The first speaker at HustleCon 2016 was David Bladow, Co-founder and CEO of BloomThat.
“Founders are the guardians of simplicity within our company culture.”
They realized they were running three different businesses:
- A delivery company,
- A flower production company, and
- A marketing company.
With their bank account dwindling, BloomThat came up with a plan: Streamline operations, improve gross margins, etc.
- Closed the LA market
- Changed South Bay in SF delivery times from 1 hours to 2 hours.
- Decided to add a delivery fee because none of their deliveries were profitable.
What happened? BloomThat went from $500k burn/mo to $15k/mo. New slogan is “Gross margins matter,” even in the beginning.
Key learnings
- Start narrow
- Don’t mask things that don’t work. Face them head on
- Talk to your customers. Be human, be transparent
- Understand your evolving founder role to help you make transitions as your leadership
- You are the guardian of simplicity within your company
More Information: BloomThat website, David Bladow on Twitter
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