Features Industry Profiles

June 4, 2015 •
Lawrence Yeh

Lawrence Yeh, president
Paper Pop Cards
New York

1. When and how did you start working in this business? 

I’d consider myself a fanatical serial entrepreneur. This business is entirely different from my other businesses. I come from a service-oriented sector of special events. OUO Audio Visual is a full-service production and rental company providing sound, lighting, video and staging for concerts, fashion shows and conferences nearly 20 years. Picsfly, which also sponsored the recent National Stationery Show in New York, is a software development company that provides photo booth rentals and Instagram printers. So this is certainly different from stationery and greeting cards.

The story begins for Paper Pop Cards in 2012 while my wife and I were traveling in Vietnam. We were shopping through a night market, and among all the street vendors, we saw an unassuming elderly woman selling some cool pop-up cards on the floor. We had never seen anything like it.  We bought all the cards she had.  Since my family had already had a factory in China producing paper lanterns and assorted tchotchkes, I brought it over to them and said, “let’s start making these!”  We had to make our 3-D pop-ups unique with a concentration on new designs and new lines of products.  We have since filed numerous patents for our designs and innovations.

2. What is your signature style?

Intricate designs with a focus on having our products to be fun, smart, cute and modern.  We’ve taken the “a”, “e” and “o” from Paper Pop to create our tagline, “Always Eye Opening.”

We currently design and manufacture three lines of products; our premium line called PaperPopCards which highlights our innovative designs, superior quality paper, custom-embossed foiling, witty captions and features our patent-pending PopLock system. Our PuzzlePop line is our DIY line of larger format 3-D puzzle models. Our Popz line is our cost conscious line of 2-D and 3-D blank pop-up cards.

3. What are your most popular stationery offerings? 

I would say our most popular stationery offerings are our PaperPopCards line, however, our new PuzzlePop DIY products are quickly gaining traction and we believe that will soon become equally as popular.

4. Please share the direction your line will be taking. 

Well, we believe the retail consumers have become tremendously savvy. They shop carefully — whether it is through the Web or in stores, they want value. They are willing to pay a premium, so long as they see that it’s worth it.  So, since our 3-D greeting cards are an intricate pop-up card that converts into a ornament, decorative piece or keepsake with our PopLock feature, it really is both a captivating greeting card that is also a gift. I see value there.

Our focus from day one has been to share our products to the masses.  We are working with many large retailers as well as local shops throughout the country. We also want to give back through Paper Pop Cares, so we’re starting an initiative to provide much needed art supplies to children, including our PuzzlePop products, crayons, pencils, etc.

5. What are your top three tips for success?

We haven’t succeeded entirely yet, so our tips to success should be what we believe success entails (smiling):

  • Look into the details of EVERYTHING. That will help you innovate.
  • Create great and refreshing new products and love your customers who appreciate it.
  • Give back and help.



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