Francesca Fuges was in the process of launching her business Loudhouse Creative when she came to Paper Camp.

 She knew she wanted to sell wholesale and exhibit at the National Stationery Show the following year but she needed help developing her product line, building her sales tools and preparing for the show.

 In her scholarship application for Paper Camp, Francesca set her sights high sharing that Paper Source was one of her dream stores that she hoped to work with one day.

Meet Ariel of Woodsy Foxman. She's one of our Paper Camp alums!

Ariel's dream store was located too far away for her to connect in person, so she wrote a handwritten, personalized note and sent a few extra samples since she didn't a physical catalog.

She followed up a week later via email and the buyer wrote back gushing about the samples and placed an order right away.

It took Ariel three touch points (snail mail, email and connecting on social media) to get the sale and now the store re-orders month.

When Alex Gagné from Chez Gagné came to Paper Camp, she had been in business for just under 2 years and had created a collection of 80 greeting cards.

She knew that wholesale was her end game, so she soaked up a ton of info at Paper Camp; then went home and put what she learned into action sourcing new products, reaching out to buyers and streamlining her processes.

Within one year of coming to Paper Camp, Alex’s hard work and hustle landed her products in more than 500 stores, including Paper Source.

About two years ago, Paper Camp alum Inklings Paperie was exhibiting at NY NOW for the first time, in a shared booth and on a bootstrap budget.

Inklings Founder and Creative Director Lindsay Henry happened to get to talking with a kind person at that trade show...who happened to be the Brand Manager of Global Merchandise for Starbucks.

In the paper industry, many brands look to the National Stationery Show to serve as their wholesale debut. It’s a great place to meet buyers, get feedback on your products and build relationships with press, reps and other designers. It's where I launched my wholesale line in 2009.

However, this isn't the only way to launch your wholesale brand.

Many thriving businesses are introducing their product line to buyers outside of shows and doing it successfully. A great example of this is Paper Camp Alum, E. Frances Paper.

We love to spotlight our Paper Camp alums because we believe there is always something we can learn from one another’s experiences. Francesca Fuges of Loudhouse Creative recently exhibited at the Las Vegas Market; her second tradeshow in the last year. We sat down with Francesca to get her feedback on the show. But first, her story.