Sticker Mule
336 Forest Avenue, Amsterdam, NY, USA, 12010

Sticker Mule is a global company that found success with “Custom printing that kicks ass.” Anthony Constantino, CEO and co-founder, established the company in 2010, with the foresight to capitalize on customer demand for print with fast turnaround times. Sticker Mule provides printing for numerous segments, including stickers, labels, packaging, t-shirts, and decals, among others.

Constantino never envisioned a life in business, but the printing business found him. Constantino’s father, who passed away when Anthony was eight years old, had built Noteworthy, a printing company specializing in photo packaging and plastic bags. While Anthony was in college at RPI, a member of the Noteworthy team sought his guidance on what had become a struggling print company.

“Getting into the printing industry was trial by fire,” explains Constantino. “I grew up in the company, and I had a good relationship with everybody there. During the summer of my sophomore year, one of the employees—who actually works with Sticker Mule now—called me and asked for help because they weren’t doing well. The company was in virtual bankruptcy, and it had become a dysfunctional organization.”

With Constantino’s leadership and the guidance of the old management guard who had since retired, the Noteworthy business stabilized. The success was short-lived, though. The financial crisis of 2008 hit the company hard, which compounded the problem of unpopular product lines. While Constantino was able to cut costs, he needed a growth strategy to ultimately find success.

A lengthy brainstorming session led to Constantino’s idea to pursue the internet. The Noteworthy COO and Sticker Mule co-founder had never used a computer, but he was intrigued by Constantino’s vision.

“We had some tense and honest conversations, but that’s how we talked to each other,” recalls Constantino. “We were 40 years different in age, but we were always good friends. I didn’t have money to fund Sticker Mule, but he said he would cut me a check and we started a separate company. I wasn’t the owner of Noteworthy, but I ran it. And what I learned there allowed me to start my own company.”

Constantino created Sticker Mule in 2010 with the goal of becoming an internet manufacturing company. A lengthy to-do list included finding a lawyer, accountant, and programmers to build the website.

“We had the concept for the site, but we didn’t have a product,” notes Constantino. “We started with stickers, and the concept took off right away. I designed the site myself in sketches, and my designer actually called me an honorary designer. I liked simplicity, and that’s basically what the site is today. It’s a memorable site, so it works. And the designer, who had never designed a website before, is now the CMO at Sticker Mule.”

The design community immediately embraced Sticker Mule, with orders coming relatively quickly. Sales were not initially robust, but Constantino uncovered his first big account while researching business opportunities on Twitter.

“What happened was a funny story,” says Constantino. “The business’ executive goes on Twitter and said he was looking for a sticker vendor for his startup. It was a venture capital tech company that was trying to compete with Nielsen. Whenever someone watched a show, their reward would be a sticker. So, I got on the phone with him and his business ended up turning into a $2 million account for us.”

Sticker Mule started receiving 50 orders a day, with each order containing 20 stickers. The VC-backed company agreed to $5 per order and gave the stickers away. Sticker Mule automated the process, lowering its costs even further.

“At the height of our partnership, we were making $25,000 a day, and that was paying all our bills,” says Constantino. “They essentially transferred their investment money to us, and they went out of business after two years. But they funded our first two years, where typically you’d be struggling. At the time they went out of business, we were already a $10 million company and on a huge growth trajectory.”

Today, Sticker Mule delivers custom printed products to customers all around the world. It boasts four production factories in Amsterdam, NY, along with several warehouse facilities. Sticker Mule also has production facilities in South Carolina and Italy—which enables the company to better service Europe. Constantino’s team consists of more than 1,200 employees across its global locations.

Constantino is continually eyeing growth wherever feasible. He is opportunistic with expansion, too. For example, several key engineers joined Sticker Mule after his acquisition of an Italian company.

“I was buying an Italian machine, so I went to Italy and met up with a connection I had made there,” says Constantino. “He wound up selling his business to us, and he became customer service for Sticker Mule in Europe. The engineers for the company we were working with wound up exiting their company and joining us as internal hardware engineers. I merged them into Sticker Mule.”

As growth continues, labels and packaging will continue to serve as an opportunity for Sticker Mule. “The most important thing about us is I think we’re the most proficient in the packaging space,” states Constantino. “That’s the only product line where our market presence doesn’t match our proficiency. We’re the best, even though we’re not the biggest. We’re the biggest in stickers, but we have room to grow in packaging.

“Packaging is obviously a big business, with high-volume customers but fewer overall buyers,” he adds. “Labels and packaging are probably our most under-appreciated capabilities. We’re actually quite good there because of our investments in digital and on the converting end. I’m very proud of our packaging.”

Business philosophy

Constantino’s philosophy, both in business and life, has been centered around solving problems and embracing change. He built his business on the need for an e-commerce platform in the printing space, and he has continued to evolve over the years.

Noteworthy operated with just flexographic and offset printing capabilities. However, he established Sticker Mule on the foundation of being an all-digital printer.

“We’re all digital, and we own the technology on the converting end,” says Constantino. “We’ve made massive investments in our digital technology. We can efficiently run orders from 50 to 100,000 units. We can service anyone – and cost effectively.”

Automation has also been a core tenet of Sticker Mule’s operations. Constantino sought out skilled technicians who would design the machines to deliver exactly what customers needed. And when they only spoke Italian, Constantino learned Italian to foster better communication.

“Nobody can do what we do when it comes to automation, because we build our own machines,” states Constantino. “We automate through software and hardware. For example, we’ve built our own button machines that are fully automated. We might not do as many product lines as some other printers, but we try to be the best at everything we do. And in packaging, we’re way advanced compared to others.”

Automation has also played a pivotal role in improving support. During the company’s infancy, Constantino handled all customer inquiries himself. Now, Sticker Mule has a dedicated team to handle everything from the mundane to the obscure.

“We rely on automation because you find a lot of repetitive questions,” he explains. “A common mistake people make in business is writing their FAQs (frequently asked questions) without talking to customers. The questions you think they’re going to have are never the same ones that the customers actually have. If we have a question we’ve never heard before, we document it, because I like to have as many FAQs as possible. We try to provide as much content for our customers as we can. Ultimately, the best customer service is no customer service because that means we don’t have problems that need to be fixed. People might think that’s weird, but that’s what people want.”

Constantino has also drawn inspiration from his boxing career, which he ventured into at the age of 40. Many of the parallels in his business philosophy also present themselves in the ring.

“Boxing is a lot like business, where I fix problems,” remarks Constantino. “If I’m boxing, I analyze myself and try to fix my biggest problem. I did well in boxing, and I was really proud of that. I look back to when I was a kid and I wrestled. Wrestling was the first time I was ever good at something. The way I became good – and I was terrible when I started and never knew how to win – was I realized how to set reach goals. And I wound up having the best finish to my senior year out of anyone in my high school’s history. First, you have to set goals. And second, you can’t be satisfied.

“One of my keys to success is that business has never been a major source of pride for me,” Constantino adds. “Sticker Mule is a global company with more than a thousand people working here, but it’s not Apple or Tesla or Amazon. I can’t be that proud of myself yet because then I’ll never get there. And it’s also something that’s come easy to me, since I’ve been running a business since I was 19 years old. If you get arrogant and complacent, you can lose success quickly.”

Sticker Mule Stores

Sticker Mule is headed into its next iteration with the development of the Sticker Mule Stores platform. This new product offering will represent Sticker Mule 2.0.

Sticker Mule Stores will allow customers to set up their own store, complete with their own print products. Customers can generate their own labels, buttons, stickers, and more.

“I have realized business is all about solving problems for people,” states Constantino. “The problem Sticker Mule solved was making the buying process easier, because it was hard to buy stickers. There’s a similar issue with e-commerce, where it’s not that easy to set up a store – particularly a merchandise store. Historically, people who wanted to set up merchandise stores would have to go to Shopify. This is another service for our customers. We have 20,000 stores created already, so you can spin up your store without having to do any work besides using your computer. We do the shipping, fulfillment, customer service, whatever you need to set up your store, and then we send you your money on a monthly basis.”

Sticker Mule Stores represent a key part of the company’s future and are emblematic of its growing software division. “We have a great software team, and we’ve built a lot of internal tools,” comments Constantino. “We don’t have any third-party software within Sticker Mule, except for finance and human resources. We do our own email marketing and SMS marketing. We have our own shipping platform, too. And we’re going to start releasing those systems to other people. We’re in the e-commerce business now because Sticker Mule Stores are e-commerce.

“Our goal is to help people make money,” he continues. “We’re going to give you a store, an email marketing platform, and we’re going to have a full suite of tools that help people succeed online. Our Stores platform is also a social network. For example, you could create a store for “Frank’s 65th birthday” and sell t-shirts and stickers. You could then tell everyone who’s going to the birthday that there’s a store for it. We’re going to continue to build more features, and we’re going to offer digital services.”

Giving back

With Constantino growing up in Amsterdam, giving back to the local community has been instrumental in his role as a business leader. His contributions include Mule Fitness, a neighborhood gym for the community, along with a local park.

“Giving back to Amsterdam is great for the community and great for the employees,” notes Constantino. “There was a time when we were growing and couldn’t find employees. Giving back raised our profile. It makes people happy and proud that they’re working here. It also makes the community better because people want to be here. I follow the golden rule. If I’m going to live here I would like a gym, so I’m sure a lot of other people would like a gym too.”

Sticker Mule’s presence in the local community also serves as a strong marketing tool, creating awareness in the region. Philanthropy has helped address the ongoing workforce challenges in the manufacturing sector.

“People recognize our company for building the park or the gym, so it helps with recruiting,” says Constantino. “My team was complaining they couldn’t hire anybody. We spend so much through marketing to find customers, but we didn’t do anything to acquire employees. Employers will say nobody comes to work for them, and that’s because nobody knows you’re hiring. People put up job ads and no one applies because they don’t know the job ad exists. Some people know, but the whole city doesn’t know.”

The team atmosphere has also instilled a strong culture at Sticker Mule. “The way we give back to the community also contributes to our culture because it makes people happy,” explains Constantino. “Ultimately, everyone wants to be happy and have fun in life. People who are happy work better, and honestly life is too short. I didn’t really set out to be an entrepreneur; I want to enjoy life. It’s the right way to run a business, but it’s not always the most obvious way.”