JFax President Signs on as CEO at Getacard.com

As president of JFax.com, Gary Hickox helped guide the Los Angeles start-up through its IPO. Now the former AT&T; vice president has moved on to become chief executive of Getacard.com, an online greeting card company.

The company, which launches April 10, allows people to order cards from its Web site. Getacard.com will personalize the cards and mail them to recipients. The company has received under $10 million in first-round venture funding from investors, including Belo Media and former Universal Studios President Frank Biondi. It was founded in 1997 by two MBAs from the University of Alberta in Canada.

Based in Los Angeles, Getacard.com faces competition from American Greetings, which also allows people to order cards online that it sends through the mail. But the start-up--which will offer Dilbert and Far Side cards, among others--has its eye on the largely untapped B2B arena. Hickox hopes to cut deals with insurance salespeople, real estate agents and other service providers who mail hundreds of holiday cards each year. It will also sell to consumers.

Hallmark, the big gorilla of the card business, doesn’t worry Hickox. “They are boxed in by their own creation--thousands of retail stores,” he said. “It would take them two to three years to get where we are.”

Hickox hopes to leverage the company’s Hollywood ties--its chairman is veteran television executive Ken Solomon--to create card lines with celebrities. Solomon is president of another start-up, IBlast.

Hickox, 42, said he took a significant pay cut from his annual salary of $330,000 at JFax, but did so because he wanted a CEO slot. He hasn’t yet sold his 1.5% stake in JFax, which is trading below its initial offering price.