Four brands, a wedding, baby daughter and dog mark publisher’s first 10 years
Matt Nguyen has had a jolly good time over the past 10 years since founding and running Jolly Awesome with his wife Katie.
And, a decade on, the couple now have four businesses in total, a gorgeous baby daughter, family dog, and reckon their team of just two has the productivity and output of 50 people!
“We’ve had an amazing rollercoaster ride over the last 10 years,” Matt told PG Buzz, “witnessing many changes both in our work and personal lives.
“We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to live our dream working for ourselves and seeing the world off the back of the incredible and unique greeting card industry that I randomly walked into.”
To celebrate Jolly Awesome’s 10th anniversary the publisher has augmented its portfolio to over 200 new designs in its card collections with a 10% discount on wholesale orders up for grabs.
After posting his first illustration to Instagram on 6 May, 2013, the reaction gave Matt the idea to set up Jolly Awesome, with his first greeting cards published on Scribbler.com just four months later, going nationwide in Scribbler and Paperchase stores the following July.
That led to Matt quitting his job to run the company full-time with Katie, and debuted at Top Drawer in January 2015.
“We’ve since done numerous trade shows, including in New York, LA, Paris and Amsterdam,” Matt added, “and sold over 4.5million cards worldwide. We’ve had big wins and losses.
“We sold millions of cards through giants like Paperchase and Papyrus and eventually saw them both go into administration. It’s not all been easy, over the years we’ve had to absorb a lot of bad debt too.
“As well as launching three additional brands – The Last Co, Paperboy, House.Warmings – we’ve grown up, got married, got a dog and recently had a baby!”
Matt and Katie have collaborated on licences with Sanrio for Hello Kitty x Jolly Awesome and Gudetama x Jolly Awesome collections, launched a 50+ piece giftware range sold in retailers such as Scribbler, Clintons, Lakeland, and GameStop, and partnered with the likes of Nike, Sports Direct, Suitcase magazine, Asos, and HarperCollins on exclusive collections and commissions.
Plus they invented the world’s first telescopic, portable reusable straw Last Straw which has so far sold over 90,000 units through their reusable product company The Last Co, which was founded in 2020.
Matt said: “It had been non-stop Jolly Awesome since 2013, the only positive of the pandemic in 2020 was that it forced us to step back from wholesale and pursue direct-to-consumer and that’s when we launched Paperboy – an app selling illustrated cards and gifts by the nicest artists from around the world. It now has 7,000 unique users, 80-plus curated illustrators, and 2,000+ designs.
“We’re still just a team of two, working to the productivity and output of a 50-person team, so we were overjoyed when our baby Astrid arrived on New Year’s Eve 2021, and both made the conscious decision to let our businesses take a back seat, and spent 2022 fully focusing on raising her and being present to enjoy our new-found parenthood.
“Now Astrid’s 18 months old, we’re acclimatised to this parent thing and have found new purpose and are invigorated to take Jolly Awesome to new heights while launching our new interiors and art brand House.Warmings.”
With the 10% discount a 10th anniversary treat for wholesale customers – email sales@jollyawesome.com for details – the couple are planning their own celebration by returning to Tokyo, which they first visited on honeymoon in 2017, so it’s a favourite place.
Mind you, romance doesn’t seem on the cards, as Matt explained: “I want to finally experience Super Nintendo World and Katie similarly wants to go back to Sanrio Puroland!”
