The thrill of getting a handwritten note is what Chelsea Fulton banked on when she decided to start her own business at age 27.
Fulton, a Simpsonville resident, is the owner and founder of The Write Way, which uses robotics to write handwritten notes.
“Everybody wants to get a handwritten note,” Fulton said. “Everybody appreciates it, but nobody has time to do it anymore.”
Fulton realized the advantages of being able to write dozens of notes in a short time after having baby showers for her first two children. She was expected to write thank you cards, but like everyone else, never found the time to write them.
“I said, ‘There has got to be a better way to do this.’”
She was at the time working as an analyst at AVS Corporation, an electronic parts supplier in Fountain Inn, and getting her master’s degree at Clemson University.
“It’s so different from an email or a typed card. It has so much more emotion and meaning behind it.” – Chelsea Fulton, owner & founder, The Write Way
The program itself — Clemson’s MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation — was the primary push for Fulton to start her own business.
“Everything I have in my body has really been put into that,” she said.
The Write Way started with just one robot, which Fulton purchased from a third-party manufacturer. She now has three that run almost 24 hours a day.
Using an algorithm, the robots can mimic different handwriting styles. Because they actually hold onto a pen, all the nuances of real handwriting — the indentation of a pen nib, for example — are transferred onto the note.
“It’s indistinguishable,” Fulton said.
Each robot can write 60 words in two and a half minutes. And unlike humans, they never take breaks or make mistakes.
Business has “skyrocketed” in the two years since Fulton said she started The Write Way with one customer.
She now has 17 regular customers. Many are service-oriented businesses, but Fulton also works with nonprofits, chambers of commerce, doctors and dentists.
They all see the value of the handwritten note.
“It’s so different from an email or a typed card,” Fulton said. “It has so much more emotion and meaning behind it.”
