CLEVELAND: What kind of printing company would set 21 people on fire, including its CEO?
The same kind of company that would deliver its products with employees wearing bright red oven mitts and open an art gallery, Red, in the back of its office space.
That company is Hotcards, the Cleveland-based printing and design firm run by 29-year-old John Gadd, backed by investors including the chairman of the board of directors at Akron Children’s Hospital, Phil Maynard.
Gadd revels in using theatrics and loopy marketing ideas that might be more commonly associated with markets such as Los Angeles or New York and deploying them to grow a powerful national brand right here in Northeast Ohio.
The 21-person “Burn” event in October was a successful attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the “Most People Performing Full Body Burns” and generated $10,000 for local charities, the Cleveland Food Bank and Brick by Brick. Each burner wore proper fire-resistant clothing and was covered in a protective gel.
Gadd cooked up the idea and partnered with Jenna Conforti, director of marketing at Scene Magazine; Scot Lowry, CEO of Fathom; and Tony Madalone, CEO of Fresh Brewed Tees. In addition to raising money for charity, the stunt received coverage in the Plain Dealer, Crain’s Cleveland Business and on national television channels CNN, Fox News and CNBC.
“Anytime you write that 21 people are set on fire, it’s going to get picked up,” explained Gadd.
Earlier this year, Gadd and his partners took over the existing Hotcards company. That company had been successfully serving regional businesses for more than 15 years, but in Gadd’s view had not yet met its potential to compete nationally in the surprisingly robust field of design and printing.
Assessing the market potential, Gadd said, “Half of all printers have closed in the last 10 years. But the market has stayed flat. That’s a 65 billion dollar industry to be served by half the companies.”
The company’s business model is to provide a one-stop shop for small to medium-sized companies for printed and marketing materials.
Using customized templates, Hotcards produces branded printed material of all kinds at a price point that it believes is significantly below what a typical agency might charge.
Where similar businesses such as Vistaprint focus on individual customers, Hotcards aims to provide solutions for small to midsized companies who need marketing support but don’t have the budget or desire to retain a full agency.
“We have plenty of individual clients, too,” he said. “But Vistaprint serves a micro business customer, typically with one to 10 employees. People who don’t have a unique brand, stock templates are OK. But we serve small to medium-sized businesses that have some special design requirements that they can’t get from an online tool.”
The company does do some printing for advertising and public relations agencies, but only for very standard sort of orders. Gadd invokes the old Henry Ford joke that “we’ll make you any color model T, as long as it’s black.”
“What we do works really well for most people. But not everyone,” he said.
The company’s daily operations also include theatrical elements. For example, when local customers pick up orders at the Cleveland office, the boxes are carried out to the customer’s car by a “Customer Obsession Team” member wearing red oven mitts.
Their website claims that the team member will also present 60 seconds of stand-up comedy on the way to the car.
Hotcards almost moved to Chicago, when an investor with an existing business made an offer to join forces. But in the end, Gadd chose Cleveland because he said he likes the environment and the talent pool.
Gadd observes that in Chicago, companies like Groupon have attracted much of the talent coming out of schools.
“There’s a great talent pool here — happy and humble people — who really like their work, roll up their sleeves, stay until 6 or 7,” he said. “That’s a big part of our business model is happy people. So as we double and triple our headcount, we can bring in more of those kinds of people. That’s tough to do in Chicago or New York.”
In addition, Gadd is eager to build a major national tech company in Northeast Ohio.
“Stunts like our Burn event are great publicity for Cleveland. Before everybody on national [TV] was talking about Ariel Castro. Now they’re talking about a positive charity event.”
Beyond Hotcards’ headquarters in Cleveland, the company licenses independently owned and operated offices around the country, including an office in Akron on Romig Road.
When the new company moved to its current location in Cleveland, the plan included shutting down the old Hotcards printing facility, since the sister company that invested in Hotcards already owned a high-tech printing operation in Columbus.
“They already had a staff of 100 people there and way more equipment and capacity then we had,’’ Gadd said. ‘‘So that was part of a strategy to make Hotcards fiscally more viable and stronger.”
Asked about the company’s future, Gadd says he aspires to be the Target of printing, rather than the Walmart. Not the lowest cost, but high quality, high value.
Nodding toward the giant wall mural of Steve Jobs’ face next to the reception desk, Gadd says he wants a cult vibe for Hotcards, where if you’re using some other company, people will look at you the way tech-oriented people with iPhones will look at someone with a Droid and shake their heads.