Local chemical engineer trades lab coat for art, brings ‘Old Soul Greetings’ start-up to Carson City
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Tue, 10/16/2018 - 1:31pm
Shruti Arun, who was raised in Carson City, graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in chemical engineering. However, since childhood her passion has always been to create art and after winning an entrepreneurial contest, she's decided to pursue exactly that with her new start up, "Old Soul Greetings," which also provides donations to local non-profits as a way to give back to the community..
In her last year at the University, on a whim, she decided to enter into a “Shark Tank” style contest hosted by the college, in which business ideas are proposed and grants are awarded to the winners to fund their entrepreneurial projects.
Her idea was to create an online greeting card business, in which the customer can choose from a variety of greeting cards, personalize them with their own handwriting on an iPad or tablet, or have someone handwrite it for them. Then the physical card is printed and shipped to their loved ones.
People are busy nowadays, and sometimes the tasks of going out to purchase a card, filling it out, having a stamp on hand and mailing it on time can get lost in the day to day. Now, Arun’s company does the work for the customer; all they have to do is choose which card, and what they want to say to their loved ones.
“It’s called Old Soul Greetings, because there’s something about being an old soul, and the more traditional way of how life used to be that has always appealed to me. Specifically, I think our society is missing out on the more traditional aspects of showing affection to our loved ones who may be far away,” said Arun. “When I was younger, my family members in India used to send me greeting cards, and it was really special to me. Now as time has gone on, it changed to email, then Facebook messages, and now it’s practically nonexistent. I think it’s because we’ve lost the tradition of sending greeting cards, and I want to bring it back. It means a lot more to receive a handwritten greeting card than an email.”
Arun wanted to bring her business to her hometown, because it mirrored what she was trying to accomplish with her greeting card business. The feelings of home, love and comfort, which she draws from Carson City, are at the center of her business.
She is also committed to bring a positive change into the community of her hometown.
“We showcase local artists' work in our cards, whether it’s photography or illustrated designs, and a portion of the proceeds goes back to them,” she said. “They can also choose a non-profit organization they’d like proceeds to be sent to, and we donate a percentage of each sale of a particular artwork to a local nonprofit.”
One such artist they license work from is Dylan Silver, an underwater Lake Tahoe photographer, who is associated with the League to Save Lake Tahoe. A portion of his “Tahoe Clarity” greeting card collection profits go to the League's non-profit.
“It will change as well depending on the cards,” said Arun. “During the holidays, we want the holiday themed cards to go to Toys for Tots, animal themed cards to the Nevada Humane Society, etc.”
Artists and non-profits who are interested in being featured are encouraged to contact Arun.
For more information, you can visit her website at http://oldsoulgreetings.com or email Old Soul Greetings at info@oldsoulgreetings.com
- Carson City
- art
- artist
- artists
- Business
- cards
- carson
- center
- City
- college
- community
- Community
- Community,
- contest
- day
- donate
- donations
- Donations.
- Engineering
- Family
- give back
- grants
- holiday
- Holidays
- home
- Humane Society
- information
- iPad
- Lake
- League to Save Lake Tahoe
- license
- life
- local
- lost
- love
- May
- Members
- Nevada
- Nevada Humane Society
- new
- non-profit
- non-profit organization
- non-profits
- Nonprofit
- online
- Organization
- passion
- photography
- positive
- sale
- Showcase
- silver
- soul
- start up
- tahoe
- tots
- toys
- toys for tots
- traditional
- University of Nevada
- university of nevada reno
- website
- Lake Tahoe
- reno
