Selena Gomez and Others Put More Money Into Postcard on the Run App
Postcard on the Run, a service that turns mobile photos into physical postcards — often scratch-and-smell scented postcards — has hit up its investors for more money.
The company is perhaps best known for being the sole tech investment of Selena Gomez, who also serves as part-time creative advisor. The actress and singer participated in the round, along with Crosslink Capital, Crosscut Ventures, Siemer Ventures, Miramar Venture Partners and Double M Capital and other investors. The new $1.3 million round comes on top of $750,000 already raised.
“Selena is great because she helps us connect to a younger audience,” said Postcard on the Run CEO Josh Brooks, noting that the starlet visits the office every couple of months (and it’s always a photo op, as seen at right).
As far as celebrity tech tie-ins go, this one actually makes some sense; Gomez tweets about the service pretty regularly, and sends out batches of personalized postcards to users.
The PotR Facebook page is full of people from around the world posting their addresses in the hopes they’ll get a card from Selena.
Sure, Postcard on the Run is no Instagram, but people do pay for it — usually a couple bucks per postcard.
In addition to its own app — which is on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia platforms, and has about 30,000 active monthly users — Postcard on the Run has about three dozen partnerships with venues and brands to include its photo-to-postcard functionality in their apps. They include Sony, Universal, Lollapalooza and Starline Tours, and collectively add another “few million installations” of PotR technology, Brooks said.
A few more stats: 24 percent of Postcard on the Run users pay 50 cents more to add smell to their postcards, and 20 percent of users send postcards outside the U.S. And 100 percent of them really want Selena to send them a postcard.
