Case Study: The Simple Postcard achieves app-free, SMS-based photo-to-postcard sending with Twilio

The Simple Postcard - Customer Case Study

Twilio’s Engineering case study features The Simple Postcard, a text-only service built by Jason Strauss that turns phone photos into mailed postcards. The challenge was creating a lightweight, install-free user experience while handling real-world constraints like slow postal delivery and messy free-form address input.

Jason solved this by wiring together a small stack—Django, PostgreSQL, Twilio MMS for media and SMS, USAddress for NLP address parsing, Lob for printing and fulfillment, and Stripe for payment—to accept a photo, parse an address, charge payment, and print and mail the card. The result was a smooth SMS-based flow that resonated with users, topped Hacker News, and earned heartfelt feedback from recipients who said the postcards “made my whole day.”

The Simple Postcard

Jason Strauss

Founder