Punchbowl Blog

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

After months of hard work by the entire Punchbowl team, I’m very excited to announce the launch of Digital Invitation Studio in time for Halloween party planning. Digital Invitation Studio is a beautiful collection of pre-packaged online stationery sets for events and celebrations, complete with invitations, envelopes, liners, rubber stamps, and postage. The best part: it’s completely free to use so you can eliminate the costs of paper and postage from your next party or event.

I look forward to hearing what you think about Digital Invitation Studio — please share your feedback on our Facebook page.

Here’s the official announcement:
Wouldn’t it be great if you could have the quality, experience, and personalization of printed invitations without the cost of paper and postage? Today, Punchbowl.com, the one-stop site for start to finish party planning, has reshaped the fine stationery market with the unwrapping of Digital Invitation Studio — a beautiful collection of free, pre-packaged online stationery sets for events and celebrations, complete with invitations, envelopes, liners, rubber stamps, and postage.

With hundreds of pre-packaged online stationery sets in stunning designs and color palettes, Digital Invitation Studio turns the page on paper as the sole option for hosts who want the elegance of printed invitations. In addition to beautiful stationery sets and custom accents, Digital Invitation Studio allows hosts to deliver a stamped envelope directly to a guest via email and replicates the act of opening a paper invitation.

“For the first time in online party planning, there exists an alternative to traditional paper invitations without any of the associated costs,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl. “With envelopes in different shapes and colors, themed postage stamps, and realistic postmarks, Digital Invitation Studio offers the quality and sophistication of paper invitations for free.”

Highlights of Digital Invitation Studio include:
•    Hundreds of pre-packaged stationery sets in stunning designs and color palettes
•    An assortment of standard envelope sizes in multiple color options
•    Custom accents such as envelope liners and rubber stamps
•    Free customizable postage stamps
•    Improved guest experience that replicates the act of opening a traditional paper invitation

“The distinction between digital and paper invitations has been eliminated with Digital Invitation Studio,” said Michael Waxman-Lenz, former GM of AmericanGreetings.com and Punchbowl Board Director. “Consumers can use Punchbowl for all aspects of planning a party online — from sending invitations, to managing the guest list, to finding local vendors.”

Over one million registered users have chosen Punchbowl for party planning. Punchbowl is ideal for planning birthday parties, baby showers, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, and even Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to the consumer site Punchbowl.com, the company licenses its technology to leading retailers such as Oriental Trading Company and 1-800-FLOWERS.

To explore Digital Invitation Studio, visit: http://www.punchbowl.com/digital-invitations

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

It’s an exciting time for Punchbowl. This week we made several announcements that I’d like to share with you:

1. MyPunchbowl is now Punchbowl.com
We recently acquired the domain Punchbowl.com — this means that MyPunchbowl is now known as Punchbowl.com. Is this a big deal? We think so. Did you know that a small social network once changed its name from TheFacebook to Facebook? Our vision is that Punchbowl will be synonymous with online party planning. We’ve got a whole new look, including new colors and a new logo. We hope you love our logo as much as we do. What do you think of our new domain and brand? Let us know by posting a message to our Facebook page.

You’re probably wondering what this change means for you. We’ve automatically transitioned your existing account so that it works on Punchbowl.com. You can sign in to your Punchbowl account to view your existing events, invites, and eCards.

Punchbowl will continue to offer one-stop party planning features, including customizable digital invitations, potluck organization, gift registries, local vendor search and much more. And we have the new Digital Invitation Studio coming just in time for Halloween and the upcoming holiday season.

2) Punchbowl surpasses one million members

We’re also excited to announce that more than one million members have joined the site. Thank you to each and every person who has chosen to become a member of Punchbowl.

3) Punchbowl strengthens Board with former GM of American Greetings
I’m excited to announce that Michael Waxman-Lenz, former GM of AmericanGreetings.com, has joined the Punchbowl Board of Directors. The appointment of Michael Waxman-Lenz to the Punchbowl Board comes on the heels of the addition of Harry Lin, former GM of Evite.com, to the Punchbowl Board of Advisors. The pair is an expert in consumer-internet sites and the social expressions industry.

Want to learn more about these announcements? Read the official 1 Million users announcement and the official Punchbowl Board announcement.

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

For many of us, this is a short week following our various July 4th weekend festivities. If you think the celebrations are over, though, you’re wrong! There are a handful of delicious reasons to celebrate this week, including National Strawberry Sundae Day on Wednesday, July 7, and National Piña Colada Day on Saturday, July 10. Both are a great excuse to invite friends over for an impromptu cookout this weekend - with one treat for the kids and another for the adults!

The full list of Reasons to Celebrate this week includes:

• July 6: National Fried Chicken Day
• July 7: National Strawberry Sundae Day
• July 8: Video Game Day
• July 9: National Sugar Cookies Day
• July 10: National Piña Colada Day
• July 11: World Population Day

For World Cup followers, this Sunday is the championship game! Host a World Cup party to cheer on your favorite team. After all, it only happens once every four years!

Have a great week!

Once in a while we like to use the company blog to post something fun (or unusual). This is one of those cases. We’re excited to present to you an informative (and amusing) blog post that we asked one of our software developers to write. You’ll see why we asked him to write this blog post in a moment — and hopefully you’ll learn a little bit of what it’s like here at Punchbowl HQ. So sit back, and enjoy this rare treat: one of our great software developers contributes to the company blog:

This post written by Darren T., Software Developer

It recently came to the attention of my peers at Punchbowl that I’d never seen the movie Office Space. It was fortunate that they were sitting at the time because Office Space is one of the most often-quoted movies at Punchbowl HQ. Needless to say, they were shocked and saw this as a grave deficiency in my appreciation of pop culture references in the office.They then forced—I mean, asked—me to watch the movie in my spare time and write a blog post comparing the culture of Punchbowl with that of Initech, the fictional software company in the movie. I started my assignment by watching Office Space three times in one week in order for the full hilarity of it to sink in. I’ve had plenty of time since then to compare and contrast the company cultures. Here’s my analysis:

Merit-based social structure
One of the most obvious differences between the cultures of Initech and Punchbowl is the relationship between our job titles and our social structure. At Initech, upper-management does not mingle naturally with other employees, and they are given special privileges that separate them socially from those they manage.At Punchbowl, scarce resources are distributed based upon need and the good of the team as a whole. Our CEO, for example, does not have a designated parking spot. Similarly, desks and locations in office are distributed by need, rather than role-based privilege. For example, offices are given to employees who make lots of phone calls, to minimize their disruption to others.

Openness and transparency
At many companies like Initech, “transparency” is an empty buzzword thrown around to make it seem as though the company values open communication. In Office Space, the employees of Initech are clearly not granted insight into the workings of the company at any level of the organization. In fact, there’s an apparent disconnect between the values of “the management” and the rest of the employees, as exemplified by the shock they experience when they realize that Peter, the movie’s protagonist, has been offered a substantial pay raise and promotion immediately after admitting to the company that he does as little work as possible each day. Not only does it reflect on the values of Initech’s management team, it also shows how little the employees understand the true values (if you can call them that) of Initech’s upper-management.

By contrast, we do several things at Punchbowl to foster open communication. Case in point: we have weekly lunch meetings where Matt (our CEO) gives us status updates and shares pertinent Punchbowl news. This meeting also consists of a presentation that covers a new topic each week. Topics range from site metrics to new features to marketing—the idea is to inform employees about an interesting topic they might not otherwise have known about and give them an opportunity to ask questions or challenge an established mindset. Everyone is encouraged to contribute — even our interns.

Results-based workplace
At Punchbowl, employees are evaluated by the results we produce from our work. If you’re not delivering, you will not be rewarded. Conversely, if you do great work and cooperate with everyone else, little else will keep you from the good graces of everyone in the company, including upper-management. This makes it a great environment for driven, self-motivating employees (”start-up” mentality), and it’s a start contrast from what we see of Initech in Office Space.The events that take place in Office Space make it abundantly clear that Initech’s management is far more interested in conformity with organizational minutiae than real productivity. For example, at Initech, it’s a big deal if an employee doesn’t use the correct cover letter in the “TPS” reports. This is exemplified in the opening scene of the movie where Peter is lectured multiple times about the need to use the company’s newly designated cover letter for his (seemingly meaningless) “TPS” report. This is despite the fact that he had already identified and corrected the error.

Friendship and camaraderie
At Initech, everyone seems to believe their job is more important than others and the only clear traces of camaraderie are the result of bonding over how much they all dislike their management—a tenuous kind of friendship at best. Watching the movie, we get the sense that when push comes to shove, everyone just looks out for themselves. Even if they wanted to support each other more directly, it seems that the lack of communication between managers and other employees would be prohibitive to change.

By contract, we have a pretty tight crew at Punchbowl. We get to know each other because we eat lunch together every day. We tell jokes, share details of our personal lives, and share in each others celebrations. What’s more, we share a solid sense of both collective and personal involvement in Punchbowl’s mission. We’re all “in this together” and seek to support each other graciously. We all know the importance of each others’ roles, and we seek to stay in sync with each others’ roles, tasks, and responsibilities.

The bottom line
Office Space resonates with employees because it provides a chilling reflection of the sense of alienation and frustrating inefficiency that so often plagues large organizations, with their seemingly endless expanses of office space and dearth of human connection. Initech represents the kind of working world that I always dreaded becoming a part of as I grew up. I wouldn’t last six months in Initech without becoming overloaded with boredom and angst. I can’t work well in an environment where I’m not encouraged to connect and cooperate freely with my coworkers. I vastly prefer the kind of close-knit meritocracy that’s more commonly found at early-stage start-up companies like Punchbowl, and I consider myself very lucky to be part of such a great start-up.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

Yesterday, we made an announcement about our new Digital Invitation Studio. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can try it out now.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of comments from our users. The common theme: our users already love our site for its start to finish party planning functionality, and the new Digital Invitation Studio is an exciting and impressive addition. I thought I would share a few emails that I’ve received in my inbox to give you a sense of what people are saying. I’ve received over 100 emails in the last few hours. These are all direct quotes from real users:

I just tried the Digital Invitation Studio and found it to be very easy to use; very impressive, indeed. 

I love MyPunchbowl, and have used it for my husband’s 65th birthday, my son’s Rehearsal Dinner, and a Christmas Open House. Your new presentation with the envelopes is great.

Great design and very user friendly. As a fundraiser, I can see the value of this elegant design to invite our constituents to our events. They will be impressed.

I checked out your new Digital Invitation Studio and those were beautiful invitations! I will definitely use them in the future!

HUGE FAN!!!!! This looks awesome!!!  Can’t wait until it’s ready to use!

I just viewed the new Digital Invitation Studio on mypunchbowl. Just beautiful. Lovely patterns and colors very elegant! Great job! Makes me want to host a party!

Logged in and played with everything. Love it. Will definitely use it.

This is seriously cool. Crazy to see how far you’ve come …sounds cheesy, but I’m proud of you guys.  Well done.

this is a really unique idea and I love it! It’s a little more formal than just doing a regular punchbowl invite but not as formal as sending out an invitation through the mail. It’s perfect for things like birthday parties, cocktail or dinner parties, and graduations.

Hello Mr. Douglas, Very impressive! Thanks for making me among the first to know and experience your Digital invitations. I can tell you now that I will using that a lot whenever you are ready for us to use it.

What a lovely new innovation. I think the digital invitation is spectacular, to say the least! 

I love it.  Very professional looking!  I have been using MyPunchbowl.com for 3 years now and it is so user friendly.

When will it be ready for me to play with???  Looks easy, fun and a chance to be creative with what’s going out to friends and family.  Good luck with the launch

Punchbowl was fun to begin with…. The enhancements are divine!  Thank you for the roll-out.  We will be using this.  We are hoping it will have a bit more creative freedom than everything else.  Good job and we can’t wait to use it!

Thank you for sharing this new invitation idea with us.  These are lovely.  We wish you the best on this new feature and look forward to another event to try these out.

LOVE IT!! I am new to Mypunchbowl and fell in love with it from the beginning. With these new changes, I’m even more thrilled!  The new invitations are trendy and unique. Looks like we can have alot of fun designing them! 

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write to me. Do you have more comments? Email me directly at ceo@mypunchbowl.com

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

As we move further along into spring, there are many great reasons to host parties or family gatherings. If you’re a fan of beer, for example, today kicks off American Craft Beer Week! I have a feeling we’ll celebrate this one at Punchbowl. After all, last year we spent our “Summer Day” brewing our own beer! You can celebrate American Craft Beer Week too. Check out the events happening all over the country.

Tuesday, May 18 is Visit Your Relatives Day. It’s a great excuse to get together for a picnic lunch or impromptu cookout after work. Send out a picnic or cookout-themed invite to get everyone excited to celebrate!

If you’re looking for a great way to stay healthy, protect the environment, and avoid the morning commute, participate in National Bike to Work Day on May 21! If you’re feeling really ambitious, this whole week is Bike to Work Week. The League of American Bicyclists has all kinds of information to help you get on your bike this week.

Here’s all of the Reasons to Celebrate this week:

• May 17: National Cherry Cobbler Day
• May 18: Visit Your Relatives Day
• May 19: National Devil’s Foodcake Day
• May 20: Be a Millionaire Day
• May 21: National Bike to Work Day
• May 22: National Wig Out Day
• May 23: National Turtle Day

Also, Memorial Day is two weeks from today. Start planning your Memorial Day cookout!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

Punchbowl was recently the focus of a great article in the Boston Herald by Jennifer Heldt Powell. Here it is in case you missed it! 

“Launching web company one lonely party” 

Looking at the current success of the party planning site, MyPunchbowl, it seems that Matt Douglas is living the entrepreneurial dream.

Millions of visitors are dropping by the site to plan parties, it has big-name partners like Oriental Trading Co. and Vistaprint and the company, Punchbowl Software Inc., has been through two rounds of venture capital.

In retrospect, the success almost seems fated. The idea sprang from Douglas’ fondness for throwing a party on Groundhog Day. At the time, he was helping develop software programs to solve work-flow issues. It occurred to him that planning a party could be boiled down to a work-flow system.

Additionally, American’s spend $11 billion on party supplies every year. Douglas figured there had to be a way to combine the party planning and the supply buying.

That’s where things got difficult—gut-wrenching, sleepless nights, am-I-ruining-my-future difficult.

For a long time, Douglas didn’t tell anyone about his idea because he felt it was demoralizing to face questions he didn’t know the answers to yet. When he started talking about it to the software engineers and venture capitalists he would need to make it work, he found out just how big the hurdles he faced were.

“The whole start-up ecosystem is built for repeat entrepreneurs,” he explained. “If you haven’t done it before, it’s hard to be taken seriously.”

After a few months, Douglas decided he was going to have to give up his day job to have any hope of launching the company. Unable to attract funding, he started spending his own money.

“It is a hard, hard thing to do watching that money go out of your bank account when you don’t know if this will be successful,” he said.

At one point, a so-called expert told Douglas straight out that it was a bad idea that would never fly. Douglas was devastated, at first.

“I had to pick myself up and keep going,” he said. “You have to have somewhere deep inside an ability to brush it off and continue believing in the idea and yourself. And, you have to find people who will pick you up.”

For Douglas, that was his wife, Jessica, and Sean Conta, whom he brought on as a partner to help launch the business. When they couldn’t afford to hire a software engineer, they turned to a designer to create mock-up pages of the site. That helped them attract an engineer who would work for cheap.

As soon as they had something workable, they sent it out to users. It was a far cry from what they wanted, but it was at least a start.

The site was officially launched in 2007 with just party planning. Eventually, party supply partners were added, allowing users to buy what they need through MyPunchbowl. Later, ads were added and users were given the option of buying a membership that allows access without them. Now, there’s an eCard feature and a tool to help settle on a party date.

The company now has 11 employees and a few job openings.

After all he’s been through, Groundhog Day is still important to Douglas. This year, MyPunchbowl partnered with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to offer eCards on its site. It’s also a company holiday.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

Well, it’s Groundhog Day (again), and this year is a special one for the Punchbowlers. As usual, Groundhog Day is a company holiday — so we all get the day off. But this year we organized a volunteer day (for the record, completely optional for employees and guilt-free). In the afternoon this Groundhog Day, we’ll be painting a few rooms at a local homeless shelter. We’ve been calling it “Phil’s Philanthropy Day” after the venerable Punxsutawney Phil. After waking up early to watch the grand prognostication, I can’t think of any better way to spend the afternoon.

And that’s not all….

This year I’m very excited to report that Punchbowl announced an official partnership with Groundhog.org and the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. This is a partnership that makes me happy on a number of levels. First, it’s great exposure for Punchbowl, with an audience that matches our target demographic. And second, it’s been a long-standing goal of mine to find an official way to be involved in the Groundhog Day festivities. Here’s a quick snippet from the blog post I wrote on my start-up CEO blog about this partnership announcement:

For 2010, I wanted to do something special for Groundhog Day– so on a whim, I picked up the phone and called the folks who developed Groundhog.org. I told them that I wanted to partner with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and create an eCards site. After a little negotiation, we signed an agreement with Groundhog.org to become the exclusive provider of Groundhog Day eCards. This morning, we made the official Groundhog Day press announcement.

And last but not least, my wife and I are planning our 14th annual Groundhog Day party for this coming Saturday. This year’s theme is Disco, and with the combination of disco party supplies, unique party favors, disco costumes, and a 70s play list, we have planned an awesome party. We’re expecting about 30-35 people this year. Of course, we’ve used MyPunchbowl to plan the entire event from start to finish, and it’s been a great experience.

Groundhog Day is all about community, revelry, and celebration of the ordinary. So whether you take a moment to turn your attention to Gobblers Knob or you send someone a free Groundhog Day eCard, please remember the infamous words of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club:

“There are many important events in life — and Groundhog Day is not one of them.”

Happy Groundhog Day!

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

We’re excited to welcome former CEO of TownConnect, Mike Ford, as he joins MyPunchbowl as VP of Business Development. Here’s the official announcement:

Punchbowl Software, the company behind MyPunchbowl.com, announced today the hiring of Mike Ford as Vice President of Business Development. In this position, Ford will be a key part of the management team responsible for driving sales, traffic and strategic partnerships.

“Mike joins us at the perfect time in the company’s growth,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl Software. “Mike’s experience as an entrepreneur and business leader in the consumer Internet space makes him a great fit for Punchbowl.”

Ford’s sales and business development experience in social media, search marketing and ad networks will play a vital role in the growth of Punchbowl’s service. Previously, he was Founder & CEO of TownConnect, a social-local networking site that connects people in their communities and SVP, Sales & Marketing for Did-it Search Marketing in New York. Mike also led vertical business development for Quigo Technologies (acquired by AOL) and was the Founder of Computer.com.

Mike’s favorite reason to celebrate is St. Patrick’s Day – a tradition for generations in the Ford family. Mike has personally hosted over thirty St. Patrick’s Day parties.

“I’m thrilled to join the Punchbowl team,” said Mike Ford. “The business potential of MyPunchbowl.com provides a unique opportunity for me to work with top online brands and retailers.”

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

July Fourth is less than two weeks away but have no fear — that’s plenty of time to plan a fabulous July 4th party! Whether you plan to host a cookout, picnic, pool party or fireworks watch party, MyPunchbowl has everything you need to plan your party from start to finish.

Sign in to your MyPunchbowl account to get started and design your own invitations using our special July 4th designs that include new patriotic papers and ribbons in addition to new font options.

Next, setup your potluck list using our new and improved Potluck feature. Specify if you want certain July 4th favorites like potato salad, pasta salad, burgers, hot dogs, and fruit salad, or leave the categories (appetizers, sides, dessert, etc.) open for your guests to fill in as they sign up to bring items.

Spread the word about your July 4th bash not only via email but also through your social networks. MyPunchbowl invitations can be shared via Facebook as well as Twitter. This is a great way to tell friends about your event, especially if you don’t have your guests’ email addresses readily available.

Once you’ve sent your invitations and organized your potluck, get ideas for your July 4th party from our resident expert Penelope. She offers up great ideas for patriotic playlists, decorations, and more!

There’s also still time to order personalized candy, yard signs, t-shirts, and other customized printed products to make your event that much more special.

So what are you waiting for? Plan your July 4th party today!