Use case: "Oh shit it's February 14th!"
When a friend says that now you can respond:
"BloomThat Shit"
Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#42This is a space ripe for disruption.
I ordered a bouquet from ProFlowers 5 years ago using a throwaway email (spamgourmet). Fast forward a few months and I'm getting unsolicited spam from businesses completely unaffiliated with ProFlowers at that one-time-use address. I called customer support to ask how to be removed from the list and got put on hold and hung up on. Not an uncommon experience:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ProFlowers
New startup formula:
1. Find "(Expertsexchange|ProFlowers) of X"
2. Build "(StackOverflow|Uber|Yelp) of X", don't sell your entire customer base down the river
3. Profit
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#43How you will know when Austin, Kansas City, Seattle, Boston, or Tallahassee are just as startup-hip as San Francisco: When we read that "startup InterestingName with CleverProduct done on a local scale has launched in AnyCityBesidesSFO."
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#44This is great. I've ordered many bouquets and it's always been somewhat stressful. I used to be in a long distance relationship, and so ordering a bouquet online required finding 1) reputable florists that could 2) deliver on time to the 3) region I want. So something like this is more than welcome. I would suggest that Bloomthat also expand their offerings. Don't limit yourselves to flowers and bouquets. Gift delive…
There was a local florist where I used to live that was frustrating (but really, most of them I've used over the years have been).
My wife was not well, I was out of town, and I called to have flowers delivered. I asked for an extra, and got it, but had to talk to the owner, and it was like twisting their arm to get this done.
I asked for a small box of chocolates and a DVD to be included (I asked for a specific DVD). I offered to pay extra - the DVD was $19 - and I didn't care on the size of chocolates - just something. I kept getting "but we don't do that". I begged and pleaded. Got the owner. "But we don't do that". I said - "look, charge me an extra $50, just please go buy that DVD and include it with the flowers". They finally did, I think I got charged $35 extra for the DVD and chocolates, and it made her day.
This was well before streaming home video stuff, and my wife had hurt her foot - not able to drive anywhere for a bit.
I was shocked at how hard it was to get a local florist to even consider adding in real extra value-add gifts. Throwing in a "romantic/comedy DVD of the season" option and tacking on an extra $25 or so seemed like "found money" imo. Yes, I'm not a florist by trade, but I've seen that there's a lot more that could be done.
Throwing in a movie and some candy and microwave popcorn along with the flowers seems tantalizingly easy to do. Heck - why didn't video stores deliver back in the day? (maybe some did?)
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#45Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#46I now use Bloomthat for everything (YC and personal). The arrangements are always charming. It's also so easy (and immediate) that I find myself sending flowers to friends and colleagues much more often -- just for little reasons/thankyou's.
My wife's day is going to get a bit better in 88 minutes, just because the process was so simple.
How was the process?
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#47How you will know when Austin, Kansas City, Seattle, Boston, or Tallahassee are just as startup-hip as San Francisco: When we read that "startup InterestingName with CleverProduct done on a local scale has launched in AnyCityBesidesSFO."
Density. Certainly it's possible to start a courier business in a less-dense city (and not saying there aren't others -- Boston and NYC especially) but you've now made getting off the ground a lot harder. Obviously the culture in SF has made courier start-up pretty popular lately, but without density I bet that we'd be seeing far less of them.
Density allows these P2P start-ups to succeed with a lot less hassle, and from there they can grow the capital they need to expand.
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#48So the big differentiator here is delivery in under 90 minutes? Perhaps I'm jaded by my experience in the industry (parents = florists and I worked for FTD in the past), but that seems like enough to get just a handful of orders. Broadening to the entire market might be a struggle. You've got many local florists, drop shippers, and supermarkets to contend with. I love the website. I can see that perhaps having and be…
Thanks for your comment. Your experience in the space is insightful.
We see delivering products (of any kind) in as fast as possible more inevitable than as our differentiator. For a large group of consumers, Uber has contributed to the shift of consumer expectations to mobile, instant and high quality.
We actually don't think of local florists as competition. Rather we partner with the good ones, provide the tools and training to make awesome arrangements, and bring in the urban logistics to make on-demand delivery possible. As you said, vertically integrating all of this new infrastructure would be way too capital intensive. There's a fairly new entrant to the market doing that now and it's taken a long time to hit a $4mm run rate.
On the consumer side of things, you're absolutely right. Great branding and awesome customer service will solve a ton of problems. Worst case for BT, a little bit rubs off on the incumbents and customers still win. Thanks again for your comment.
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#49How you will know when Austin, Kansas City, Seattle, Boston, or Tallahassee are just as startup-hip as San Francisco: When we read that "startup InterestingName with CleverProduct done on a local scale has launched in AnyCityBesidesSFO."
Density. Certainly it's possible to start a courier business in a less-dense city (and not saying there aren't others -- Boston and NYC especially) but you've now made getting off the ground a lot harder. Obviously the culture in SF has made courier start-up pretty popular lately, but without density I bet that we'd be seeing far less of them. Density allows these P2P start-ups to succeed with a lot less hassle, and…
Agreed. Density is a key component here. The good news is that nearly 80% of Americans live in places considered to be urban (50k + population). Are they dense enough for a model like this to work is yet to be seen.
Re: Magic Does Exist With “Uber-For-Flowers” Startup Bloomthat (YC S13)
#50This is a space ripe for disruption. I ordered a bouquet from ProFlowers 5 years ago using a throwaway email (spamgourmet). Fast forward a few months and I'm getting unsolicited spam from businesses completely unaffiliated with ProFlowers at that one-time-use address. I called customer support to ask how to be removed from the list and got put on hold and hung up on. Not an uncommon experience: http://www.resellerrat…
Thanks for your comment. You nailed it re: spam. They play a similar game with CPC ads - cornering the real estate with resellers and effectively bidding up the CPC on themselves. Speaking of which, I love the ads for the same companies underneath the horrible consumer ratings in the link you posted!