As the Valentine's Day is approaching, some men might start frantically searching for original ways of greeting their sweethearts. One Estonian start-up has just the solution for you - knickers in an envelope! The service is called KnickerMail and the idea behind it is this: if you want to send someone your greetings, don't go buy a postcard, flowers or chocolates but pick a pair of knickers instead. You can choose the text for the hand-written postcard to be sent with the undergarment, order and pay for it all online and voilà - you make the recipent blush and smile at the same time. Andrus Purde, technology and business talent behind the start-up, tipped us their story.

Whatever you think of sending or receiving women's underwear, it is undeniable that the company is run with a true start-up spirit. As Andrus explained: 'I wanted to test the concept with minimum spending before investing real money into this. So I created KnickerMail with Shopify (cost was a couple of long evenings of work + $25 monthly fee), crowdsourced the logo with Hatchwise, did the blog/PR outreach myself etc.' Less than two months since its launch, KnickerMail's revenue has just gone over $1000 this week. Andrus referred to this as a symbolic number that proved to him that the idea is worth pursuing. He shared: 'We've now done tens of deliveries, mostly to US'.

Seemingly silly but already profitable, how exactly did this come about and who is behind the company? The idea first occurred to a UK-based Estonian lingerie designer - Kriss Soonik. After noticing that some of the lingerie bought from her online store were sent as gifts, she decided to add a twist to it and make the panties into a kind of postcard. As soon as Andrus came onboard, the idea was put into practice. Kriss designs the underwear exclusively for the KnickerMail and Andrus works on developing and marketing their service. At the moment there is only one style, one size and three colours to choose from so wearing the gift might not be an option for some. Besides, the postcard-cum-gift is not a cheap treat to give: it would cost you $49/£29 plus about £10 for delivery.

Many women's magazines and fashion blogs embraced KnickerMail, though some concerns were voiced too. Mainly: who exactly would use this type of service? Getting a pair of knickers as a postcard can be seen as funny, sexy and cheeky, but it can just as easily turn out to be creepy, sleezy and disturbing. Valentine's greeting from a boyfriend - hot, a hello-card from the next-door neighbour - not.

Nevertheless, with revenue flowing and knickers being ordered to US, UK, Estonia and Germany, Andrus is not planning to stop. 'We're already profitable and can now look into building a 'real' website and extend our offerings'. In the end, whether such greeting gets you a Valentine or a slap in the face, it would surely make an impression that some are prepared to pay for.