Cimpress: From Business Cards to Marketing Partner for Micro-businesses

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Thanks for taking the time to chat. All the people I've come across who worked at Cimpress are just great people.

I agree. I think it's the culture, and it starts from the top. Robert set up a wonderful culture there. It's easy to do the right thing and say the right thing when things are going well. Robert famously said, if things went wrong, he was the first to say, "This is what I could have done better," and he wasn't afraid to share it. He would also have Q&A sessions and genuinely meant it. In fact, he appreciated people who asked him difficult questions more than those who asked softball questions. That sort of candor and living up to his own standards set up a good culture. We had a problem in the management organization, and I was responsible for it for some time, at least on the MCP side. When something went wrong, it was important not to finger-point. It wasn't about who screwed up but about what we could learn from the experience. I think that's what built a great company, that commitment to a mission and a true meritocracy where delivering results mattered more than titles. That creates a great culture.

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You have to do it well enough, but if I find someone with better materials, designs, or something more stylish, even if you do it well enough, I might choose a better alternative as a micro business.

Not as a micro business, but as a bigger small business, you're correct. For example, the number of paper substrates Vistaprint uses compared to Pixartprinting is different. Pixartprinting uses more because their customers are a bit bigger. For them, the difference between 200-gram paper or 250, or a slightly different glossy finish, matters more. For a Vistaprint customer, convenience is more important. They're not experts in this subject; their focus is their business. They don't have a separate team for specific print needs. They want to order something online quickly at a low price, even if it means compromising on certain aspects. If you solve the problem of not needing an expert in print and offer a low price, they're okay with fewer paper substrate choices. As businesses grow, they need more selection, the process becomes more extended, prices get higher, and order volumes increase. That's when Vistaprint stops being the ideal provider, and Robert bought other companies like Pixartprinting to cater to those customers, as well as National Pen for promotional products in North America and Europe.

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