May 13, 2016 / Last updated: September 13, 2024

HustleCon 2016: David Bladow from BloomThat

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:

  1. A delivery company,
  2. A flower production company, and
  3. 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

You may also want to check these 8 useful things about building a supply chain

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