Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Rare Beauty founder Selena Gomez is a billionaire, National Amusements’ Shari Redstone will receive over $500 million in the company’s sale, and Fortune’s Ellie Austin reports on Paperless Post’s new business venture. Have a meaningful Monday!
– You’ve got mail. Fifteen years ago, Alexa Hirschfeld and her brother, James Hirschfeld, launched Paperless Post. Described by the siblings as both a design company and a tech company, Paperless Post’s goal was to combine the elegance and personalization of paper stationery with the speed, efficiency, and low environmental impact of digital communication. “We have this combination of exceptional design, easy to use functionality and pay as you go pricing,” says Alexa, who is president of the company while her brother serves as CEO.
It’s proved to be a winning formula. Despite the pandemic, which “hammered” the company, and the emergence of competitors including Partiful, Evite, and Electragram, Paperless Post is profitable and growing. According to its own metrics, it has served over 200 million users to date and has experienced a compound growth rate of 42% since 2021.
Initially, the company focused its efforts on birthdays, weddings, and other life milestones. More recently, however, the Hirschfelds noticed that an increasing number of businesses were turning to Paperless Post to plan their events. “Twenty percent of event [invitations] are sent on behalf of businesses,” says Alexa, adding that Paperless Post counts “national museums, art galleries, fashion brands, and top charities” among its professional customers.
To better serve these businesses, Paperless Post is today launching Paperless Pro, a B2B sub-brand that offers an end-to-end event management platform built with organizations in mind. The new service offers enhanced customization, a branded event page, and guest list management among its many features. It remains pay as you go, aiming to offer a middle ground between the “expensive enterprise event platforms that you need a really expensive annual subscription for” and the more piecemeal approach of sending and tracking invitations using emails and spreadsheets, says Alexa. The company estimates that using all of its Pro features to plan a 100 person event would cost around $120.
“This launch is really the beginning of us putting a stick in the ground and saying we’re building dedicated functionality for businesses and recognizing where they diverge from consumers,” says James. This includes new invitation language and formats. “Businesses need to sell the event more because it isn’t based around a social relationship. If a friend invites you to their wedding, you don’t need an explanation about why you’re going. Whereas if your local art gallery is trying to get you to an opening, before you click, you want to know, ‘why do I care?’”
The company’s post-pandemic bounce back can be attributed, in part, to a hunger for human interaction at a time when the U.S. is in the grips of a loneliness epidemic. “In a world where we are more remote, in-person events are taking on a whole new meaning,” says Alexa. “They’re more urgently needed. Our mission is to bring people together in the real world.”
Ellie Austin
ellie.austin@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Welcome to the club. Selena Gomez has become a billionaire with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Gomez, who started her career as an actress and singer, is the founder of Rare Beauty, which Bloomberg estimated accounts for 80% of her wealth.
- No service. Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, asked a Brazilian judge to “please stop harassing Starlink and let us keep serving the people of Brazil.” Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite internet service and one of Elon Musk’s ventures. After Musk refused to remove certain accounts from X, Brazilian courts suspended the platform and froze Starlink’s company accounts, as X owes over $3 million in fees. TechCrunch
- Half a billion. Shari Redstone, chairwoman of Paramount Global and chairwoman, president, and CEO of National Amusements, will receive over $500 million following the sale of National Amusements to Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Severance and pension benefits will account for $180 million of that sum; $350 million will come from her stake in National Amusements. Financial Times
- Refocusing. Goop, founded and led by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, is restructuring and laying off 18% of employees. The lifestyle company, which saw an increase in revenue last year, is narrowing its focus to fashion, beauty, and food. WWD
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Darktrace, a cyber-security firm, named COO Jill Popelka as its new CEO, succeeding Poppy Gustafsson.
Work for America, a nonprofit focused on government staffing, named Caitlin Lewis executive director. Previously, she was chief of staff at Promise.
StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising platform, appointed Cassandra Hudson as chief financial officer. Hudson most recently served as CFO at EngageSmart.
ContractPodAi, a legal AI company, appointed Tanja Podinic as senior vice president of AI programs. She is the founder and director of Digital Legal Ventures.
Back Market, a refurbished tech marketplace, named Joy Howard chief marketing officer. Howard was previously CMO at Lyft.
Burgerville, a restaurant chain in the Pacific Northwest, appointed May Han as chief development officer. Most recently, Han was vice president of development and real estate law at Dutch Bros.
ON MY RADAR
E. Jean Carroll opens up about taking on Trump in court and winning—twice Rolling Stone
Jamaica’s female farmers rebuild after Hurricane Beryl through women-led cash voucher program AP
Doctors are leaving conservative states to learn to perform abortions. We followed one Politico
PARTING WORDS
“I’ve been fighting for my freedom my whole rap career...You got to do things to make yourself be your own boss.”
— Rapper Megan Thee Stallion on why being an independent artist is important to her
