US: Farmgirl Flowers innovates flower industry

It’s coming up roses for Christina Stembel, the 37-year-old Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, so long as the roses are grown in America. Founded in 2010 in San Francisco in Stembel’s dining room, the bouquet delivery service began shipping nationwide last May and business is blooming. Launched with Stembel’s personal savings of $48,000, Farmgirl Flowers is now one of the fastest growing startups in the Bay Area with millions in revenue.

“I always wanted to start a business and do something good in the world,” says Christina Stembel. “I was that person who drives all of their friends and families nuts with having a new business idea every day. The energy in the Bay Area is very startup inspired. Similar to Los Angeles, where everyone has a headshot in their back pocket, here everyone has a business idea in their back pocket.”

After mulling over several ideas that were united by their potential to do something positive in the world, Stembel found inspiration at her day job.

“I worked doing event planning for Stanford University for seven years and I saw we were spending a lot of money on decor for events. I started researching the floral industry on Friday nights instead of going out. I was blown away by how big the flower industry was for how little innovation there was in the space. It seemed to have been the same for the past 25 years and the more I researched it, the more problems I found.”

Read the full article at Forbes