A “Happy Birthday!” text message, email, or social media post doesn’t have the same oomph as opening a physical card in the mail.
With their startup Escargot, cousins Andrew Gold and Aaron Albert want to revive the technology of mailing greeting cards for Gen Z and Millennials.
“People want to feel human,” Albert told Business Insider in an interview.
Launched in February, Escargot now lets you send physical greeting cards for any occasion, including birthdays, holidays, and celebrations, all within your mobile app or website. Individual cards cost about $8, but subscriptions start at about $10 per month with two rollable card credits.
The startup recently raised $2.75 million in seed funding from investors including Wischoff Ventures, Hannah Grey, and South Park Commons.
“This greeting card industry is huge,” Gold said. Grand View Research estimates that the U.S. card market will be worth approximately $7.1 billion in 2025.
Most of the birthdays in the app are from 2000 onwards, Gold said.
“We have a big, rich opportunity there,” Gold said. “But we are also interested in marketing to millennials and beyond.”
While AI is taking over the internet and social media is evolving and becoming numb; socializing, Analog media such as landlines, photo booths, and record players are also making a comeback.
Albert said this “cultural shift” signaled to Escargot’s founders that now was the right time to launch a product centered around paper nostalgia as a foil to the futuristic technology coming out of Silicon Valley.
“We’re not Luddites,” Albert said. “We’re not going to poop on technology.”
Instead, Escargot’s founders plan to leverage technology and AI to return to a more social version of the web.
“We’re not trying to market ourselves as an AI company,” Gold said. “We’re going to use this in interesting ways to enhance some experiences.”
Escargot CEO Gold previously worked at Apple and Coinbase, while Escargot CMO Albert is a former child actor and founder of mental health startup Felt.
AI as a tool to help connect real people
Escargot uses AI in several ways.
If the available art doesn’t fit the message you’re trying to convey, Escargot gives you the option to “remix” your card art with AI using Google’s Gemini. Users can also upload their own photos to the card.
The app also uses AI to recommend when to send cards to friends, once you give them access to your calendar and contacts.
Escargot isn’t the only company betting on this space. Hallmark, one of the leading greeting card companies, offers an app that lets you send paper cards and reminders.
In his pitch to investors, Escargot emphasized that the company plans to expand beyond greeting cards with features that put a twist on gift cards and give people more ways to stay connected.
Escargot is one of several AI-era startups selling tools to users to build stronger relationships in the real world. Retro, a photo-sharing social media platform, has a postcard feature that makes sending photos to friends and family as easy as posting them online. Rodeo, also founded by former Hinge executives, uses AI to streamline the process of gathering friends IRL.
Escargot has five full-time employees, including Gold and Albert, and plans to deploy the recent funding by building out its product ecosystem.
Read the Notion memo Escargot used to pitch investors, shared exclusively with Business Insider.
Note: Some details have been redacted.
