BloomNation, A Platform For Local Florists, Raises $1.65M From Andreessen Horowitz & Others
Summary
CEO and co-founder Farbod Shoraka left his job as an M&A banker to found BloomNation back in 2011, following his handling of a deal which gave him insight into the how the floral industry worked today. He brought on co-founders, David Daneshgar, a fellow Berkeley grad, to serve as head of corporate development, and Gregg Weisstein, who’s now BloomNation COO. What BloomNation has built in the many months since is a platform that aims to cut out the major floral players like 1800Flowers, FTD, and Teleflora by providing tools that enable local florists to reach customers themselves, but at scale. “We’ve brought the creativity back into the industry, and de-commoditized everything.” He says that with the larger services, consumers pick from a catalog of stock photos, where pricing is already set, but not necessarily in a way that reflects the local cost structures at the nearby merchants who have to fulfill those orders. The BloomNation marketplace, launched a year ago, was a first step towards allowing florists to reach customers directly, instead of relying on the larger services.