A new Calgary venture is looking to bring cheer to hospital patients across North America by combining the power of the Internet with good old-fashioned greeting cards.

A little more than a year ago, Calgary commercial lawyer William Lister was struck by the fact that while it is possible to send such items as flowers and documents almost anywhere overnight, sending greeting cards was still a process left to the trust of snail mail.

Lister’s father unexpectedly ended up in hospital in Calgary at the time, and while Lister was able to be with him, his sister Ardele, who was in New York, desperately wanted to get a message to her dad.

Flowers or teddy bears didn’t seem appropriate for an 82-year-old man, and while a greeting card was preferable, she hated the fact that it would take three to four days to get there by regular mail.

“I got online to see if there were any services on the Internet to get a card to someone overnight, but couldn’t find anything,” recalls Lister. There are several electronic greeting card sites on the Web, which allow you to send an electronic card by e-mail, or allow you to retrieve a card by going to a Web address.

“You could always FedEx a card to someone overnight, but does the average person want to spent $50 to eliminate their guilt or the need to comfort — I don’t think so,” he says. “But I thought if you could lower the cost to around $10, it would appeal to a lot of people.”

That was how the simple idea for Hospitalhello.com was born. Over the past year Lister has worked with Burntsand Inc., a Vancouver-based Web developer with a Calgary regional office, and TELUS to design and build an electronic commerce site that can come to the rescue of far-flung families and friends.

For an average cost of $10, Hospitalhello.com lets you select a greeting card from a library of 72 cards, and add a personal message with up to 75 words. By providing the patient’s name, the city they’re in and the hospital, the card can be delivered overnight to most hospitals in Canada or the U.S.

Hospitalhello.com is partnering with several delivery firms including United Parcel Service and Canada Post. The venture has been financially backed by Lister and family and friends, with about $900,000 in startup capital.

Lister acknowledges that times are tough for most dot-coms, but he says this venture is based on firm ground because it makes money on every card delivered. “We’re not a dot-com — we’re a thought-com,” he says.

The company has opened an office in the Mission Medical Building on 4th Street S.W. to handle all of its Canadian orders, and has signed a fulfilment agreement with a messenger service in San Francisco to handle its U.S. orders.

The service went live in early March and on its first day of operation Hospitalhello processed about 20 orders. In the future, Lister has plans to expand the site’s offerings to also include other gifts for delivery to hospitals, such as flowers and gift baskets.

And for those who are not at ease with the Internet or lack access, Hospitalhello.com also offers a toll-free phone service – 1-866-HOWRYOU (469-7968).

The parent company of Hospitalhello is privately held, but expects to go public in late April when it amalgamates with CDNX-listed Waldorf Ventures Inc., which will assume the Hospital Greetings Corp. name.

“There’s a big market to be tapped,” says Lister.

“It’s going to appeal to the very busy person, as well as the person who feels they really need to get a message to someone in a hurry.”