Why I started PS Post

Keller Anne Ruble, Founder & CEO

[7 min read]

Hi, I’m Keller Anne!

I started PS Post in 2020 with my co-founder, Caitlin, to make an easier way to send cards and gifts.

Why did we take a leap of faith and launch a startup… at the start of a pandemic? Life threw me a curve ball, and I decided to step up to the plate.

A small but mighty team had been building PS Post on nights and weekends just before the pandemic hit. Then, like most of us experienced in some way, shape, or form — 2020 threw me a huge curveball. My company was restructured, and I was let go.

Though it felt devastating at first, I started to see it as an exciting and rare opportunity to make PS Post a reality.

Instead of staying in the field where I had more than a decade of career experience, I decided to take to a leap of faith and work on PS Post full-time. If not now, when?

a woman wearing sunglasses is sitting on a blanket in the grass and smiling. She is reading a greeting card. She is holding her phone in her right hand, pointed at the inside of the greeting card. The greeting card reads "you're doing a great job"

People loved the idea of PS Post, and I had to see what it could become!

So… a website to make sending cards easy, with an added bonus of sending gifts inside on QR codes. How did this come about?

1. Mail is Awesome!

I love getting mail. To me, taking the time to write a card— no matter how simple or well thought out— is an act of love.

When was the last time you got a personal letter? How did it make you feel?

Back in college, my grandma knew how much I loved checking my mailbox. Even though we talked regularly on the phone, she wrote me so many cards and letters – mostly just because. Of all the cards I’ve saved, I cherish those just-thinking-about-yous the most.

Mail kept a long-distance romance alive! I met my now-spouse just one month before he entered the Peace Corps. Despite a 10-hour time difference and thousands of miles between us, we wrote emails and letters, sent care packages, and hoarded precious Skype credits.

Starting a relationship only to immediately date long-distance was hard but all the little ways of staying in touch were deeply romantic. Our patience paid off – we’ve been married now for 7 years! It’s so special revisiting our letters now.

I know how special it can be to receive personal letters and cards in the mail. And I wanted to make it easier for everyone to send mail using their phone or computer.

2. Good cards are hard to find and harder to send

As much as I love cards, sometimes the process of getting a card in the mail felt more frustrating than it was worth. Greeting card aisles can feel a little overwhelming, picking up card after card after card.

What about thank you notes? It seems like no matter how recently I bought a pack of thank you notes, I never can find a matching card & envelope. Good luck locating an extra in case you don’t get it ~~write~~ right the first time!

Once you’ve finally written your heart’s desire, what if you don’t find a stamp?

Life can get in the way of our best intentions sometimes.

With PS Post, we wanted to make it easy to follow through when inspiration strikes, with envelopes that stand out and cards that feel luxurious.

A rectangular, fabric box labeled "stationery" sits on a table. It is overflowing with individual greeting cards, envelopes, and packs of stationery.

3. Sentimental? Very Much So

I have probably kept almost every card, ticket stub, or small ephemera from throughout my life. I have affectionately dubbed this, “emotional hoarding.”

They all live in an overflowing box, some organized in bags or photo albums by life chapters, some haphazardly stuffed (a sash from my senior sorority formal) or deliberately wedged (a gavel from a high school mock trial award).

my 5th birthday card

I’m not alone! 85% of Americans say they have special keepsakes. Four of the top five most popular keepsakes are a type of greeting card. The most popular by far? Birthday cards!

I love revisiting my box of memories from time to time – especially the notes. A Post-it left on my dorm room mirror from my best friend. A playbill decorated with pre-show tic-tac-toe. My grandma’s small, neatly slanted cursive. Something about holding on to a piece of paper whooshes you right back the where you were and who you were in that moment.

In an increasingly digital world, it’s nice to have something to hold onto.

4. I love giving gifts, but I am sometimes terrible at gift giving

I try my best to celebrate friends and family but sometimes I struggle with actually sending a gift. Sometimes I lost track of birthdays by not being on Facebook.

Part of the idea for PS Post came from going to weddings.

Once, we didn’t plan to take the gift to the wedding. The drive was a few hours from where we both lived, and I didn’t want to pack their gift only for them to drive it right back home. I brought the card but was too embarrassed to put it with the others. What if they read, “your gift is at our house!” and thought we didn’t actually get them a gift??

Sometimes I had gifts shipped to me so I could add my own card. The “this is a gift!” messages included in packages from online orders feel often like an afterthought to me, and I’ve always wanted a better option.

What about the times when you need a quick gift on the fly? It’s clear – people like gift cards!

They can treat themselves in whatever way they see fit. What people most often don’t like about gift cards is that they can feel impersonal.

Ultimately, I wanted a way to send a gift card inside a greeting card that still felt really special.

5. Yes, I am thoroughly obsessed with paper

I have journaled, sketched, drawn, and painted regularly my whole life. Since I was young, I have never met an office-supply aisle or paper store I didn’t love. Back-to-school shopping was a veritable pilgrimage. I love creating art of different mediums, but I’ve always been drawn to paper-craft – papier-mâché, scrapbooking, stamping, collage, and more.

In high school, I directed a play called One Thousand Paper Cranes (based on this children’s book). We folded dozens of 3 ft tall origami cranes to hang from the rafters and folded thousands more small cranes to spread throughout the auditorium. It was a pretty spectacular sight.

Now, I go into any stationery store I pass, just to feel different paper weights and grains. It’s almost too easy to lose track of time in art stores looking for the perfect sketchbook or paper medium for a new creation.

This obsession with paper guided us when sourcing paper for our cards and envelopes. We have high standards of what feels special to open, read, and keep!

6. Connection sparks joy

Writing a card to someone is an act of love. It says, “you’re important to me.” It’s time, energy, and feeling dedicated to another person.

A smiling Black man holds up a Father's Day card to show the camerawhile a sleeping baby lies on his chest.

Reading words from a friend or a loved one makes you feel closer to one another.

So many of us love a good card or letter. A 2020 survey found that 80% of people feel that social media can’t replace the same feeling of greeting cards, and the majority surveyed preferred receiving a card more than the same message via text.

In college, I tried to check my mail only once a week. My heart sped up turning the key to my small, metal box. Seeing an envelope tucked in there waiting to be read made my heart soar!