Through bootstrapping, the greeting card portal Kartenmacherei.de from Gilching near Munich achieved annual sales of almost 40 million euros. Now the founders are investing 100 million euros in building new companies.
The Behn family of entrepreneurs, who are behind the greeting card portal Kartenmacherei.de is founding a parent company called Better, under whose umbrella further ventures will be created over the next ten years. The company intends to invest €100 million in the development of the new tech companies. The first company in the Better portfolio is the event app Celebrate.
This year, Kartenmacherei generated sales of almost 40 million euros, an increase of around 20 percent over the previous year. Over the past eight years, the company claims to have become the European market leader in the personalized greeting card segment through its own resources.
“All future ventures should serve the same mission as mapmaking”
Now, Kartenmacherei founders Christoph, Jennifer, and Steffen Behn are launching the venture builder Better. The entrepreneurs are apparently not aiming for a quick exit, as with their existing company, but rather want to build sustainably profitable business models. Jennifer Behn says:
“All future ventures should essentially serve the same mission as Kartenmacherei: We want to make our customers’ lives more beautiful and easier with our products and services.”
Christoph Behn The goal for the next 10 years is to build a network of companies, each of which transforms its industry for the better. To achieve this, the existing team will grow significantly. In 2019 alone, the company plans to hire 80 new colleagues:
"We're looking for entrepreneurs in residence and experienced company founders, but of course also experts in all other key areas such as tech, marketing, or creation. Together with people who think entrepreneurially and have the right drive, we want to build and expand ventures that make a real difference in their markets,"
said CTO Steffen Behn.
