What do you get when you combine bored kids, entrepreneurial parents and a pandemic? MailPop, an educational newsletter and paper toy subscription service designed for kids 5 to 10. The idea was born last year as Daniel and Sigalit Somech struggled to keep their children, ages 3 and 5, engaged and excited about learning in a screen-free way.

The genesis

Daniel lost his job during COVID and was frustrated with his search for a new position. At the peak of COVID, many employers imposed hiring freezes. Despite months of fruitless interviews, Daniel couldn’t find the type of job he wanted or hoped for or that met his field and experience. Rather than continue a seemingly endless search for a suitable job, Daniel decided to harness his entrepreneurial aspirations and put them to work. In December 2020, the couple launched MailPop, bootstrapping the business by funding it with their own savings and fueling it with their passion for helping families like them.  

“While we were working from home, our kids were a big inspiration,” said Daniel. “We wanted to do something nice for them, and we noticed they weren’t paying as much attention during quarantine. We tried engaging them with learning and reading, and I saw everyday their enthusiasm when they got a package or a letter.”

The product

Each week MailPop subscribers receive a themed newsletter, an activity sheet, a 3D paper toy and a personalized envelope. The kids get a fun surprise in their mailbox, while parents get an opportunity to engage with their kids in a new way without screens or technology. Newsletters and activities are specially “built for today’s attention span.” Each letter and related activities can be completed in 30 minutes.

“It’s a great way to bond with your kids by giving them your undivided attention and having meaningful, educational conversations,” Daniel said.

Partnering with Encyclopedia Britannica Kids, the educational letters and toys are crafted by children’s literacy experts. Each letter also has its own theme that ranges from serious to light-hearted topics and include everything from anatomy, archaeology and engineering to the rain forest, solar system and chocolate.

“The themes prompt parents to discuss topics they might not otherwise discuss with their kids,” Daniel said.

Daniel shared one story of a hockey dad that he gave a sample letter to. The theme that week was fashion, and the dad went home, read the letter and did the activity with his daughter that evening. His daughter enjoyed that her dad took interest in a topic he wouldn’t normally have selected, and he spent uninterrupted time with her learning something new.

To test the concept with other parents, MailPop initially did a pilot of 500 letters. Parents who signed up got a free letter. From that initial test, they received helpful feedback from which to tweak their offering. MailPop officially launched in December 2020 with less than 1,000 subscribers, but they had a sizable enough number of subscribers that the Somechs felt the subscription service was worth pursuing.

“Our mission is to spark kids’ intellectual curiosity and help create a love of learning and reading. Screen-free learning! With MailPop, kids can have healthy play experiences while learning new educational themes week,” said Daniel.

Pricing

Currently, the first two letters are available for free. After that, plans start at $4.50 a week. Parents can subscribe month-to-month or sign-up for three-, six- and 12-month plans. Gift subscriptions are also available.

Daniel would like to move away from the free trial, because it tends to attract the wrong type of customer – customers who want freebies, have no intention of subscribing and/or do not have discretionary spending to pay for a subscription. Shipping is free in the U.S. International shipping has an added cost of $1.20 per letter.

The competition

There are other subscription services geared toward children, particularly reading and book subscriptions and subscription boxes, but they tend to be monthly offerings that are higher priced and that take more time to complete. Daniel and his wife wanted to do something simpler and to offer a service more frequently to get children in the habit of learning and reading. They also wanted to stand out from other services by creating something built for shorter attention spans and that were screen-free activities.

Differentiating factors

MailPop differentiates itself in other ways too:

• Protecting the environment is one of their core values, so all materials are sustainable and recyclable.
• They chose 3D paper toys to reduce the number of plastic toys that end up in landfills.
• MailPop supports the U.S. Postal Service by using the post office to mail weekly letters. They do not get a discount on postage.
• The subscription service is accredited by STEM.org.
• The educational tools help fight rampant misinformation and give kids and parents access to accurate information on topics of interest to different age groups.
• A portion of the proceeds are donated to nonprofits focused on underprivileged kids with learning disabilities.

Funding

MailPop was bootstrapped from day one as Daniel and Sigalit funded the operation with their own savings. Thankfully, using the subscription model, it was an easy enough venture to start, and their expenses and overhead were relatively low compared to other types of businesses. They budgeted a certain amount of money to prove the concept. Will this catch on? Is this something parents will pay money for?

As their initial idea started to evolve and they began getting feedback, they invested more of their own money to grow the company, and subscription sales have helped fund ongoing operations. Eventually, the Somechs may seek capital from outside investors, but they aren’t at that stage yet. Daniels says they are trending in the right direction though.

Daily operations

Staffing: For now, Daniel and Sigalit are MailPop’s only full-time employees responsible for daily operations. All other staff have been hired on a contract basis including educator adviser Talia Kovacs, a team of designers to work on the letters and toys, and a printing partner.

Marketing: Because of budgetary constraints, MailPop’s marketing consisted primarily of word of mouth; social media (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube); Facebook ads; participation at holiday boutiques (high success rate!); microinfluencers; partnerships with organizations that buy letters for kids; and developing a mailing list to market to.

Checkout and payment processing: MailPop was originally with Wix, but they have moved over to Shopify.

Subscription management: MailPop works with Recharge.

Lessons Learned

As MailPop celebrates its one-year anniversary, Daniel shared some important lessons learned and key insights that will inform future evolutions of their subscription product. For example, they needed more money than they expected to launch and manage MailPop. It was hard to bootstrap and tempting to consider raising money from outside investors, but the couple enjoyed the challenge of creating something all on their own.

“You have no one else to rely on. You have to drive the business forward, pushing you to work harder,” Daniel said. “It really forces you to be as resourceful as you can and focus, trying to make as much progress as you can each day.”

Something else that surprised Daniel was the passion and pride he felt in creating a business he could be proud of and that would help other parents.

“I didn’t realize how much I would really love this and how impactful it could really be,” said Daniel.

What’s next?

As the business continues to grow, Daniel will make adjustments to the business model and the product offering. Here are a few things Daniel has in the works:

• Identifying new ways to grow the business
• Solidifying large partnerships to help spread the word about MailPop
• Product innovation to make the product more attractive to subscribers (e.g., song of the week, more utilization of Captain Mail, upsell opportunities like adding siblings) and packing more value into each newsletter
• Adjusting the plan offer – Daniels wants to move away from monthly installments to a “pre-pay and save” model
• Updating the website to simplify the purchasing flow by reducing the number of steps