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We invested in an email marketing company called eAgents in 1999. eAgents was led by Charlie Fink (ex-Disney) and Will Weil (ex-Nickelodeon). In 2000, American Greetings acquired eAgents. At the time they were building out their American Greetings Interactive unit, introducing electronic greeting cards to the broad swath of online consumers. We took stock in American Greetings Interactive, and continued to serve on the AGI Board of Directors for 5-years post acquisition. During this time, we worked closely with AGI CEO Josef Mandelbaum to introduce a subscription-based freemium model for the greeting card industry, which resulted in 4M subscribers and, coupled with ad sales, $100M in annual revenue. We also worked with management to consolidate the industry, with AGI acquiring Blue Mountain Arts, eGreetings and Beat Greets. Part of our investing premise was that certain emails (originally via eAgents) and e-greeting cards would help bring emotional expression online – whereas previously the internet was focused more on transactional interpersonal relationships.

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