Kate Mirynowski Built Pigeon Post to Make Real Mail Easy

Someone opened a card, turned it over, and scanned the QR code on the back. Within 5 minutes, they had sent a card right back. For Kate Mirynowski, that small exchange said everything. People were passing Pigeon Post on to the people they love.

Kate Mirynowski is the founder of Pigeon Post, a technology company that turns your own photos into illustrated cards, prints them on real card stock, and mails them for you. A member of the Entreprenista League, she calls herself a mom first. Her team spent over 2 years building the technology before launching in 2026, and Pigeon Post has generated over 2,000 cards since.

“Love hard, and if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a personalized card is worth a million,” Kate says.

Her path from a busy mom with a simple wish to a growing card company came down to one idea: Make real mail as easy as a text message.

Motherhood is the reason Pigeon Post exists

Kate built Pigeon Post for her own family. She wanted her kids’ grandparents to have something they could hold, something that would stay on the fridge long after the moment passed.

Sending a card had become a chore. Find the card, find a stamp, find the address, get to the post office. Most people give up and send a text instead. “But a text is gone in a day, and a card on the fridge stays there for weeks,” she says. “We make the real thing as easy as the text.”

Two minutes from photo to mailbox

The process is built for the busy mom juggling everything at once. You pick a photo, choose a style (watercolor, cartoon, vintage, whimsical, comic, doodle, and more), and write your message. Pigeon Post prints the card and mails it, with live updates as it ships. The whole thing takes about 2 minutes on your phone.

Before Pigeon Post, Kate worked as a recruiter and then as a customer success manager at Kore. “Recruiting taught me how to listen to people and understand what they really need,” she says. “Customer success taught me that the experience is everything. If someone gets stuck or confused, that’s on us to fix.”

That instinct drives the product. Her team’s biggest improvements came from watching where people got stuck, like letting them write their message while the card is being made so no one sits waiting.

Getting the likeness right

The hardest problem was making the illustration look like the people in the photo. “If the card doesn’t look like your kids, or your dog, it isn’t personal anymore, and personal is the whole point,” Kate says.

The team tested photo after photo, in every style and every kind of family picture, until faces, outfits, and expressions stayed true to the original. “It taught me to never settle for ‘close enough’ when it’s someone’s family on the front of the card.”

More than half the cards had a dog or a cat on the front

Kate built Pigeon Post with grandkids and grandparents in mind. Then one day in November, more than half the cards mailed featured a pet. “Our customers showed us their pets are family too,” she says.

Customers also send in batches. One sent 10 cards, each taking only a few minutes. In a store, that list would have meant an hour in the card aisle, and every person on it got a card that looked like them.

Cards that feel like a gift

Two of Kate’s favorite wins in 2026 turn a card into something closer to a present. Senders can record a video, and the recipient watches it by scanning the QR code on the card. “Grandma gets to see and hear you,” Kate says. Senders can also add a gift card, usable at hundreds of stores, right in the app.

Pigeon Post also launched two give-back programs. Send a Soldier lets anyone mail a free thank-you card to a service member, and Send a Senior brightens the day of someone in a senior living community.

What’s next for Pigeon Post

Kate plans to grow Send a Soldier and Send a Senior, “because a card can mean the world to someone who needs it most.” She also plans to launch outside the U.S. so even more families can send real mail to the people they love.

Her advice for founders starting out comes straight from her own story. “Start with the problem you know best. Mine was being a busy mom who wanted the grandparents to feel close to my kids,” she says. “If it’s a problem in your own life, chances are it’s a problem in a lot of other people’s lives too.” It is the same instinct behind Mallory Hansen’s Mamaprenista journey with Mindful Made Co., which began when she saw how little support new moms receive.

You can create your first card at pigeon-post.ai, download the Pigeon Post app on the App Store, and connect with Kate on LinkedIn.

Kate’s story is a reminder that the best businesses often start with a problem from your own kitchen table. The Entreprenista League surrounds you with women founders who help you turn that kind of everyday insight into a business that grows. Learn more about the Entreprenista League right here.