10/20/2025
Ten years ago, I started Forage Paper Co. with no idea what I was doing. To celebrate this milestone, here are 10 memories & thoughts, especially from those chaotic early days.
1. Shortly after quitting my last job, I started Forage Paper Co. from our tiny apartment with maybe 20 card designs and absolutely no clue how to run a business.
2. had never made a website before, let alone an e-commerce website, but successfully launched one after countless phone calls with 10 years ago.🙏
3. I did over 30 local markets and craft fairs. Some were amazing, but some were painfully slow with almost no sales, which was very humbling lol.
4. I made a spreadsheet with tabs for all 50 states and tracked every store I reached out to. Green = ordered, yellow = interested, red = said no (but I still followed up). My goal was to approach 30 stores a day, Monday to Friday… for years. Today, Forage Paper Co. is carried in over 800 stores worldwide. The lesson? Keep going!
5. I shipped my very first wholesale order without packaging the cards into sleeves (which is the standard for selling cards). The store kindly told me they needed something to protect them from getting dirty. I truly knew nothing about what stores expected.
6. When fulfilling orders got overwhelming, I asked our babysitter back then if she could help fold and package cards. (She said yes and she was amazing.)
7. I once walked straight into a West Elm store and asked an employee how to get my cards into corporate. She gave me the HQ contact (!). That led to my cards being stocked, a visit to their Brooklyn office, and even a feature for International Women’s Day.
8. A few years later, I started designing book-themed cards just because I loved them. One day, an editor (hi ) found those designs and asked me to create a whole sticker book based on them. Proof that you never know who’s watching so just keep sharing what you love.
9. Forage Paper Co. has moved 7 times. Every mover has asked, “Why are these boxes so heavy?” (spoiler: it’s all paper).
10. Two babies later, this business has grown alongside my family, slowly, imperfectly, and in its own time. That pace has been exactly right.
❤️