Three guys turned poker winning into a budding startup that is redefining the flower industry and it is coming to Phoenix. David Daneshgar, who won an event at the 2008 World Series of Poker, turned a $1,000 buy-in at a poker tournament into the source of initial funding for BloomNation.
This Santa Monica startup, often referred to as “the Etsy for flowers,” gives local florists a platform for running their business online and connects consumers to their unique local handcrafted arrangements. On the company’s website, customers browse and purchase arrangements directly from local florists.
Co-Founder and CEO Farbod Shoraka heard concerns about the floral industry from his aunt who is in the industry and was struggling to keep her business’ doors open. And the idea for BloomNation was born, to create a platform that empowers small businesses and get them online as well as to give them the tools necessary to compete with the big retailers. Shoraka brought on his two friends Gregg Weisstein and Daneshgar. And together they have grown BloomNation to be the world’s largest online flower marketplace.
Bloomnation is changing consumer behavior, said Daneshgar, like how Airbnb and Lyft have revolutionized their industries. In addition to changing the consumer experience, at BloomNation’s greater Phoenix area launch party on August 11 Daneshgar talked about how the company solves frustrations on both the buyer’s and seller’s ends. For the florists there is no membership fee, contracts and obligation to sign up. Also, BloomNation provides new custom websites, branding, marketing and public relations. Local florists gain a relatively low-cost web presence where they can advertise their in a market that is dominated by big-name middlemen such as 1-800-Flowers and Teleflora.
According to BloomNation, florists have seen increases in their sales of up to 500 percent. As well as the site provides local florists with customized websites, e-marketing tools, and professional floral photo shoots.
The BloomNation formula has worked for Los Angeles florist David Goldstein who has been a customer for three year. Goldstein hadn’t made a dime from any of his prior websites and on the first week of being on BloomNation he was getting online orders he never had before.
” 3,000, 5,000, 6,000, 8000 dollars a month is coming in that I did not have, that are not my customers, that I never had to answer the phone for or sell them on anything,” Goldstein said.
BloomNations also aids to solve customer frustrations. Customers can personally connect with the florist filling their order to ensure that what they see is what they get with BloomSnaps, which is a photo of the completed order they send customers before anything’s hand delivered for complete transparency. Additionally, all BloomNation arrangements are one-of-a-kind designs.
