of their company’s role as an instrument that facilitates the spending of quality time in person rather than via smartphones. As James summarises: “While we realised early on that we were betting on the future of digital, we exist to help people connect in the real world more easily and meaningfully.” Going online then, to go offline.