Minted

Minted is an online marketplace of premium design goods created by independent artists and designers. The company sources art and design from a community of more than 16,000 independent artists from around the world. Minted offers artists two business models for selling their goods - one in which Minted handles manufacturing and fulfillment and a second where the artists handles manufacturing and fulfillment.

Minted

Minted logo
Company type	Private
Industry	Marketplace, E-commerce
Founded	2007
Founder	Mariam Naficy
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Melissa Kim (Co-Founder & CEO)
Products	Art, stationery, home decor
Number of employees	375
Website	www.minted.com

Products & Services

Minted’s portfolio is built around life moments, with core categories in holidays, weddings, baby, and graduation. The company also serves other occasions such as showers, birthdays, and everyday personal use, along with art and home décor.

Holiday Cards

Customized Holiday and Christmas cards are Minted’s signature product and remain one of its largest categories. They feature designs from independent artists and are available with premium printing techniques such as letterpress, foil-press, and photo mount.

Weddings

Minted is a major player in the U.S. wedding stationery market, offering save-the-dates, invitations, programs, menus, place cards, signage, and wedding websites. It also provides a 1:1 Concierge service for weddings and events, offering tailored design support for stationery such as invitations, menus, programs, and signage.

Baby

Offerings include birth announcements, baby shower invitations, nursery art, and related event stationery such as signage and thank-you cards. Graduation: Products include graduation announcements, party invitations, and event stationery such as menus and signage.

Beyond these core life moments, Minted sells greeting cards online and through national retailers such as Target, H-E-B, and Whole Foods. It also produces party products for birthdays, showers, and other celebrations, including customizable online invitations for digital event planning.

Minted’s everyday stationery includes personalized note cards, thank-you cards, journals, calendars, and mini notes. The company also offers art and home décor, including art prints, framed photos, nursery art, wall murals, ceramics, and textiles.

Business Model

Minted supports its creators through two primary channels:

Design Challenges

Artists submit designs in open-call competitions where consumers vote on which designs Minted should produce and sell as stationery, art prints, and home goods. Minted manages manufacturing, shipping, and customer service; winning artists receive cash prizes and ongoing royalties.

Maker Marketplace

Independent makers list and sell their own creations—such as artwork, stationery accessories, and artisanal goods—directly through Minted. Makers handle production and fulfillment themselves, retaining most of the sale proceeds without any upfront listing fees.

The Design Challenges source artwork for products manufactured and fulfilled by Minted, while the Maker Marketplace enables makers to sell original goods they create and ship directly to consumers.

History

Minted was founded in April 2007 by Mariam Naficy to sell high-end lines of stationery and adopted a crowdsourcing model when it realized that designs by independent artists were outselling those of established brands.^[1] Minted has raised more than $300 million^[2] from investors, including T. Rowe Price, Permira, Norwest Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Ridge Ventures. Angel investors include former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and Eventbrite founders Kevin and Julia Hartz.^[3][4][5]

In 2012, Minted expanded outside of its core stationery market by launching wall art prints and party decor. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Minted launched home decor. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, Minted launched wholesale, with national retail partners including Target, West Elm, and Pottery Barn Kids.

In 2021, Minted introduced Direct From Artist, where artists manufacture and fulfill their own products.

in 2023, Minted Weddings Announces Mindy Weiss as First Weddings Tastemaker to help boost their growing wedding offering which also includes the ability to create and host your own wedding website.^[6]

Minted began offering wedding products and services, such as wedding invitations, coordinating stationery, and wedding websites, long before the June 2023 launch of the "Mindy Weiss Tastemaker Collection" and has offered a cash registry for some time. While the June 2023 announcement highlighted a specific collection and partnership, Minted has been involved in the wedding market with its design-centric personalized stationery and wedding websites for years.

Minted partnered with Every Mother Counts, a maternal health nonprofit organization led by Christy Turlington Burns, in which a part of the proceeds from selling customized children's art would go to benefit the organization.^[7]

Crowdsourcing

Minted holds regular design challenges that are open to artists and designers. Thousands of independent artists participate in the challenges. More than 2,000 designs are submitted by artists to Minted every week.

Visitors to the website vote on the design submissions to help choose the winning designs that will be sold on the website. Minted's predictive voting algorithms use consumer votes to predict which of the thousands of submissions from the contest will be future bestsellers.

Winning artists are paid a cash prize and earn an ongoing commission on sales of their designs.^[8]

Awards

In October 2014, Minted was named #5 on LinkedIn's 10 Bay Area startups that are most in demand by local techies.^[9]