Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danza Huey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Danza, appreciate you joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

We have a Kickstarter Campaign live during the “Party Season of Giving” this holiday season! Help us as we expand into 2023 and beyond!

LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danzahuey/mash-up-a-new-party-card-brand

Danza, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in Baton Rouge, LA where card games were a primary part of my childhood. I literally played Old Maid, Spades, and UNO once a week at my grandmother’s house in downtown Baton Rouge. I am a proud first generation college graduate from Louisiana State University and a Georgia Tech – Scheller College of Business MBA graduate. I have been a lifelong artist and creator and wanted to find a way to bring joy and memories to people’s lives through my own creation. During the pandemic, I played many of today’s card games with family and friends and realized that there was a gap in the market between classic card games, party card games, and drinking games. Many new party card and drinking games today are mostly “read and respond” games or lead to a poor customer experience with alcohol overconsumption. Classic card games have fun game play mechanics we all know and love but unfortunately don’t have the “party elements” we love today. After months of doing marketing and market research, Party Card Mash Up was born – a new party for old card games! Party Card Mash Up is bringing classic card games, like Old Maid and Go Fish, to the 21st century for the 21 and up crowd and the 21st century kid!

I created a test copy of the first game, Party Card Mash Up – The Game (based on Old Maid), and played on Labor Day 2021 with friends and received overwhelming praise! I underwent double-jaw surgery September 2021 and through my initial healing, I developed, tested, and launched Party Card Mash Up to the world on October 1, 2021. Being in business for only three months, I was selected to join Target’s new accelerator program, Target Forward Founders, which picked 30 early stage, industry-disrupting brands out of 1,300+ applicants to learn how to be successful in mass retail. At this moment in December 2021, I truly considered myself a small business owner with a fantastic brand on the road to success!

After Target Accelerators’ in Spring 2o22, Party Card Mash Up had a game activation during Essence Festival 2022, is a Rising Star Cohort members with The Game Manufacturers Association 2022 – 2023, and will be one of the only games at SXSW 2023 at the Creative Industries Expo! We just got into our first brick-and-mortar store with more stores to come in 2023!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have been pressing forward each and every week with the motto of “shooting my shot and ask questions!” I started this journey in August 2021 with barely any knowledge of how to manufacturer a card game, how to start a business, and how to scale a brand. Through the trademark application to figuring out Adobe Illustrator to design my own packaging from scratch, I stuck to my vision to build an evergreen party card brand that would be fun, visual impactful, and create community, togetherness, and joy through game play! And Party Card Mash Up is it!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Building Party Card Mash Up from scratch to now being a full-fledged brand as an entrepreneur has been the biggest pivot of my life! It was just a wild idea and a test copy in hand as of September 2021 and then I launched on October 1, 2021 with no idea that I would be selected for one of Target’s accelerator programs after only 3 months in business. I came out of that program with the tools needed to propel the brand into an industry-disrupting competitive card game brand. I am enjoying this journey of building a brand that was just a thought in my mind into games that people truly enjoy!

Contact Info:

• Website: partycardmashup.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/partycardmashup
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partycardmashup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mashupgames/
• Twitter: twitter.com/partycardmashup

Image Credits
Images of Danza Huey, MBA: Mhandy Gerard Photography