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Specialty card retailer Lovepop opened its largest physical store in Harvard Square last Tuesday.
The new store, located at 18 JFK Street, previously occupied by the Papyrus greeting card and stationery chain, will carry a variety of 3D products, such as cards, flower bouquets and giant pop-up gifts.
Harvard Business School alumni Wombi S. Rose and John P. Wise started the business in a Harvard Square basement in 2014. They first met as students at Webb Institute, studying naval architecture and maritime engineering. The couple then met up at HBS, where they encountered kirigami – a paper art form similar to origami that includes paper cutting – on a school trip to Vietnam.
Rose and Wise quickly noticed a resemblance between kirigami and naval architecture.
“When you design a ship, you take a 3D shape and cut it into planes, and where those planes intersect, you draw a line. It’s called a line plan, â€Rose said in an interview. “When we looked at this style, the slice-shaped kirigami, we recognized that it was exactly the same process, only in miniature, for the way you design a ship’s hull.”
A year after Rose and Wise launched their business, they appeared on the entrepreneurship TV show Shark Tank, where they received a $ 300,000 investment from Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary for a 15 percent stake in the business.
“We had an amazing opportunity which I think is one of the best ways to share what you’re doing with such a large audience in the United States,†Rose said. “We put a lot of energy, effort and preparation into developing our best business plan, our best product line.”
“We are very fortunate to be able to attract an investment from Kevin O’Leary – Mr. Wonderful – who has been a huge supporter of Lovepop throughout the year and continues to this day to help spread the word about the magical moments that we let’s live, do, â€he added.
Since its inception, Lovepop has adopted an omnichannel selling approach, which aims to provide consumers with a unified customer experience wherever they shop.
While the Harvard Square location will be the fifth physical store Lovepop has opened nationwide since the start of 2020, the company still sells most of its products online on its website, Rose said.
Rose added that Lovepop’s growth over the past year has been “exciting”.
“[Lovepop] has grown very rapidly over the past year, despite the overall challenges in retailing, and we’re just delighted to continue to double what we’re doing in this area, â€he said.
– Editor Tracy Jiang can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @_tracyjiang_.
– Editor Davin W. Shi can be contacted at [email protected].
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