Una Japundza has a collection of postcards she has collected over the years from various travel destinations. She uses them to drop notes to friends.
“No response needed. It feels like (receiving) a hug in the mail,” she said.
She is also an avid photographer. With every photo she takes, she thinks of a prompt or question the photo evokes.
Now, two years into a global pandemic that has required distance and isolation from friends and family, she is combining these two elements into a business called Prompt’d to help people foster connections and meaningful conversation across distance.
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It started with sharing her photography cards and prompts with friends to start conversations and has grown to selling the cards online and at Cheers to You Party Goods in Beaverton. Hundreds have been sold since November.
“I got tired of being on Zoom calls or social media. What is a way to help people have meaningful conversations that aren’t networked,” she said. “These are cards to exchange with people next door or 3,000 miles away.”
And the conversations aren’t the typical small talk: What is your job; how is the weather; what did you have for dinner last night. For Japundza, who moved to the U.S. from Croatia 12 years ago, intentional correspondence has been a way to keep in touch and deepen relationships with friends and family far away.
At this point the company’s products are analog but that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Japundza is interested in experimentation and where technology could be useful, likely in tandem with physical communication.
The product: Printed products that help people connect with each other offline. The first product is Cards to Connect — correspondence cards with writing prompts two people can exchange to get to know each other better. The point of these cards is to help people connect more meaningfully by answering deeper prompts offline. Cards come in five different themes, with photos and prompts arranged to guide the correspondence partners on the journey of the theme.
How it makes money: Online and in-person retail sales.
Size of the market: Prompt’d competes in greeting cards and personal development markets, the latter being items like journals, planners and organization tools. These are $7 billion and $13 billion markets, respectively.
Competition: Hallmark, American Greeting Co., Lovepop; BestSelf Co., for conversation card decks, various journaling companies, StoryWorth.
Competitive advantage: Existing products on the market provide people with tools: cards, journals, etc. Prompt’d adds to products like that and helps make moments out them. By asking creative and thought-provoking questions, the startup helps create connections, laughter, anticipation and reflection. “We believe life is made of moments, and moments are made,” said Japundza.
Business it could disrupt: The intent of Prompt’d is to create fun, engaging and thoughtful products for people to make moments. “The world has changed a lot in the last couple years, with people being socially and physically distant, isolated and divided, we are focusing on making and celebrating moments that remind us all of what makes life meaningful,” Japundza said.
Managers and their background: Una Japundza holds an MBA from Willamette University and has spent the last six years working in business development in the tech industry. Before Prompt’d, she worked in business development for Galois, a computer science research firm. She left Galois at the end of 2021 to work on Promp’t full time.
Investors: none
Capital sought: Janundza is hoping to bootstrap the company and take the business where customers want it. She isn’t ruling out fundraising, but wants to see where bootstrapping will take her.
Closer Look
Company: Prompt’d
Headquarters: Portland
Founded: 2021
CEO: Una Japundza
The Business Journal doesn’t endorse companies featured in The Pitch, nor is this an invitation to invest.
