It’s official—PopMount has been in business for 20 years! To celebrate this milestone, we sat down with owner and founder Jocelyn Senn to find out more about the company’s history. Watch our video interview or check out the transcript below!

To all of our partners: Thank you so much for growing with us over the years. To show our appreciation, we would like to offer you a complimentary 5×7 hardi-plaque featuring a photo of your choice. To claim yours, simply reach out to our team via email.

1. What inspired you to launch PopMount?

In 1988 I started a business designing media and print for corporations. Much of what we did back then was interior design with graphics. I saw a need for a better way to display printed material. So, in 2001, I created PopMount. We made a product that offers a modern, archival, durable, and affordable way to display graphics. It replaced expensive framing and unstable mounting on foam core.

2. Can you tell me more about PopMount’s early days?

Sure. Back in 2001, we worked with corporations like Exxon/Mobil and the Coast Guard Museum as well as ad agencies and hospitals. These were our first big PopMount Customers. The corporate facility managers loved the safety and price point of our product.

I started to think PopMount would be a natural fit for publishers after seeing so many poorly produced news plaques in every city I visited. Back then–and even today–a few companies were exploiting newspapers and magazines by taking their content and selling it to the publishers’ customers. I thought this was outrageous if not criminal. So, we started partnering with newspapers and magazines to create plaques for them. This allowed them to keep the revenue from their content.

3. What inspires you to innovate?

Well, being in business for over 30 years, I understand you must evolve to stay relevant. And that’s true with every business. One person that really inspires me is Jeff Bezos. When he bought the Washington Post, everyone was on the chopping block. However, they kept us because of the goodwill and value we bring to the table. We have toured Amazon’s facilities to look at how they fulfill orders. We’re always looking for ways to produce better, faster, higher-quality products that make our partners more money. That is part of why we innovate.

4. How has the company adapted over the years?

Well, we have looked at every facet of our business and really tried to fine-tune everything–starting with our space. We renovated our building to make production more efficient, incorporating new technologies and techniques.

We also brought our web programming in-house. With a media background, it made sense to create our own websites and e-commernce stores. We started creating online stores (NewsKeepsake) for our partners to start selling their content and awards.

Next, we hired a talented CFO to help automate all of our systems–tracking, billing, fulfillment, etc. We’ve really modernized that so our customers can see what’s happening with our products in real-time.

We’re also constantly looking to add new products that appeal to different tastes and price points–like banners, modern acrylic, crystal, and many more products like that.

5. What’s been your biggest obstacle?

Getting publishers to understand how much revenue they are missing out on by not having a content store, which we actually create free of charge, is an obstacle. We want people to understand that it takes a minimal investment of time–and virtually no money–to make thousands on content that already exists.

Currently, many publishers are getting their content highjacked and sold by unscrupulous businesses. We are partnering with publishers to help them gain control of their content, brand, and opportunity.

6. What’s next in store for PopMount and its partners?

Well, first and foremost, helping publishers understand the value of their content post-publication–and helping them build end to end solutions that generate revenue from that content.

Currently, we’re refining and re-developing our private label stores and focusing on marketing to generate more revenue for our partners. We’re also adding more features to enhance the experience for the publisher and their customers.