I was an antiques dealer before Gen Z helped grow our stationery sales to $50m

Founder Taymoor Atighetchi says Papier has served over 2.5m customers globally.

In this increasingly digital-first world some things never change in the print business and, 10 years on from launching his now-global stationery brand, Taymoor Atighetchi still uses the same production partner in Essex.

“There are still some constants with relationships you’ve had from the start,” says Atighetchi, founder of Papier. "You can pick up the phone, have lunch with your manufacturer and occasionally joke whether you thought it would get to this size and scale.”

Since Covid, the push to an analogue model of notetaking and what Papier terms as "creative living" has seen the London-based firm double sales in the last three years. Having expanded from greetings cards, stationery and invitations to note and photo books — with diaries and planners remaining the brand’s bestselling product — Papier expects to generate $50m (£37m) sales this year.

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“When I started the brand I’d like to say I was predicting on a trend I knew well,” says Atighetchi, who was also a co-founder of The Tab, the tabloid-style university websites. “What surprised me is how that trend has been a big part of our growth, which has been the reaction to digital.

“The death of paper has been projected many times. What has been reassuring is how Gen Z has moved towards physical form and the academic diary and planner to track lectures and lessons.Papier has been named by AdAge as one of the brands Gen Z is most attracted to.

“This is the most digitally native and fluent generation of all time choosing to both get away from their screen and the dopamine trash [on smartphones] which distracts from studies."

Atighetchi, whose parents emigrated to the UK in the 1970s, hails from six generations of Persian antique dealers. Born in west London, Atighetchi became the youngest art dealer on Portobello Road Market and it seemed natural that he would go on to study history of art at the University of Cambridge.

However, he later worked as a management consultant before quitting the industry aged 26. “I didn’t forecast it and maybe I showed a desire in myself to build something that was inherently physical and beautiful in the analogue sense, but there seemed to be a massive gap in the market,” he admits.

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The brand began life with two employees and sold over 150,000 notecards in its second year alongside a growing roster of illustrators. Meanwhile, the role of handwritten notes still resonates and accounts for 10% of Papier’s sales today.

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“The slower and harder something is, the more people appreciate it,” notes Atighetchi. “Our time is valuable and knowing someone has spent five minutes to sit down and write something and not a 30 second email has made that form of communication so valuable.”Diaries remain the brand’s bestselling product, selling one every 25 seconds towards end of the year.

Papier’s wholesale business has doubled over 12 months, reaching 4,300 global retail partners across 13 countries, including Liberty, Selfridges, Anthropologie and Target.

The product stable is about to grow beyond paper by launching into the games category, with puzzles and chess showcasing another pull away from digital.

“It’s about meaningful connections,” says Atighetchi. “It felt right not to focus on one category but to represent the whole lifestyle around creative living."

The Londoner says his job as a founder is to keep Papier feeling "day one energy" beyond its tenth anniversary. “The more those become cultural principles, the more chance the brand has long term,” he adds.

“If you are building a brand, you want it to outlive your tenure and ideally your own life. The founder has a role to play so that anyone coming into the business can pick up and go."

Atighetchi, who employs around 80 staff and says his current go-to product is the calendar year diary, notes that Papier recently produced its 5 millionth order. It’s a world away from when Atighetchi hit refresh on the company’s dashboard ahead of its first order in 2015.

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He knew then that Papier had product market fit but still had to enforce a go-to mentality in his first entrepreneurial salvos.

“It’s about hustle, no shame, getting out there and pitching,” he admits. “It’s about shamelessly asking people who are willing to give advice and investment. From cold calling, door stepping and getting in front of people, not fearing rejection is a very important trait.

“One of the big tech entrepreneurs said you should look at your first products and feel embarrassed. If I look at papier.com from day one, it’s about that blind perseverance to push through, keep improving and recognising those negatives, but not letting them knock you down in those early years.”

Behind the brand: Papier founder on…

Business advice

You can overthink and think yourself out of taking a risk. I didn’t tell anyone I was setting up the business as I didn’t want 100 people telling me why it would fail. The way around that is to just do it — the idea you start with will look very different to the end business you have.

Focus

It may be unconventional management advice, but my perspective is that it is overrated. What makes good entrepreneurs successful is that they don’t focus on one area. They can pivot quickly, see opportunity and all those things are anti-focus. If I focused as an entrepreneur I would be a UK greeting card business with a few million in size. The fact that we didn’t focus means that we are multi-channel, multi-category and doing over $50m of sales globally.Papier aims to capture more consumers turning to analogue habits.

Targeting right engagement

Brand building is not about looking beautiful but tapping into a community of people who share a love for what we do. Instagram was an amazing place to find ‘paper people’ who live writing, design and art. We didn’t have the budget for celebrity but it was finding authenticity in people who will talk about us on social media.

Personalisation

This was an important step in bringing innovation to the category and every one of our products is in some way unique. It’s more personable, more giftable (a third of orders are for gifted) and means it’s only something you can buy from Papier.

University

We dropped the requirement for a university degree seven years ago for job applications. Some of the most entrepreneurial people in our business didn’t go to university. What is healthy is that it's not the only path and there are other ways of utilising time and money and some of that can be to set up businesses.

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