Photos by Ralph Freso
While playing women’s doubles at the Village Health Club, Sammi Ekmark noticed Autum Prudhomme hustling after every ball and maintaining her composure after a missed shot.
Prudhomme also found time to support her teammates when she wasn’t working.
“Who wouldn’t want that type of person on their team?” Ekmark said.
Those teamwork skills and the hustle Prudhomme displayed during her five seasons on the women’s tennis team at Grand Canyon University, as well as her bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship, convinced Ekmark that she would be a great fit for Ink’d Greetings, a startup company founded in 2023 by Ekmark and her husband, Andrew.
Since Prudhomme joined the company the following year, Ink’d – an automated greeting and gift card kiosk – has expanded to more than 100 locations across the United States.
That includes 20 universities, with GCU installing the company's second kiosk at the Lope Shop – now covered in lavender.
“As much as it was great going here as a student, getting support when you’re gone is awesome,” Prudhomme said. “And the little things – like moving the kiosk from the back of the store to the front. Because they’re prioritizing us, we prioritized them (by painting the kiosk in light purple).”
Prudhomme was the first employee hired by the Ekmarks, and her duties as chief operations officer are somewhat similar to playing tennis.
“Surprisingly, sports sets you up for something like this,” said Prudhomme, who is GCU’s women's tennis career leader, with 49 doubles victories (2018-22). “Being a student athlete teaches you how to juggle multiple things at once while being in high-pressure situations. School is all stressful for everybody, but so is tennis or any sport when it's paying for your school. You have to perform.”
And tennis prepared her for the unknowns of first-year companies.
“Tennis is very mental,” said Prudhomme, whose father, Greg, coached the GCU men’s and women’s tennis teams for 15 seasons and older sister Tatum, who played and served as an assistant women’s tennis coach at GCU. Mother Mandy also played at GCU (2009-10) after delivering three children.
“Startups are very stressful, because everything I do could have an effect on the business. So I've got to make sure I'm moving the needle in the correct direction."
Tennis, “surprisingly, sets you up for life,” Prudhomme said.
It also gave the Ekmarks a high level of trust, despite a lack of overall experience from Prudhomme, who worked in marketing at HEAD Penn Racquet Sports for 1 1/2 years.
“Honestly, running a startup is a wild journey,” Sammi Ekmark said. “We needed instant trust. Luckily for us, we had that with Autum. We knew she would work hard the moment she stepped foot in the door. Andrew and I would set her on a wild goose chase half of the time, but we knew she’d always have a good attitude and try hard to get done whatever task was at hand.
“And in terms of throwing more duties her way? Well, I am pretty sure on her very first day we just threw her a massive list of things to do and had her start hacking away. It was probably pretty overwhelming for her, but dang, look at where she is now. We are so proud.”
Prudhomme’s duties start from the time Ink’d finalizes a contract. She’s in charge of getting the kiosk in stores and running it, maintaining and restocking it.
She works out of an office that enables her to work with an outsourced supply chain team that physically handles the duties. It doesn’t hurt that she earned DASM (Disciplined Agile Scrum Master) certification in February 2024 and admitted she wanted to be a project manager after earning her bachelor’s degree.
“Professor (Paul) Waterman made a big impact on me, and he was talking about project management and how it's very versatile, and it's not one size fits all,” said Prudhomme, who is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in project management at GCU. “I liked that because I wanted to have a versatile job and not do the same thing over and over again.”
After being hired by Ink’d, Prudhomme met with Waterman, who told her what she needed to know and expect.
Ink’d has experienced growth in small grocery stores, retail shops, hardware stores and pharmacies, as well as colleges, Prudhomme said. The kiosks occupy only seven square feet of space.
“I think the demographics of students is fitting with a new technology,” Prudhomme said. “Also, the bookstore owners are really hands on, which is helpful, and they really want the product to sell, so they help push it, which has been nice, compared to some larger chain retailers.
“It's harder to have a hands-on experience when they have so many products,” Prudhomme added. “And there’s parents who can send their kids cards from far away without having to ship. They can have them pick it up at the kiosk in the Lope Shop.”
Prudhomme said Ink’d reached an agreement with grocery supplier United Natural Foods Inc. And there are hopes for deals with high traffic grocery stores.
“We're flying,” Prudhomme said. “There's only four of us in the office, too. We've managed to stay small and yet still grow.”
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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