This Startup Sounds Like A Giant Eye Roll - Here's Why It Could Actually Blossom Into A Massive Business
BloomThat launched 1.5 years ago as a "ridiculously fast" flower service that will deliver a reasonably priced bouqet anywhere in San Francisco in 90 minutes or less. It's a mobile app that only requires three actions to make a purchase: Choose a pre-bundled bouquet (about $35 each), type in the recipient's information, pay with your pre-uploaded credit card.
One Twitter employee told Business Insider her fiance use the flower service to help him propose. An eBay employee, who had BloomThat on her iPhone homescreen, told Business Insider it was the easiest way to send a thoughtful gift. A Facebook employee (who initially rolled her eyes when Business Insider told her about the startup) later chimed in, "Oh wait! I just received a bouquet of those yesterday."
As more proof of the startup's early traction, a source tells Business Insider the company is on track to generate a couple million dollars in annual revenue. It's not clear how much money - if any - the company is making per delivery though. BloomThat went through startup accelerator program Y Combinator and raised $2.4 million from big names like SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Vaynerchuk and Joe Montana.
Although "Uber for Everything" is a tired concept, investors say companies like BloomThat could actually become giant businesses. The key is to find a category in the on-demand space that grows the size of the user pie and doesn't just chip away at it.
For instance: Before Uber, a very small number of people used black car services. Now, tons of people hail rides on Uber and competing services like Lyft, Sidecar, Gett and Hailo. These services are luring people from other industries to become their drivers, and they're encouraging people who never bothered to hail a car - either because it was too difficult or too expensive - to repeatedly use their services.
Early data shows BloomThat is positioned to turn non-flower buyers into regular customers, too. One investor tells Business Insider that the average flower-buyer sends 2.5 bouquet per year; BloomThat's customers are sending 11.
Seed investors Hunter Walk and Dave Ambrose stress: "Removing friction, changing behaviors and growing the market is the ultimate trifecta" for an on-demand startup.
@hunterwalk @ajs @shyp this: "remove friction, change behaviors, grow mkt" the ultimate trifecta for a seed stage product ??
- Dave Ambrose (@daveambrose) September 16, 2014
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