Teaching old cards new tricks

While most of his classmates are slumbering soundly, Seth Priebatsch '11 wakes up at 5 a.m. to call his production team on the other side of the world.

Priebatsch heads a seven-month-old global business, called PostcardTech that enables customers to send interactive postcards containing mini-CDs. Among his clients are Boston City Hall, Covington Associates, Fisherman's Feast and, more recently, Google.

"It seemed to be the next logical evolution," Priebatsch said of his company's product. "Just sending four-by-six pieces of paper seemed kind of lame."

Priebatsch's venture into the corporate world began during his senior year of high school, when the idea for PostcardTech inspired him to drop his French class in order to pursue the business. The startup, which served as Priebatsch's senior project for his high school, has generated a steady stream of revenue, though Priebatsch declined to specify how much he earns.

He continues to manage the business while at Princeton alongside his other extracurricular activities and classes. "It's a huge time commitment," he said. "I run PostcardTech and do schoolwork on the side. That's how I look at it."

PostcardTech puts a high-tech twist on the standard postcard: When recipients open the card, they are presented with a mini-CD that offers interactive multimedia presentations featuring photos, videos and text, sometimes in multiple languages. PostcardTech sells its product to companies and organizations, which then put them to a variety of uses, including reselling them, distributing them to employees or clients and using them as tourism, marketing or informational tools.

Most postcards sell for $6-$10, Preibastch said, adding that he currently has 12 active clients. Most clients typically request around 5,000 postcards.

Though his business has been growing steadily since its inception, Priebatsch was especially thrilled when he got the Google contract, which came after three weeks of emails and phone calls to arrange the deal. After learning the search engine company was his newest client, "I went into the girls' quad across the hall and started dancing," Priebatsch said.

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To pursue the contract with Google, Priebatsch sent a general email inquiry and followed up with a package containing his CD postcards. He continued to call Google about his product before his persistence finally paid off.

Priebatsch will now meet with Google's marketing director in Boston over Fall Break.

Priebatsch said he is confident that Google will put his product to good use, noting that it could help orient new Google employees, known at the company as "Nooglers."

"It became apparent that these products could be used for welcoming tools for organizations, companies and universities," Priebatsch said. "This was certainly a first in terms of a CD postcard and a first in terms of an interactive virtual tour of what amounts to be [the Nooglers'] new home."

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"It's been an amazingly efficient process," he added, referring to his efforts to expand his client base. "It's not something people have seen before, which is both a benefit and a disadvantage. Every face-to-face meeting that I have had resulted in a deal going through. The postcards kind of sell themselves."

Though the sales process might be going smoothly so far, creating the CDs for each client takes work. Priebatsch employs a production team in Hong Kong to replicate his clients' logos and materials, create the packages and send them to their designated locations in North America. He manages all the client interactions, programming and development by himself, though he contracts out some work to other designers.

"It's a very decentralized organization," Priebatsch said. "There are a number of us involved in the successful creation of the product, but I put in the lion's share of the work because most of the work is client-based interaction."

Though his lives as a student and corporate entrepreneur are currently distinct, Priebatsch is thinking about uniting them by marketing his postcards in the academic world.

"A very effective application of [the postcards] would be as a promotional tool for universities," he said. "I would hope to have the opportunity to kick around this idea with the Princeton administration sometime soon."

He added that his status as a Princeton student has helped attract potential customers. "My biggest challenge in getting any client to sign with me is convincing them that I can run a legitimate business," he said.

"They hear that I'm 18 and they don't take me seriously. I tell them that I go to Princeton, and they start listening."