Sometimes making your significant other, parent or even friend happy is a daunting task, but Gillian Harper says she knows what women want and she's found a simple way for men to give it to them.
Despite men making up 35 percent of the flower buying market---a $10.5 billion a year industry, according to Real Men Buy Flowers---a majority of florists and online subscription services don't cater to them, according to Harper. Atlanta-based startup Real Men Buy Flowers, which launched Tuesday morning, not only targets those of us with Y chromosomes but simplifies the process by limiting the amount of options.
"The standard man, who doesn't understand the power flowers possess over women, find the endless parade of choices too overwhelming and ultimately lead to decision fatigue," Harper said. "Most guys can't tell the difference between a peony and a carnation - let alone know what flower is right for each woman or occasion."
The idea for Real Men Buy Flowers spawned while Harper was watching old clips of Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up. During one of his routine's, Seinfeld joked about how men are incapable of comprehending how much women enjoy receiving flowers. Once the idea took hold, Harper partnered with Hadi Irvani, Kenan Hill and Tony Prescott to create Real Men Buy Flowers.
"We know our husbands, boyfriends and partners truly want to make us happy and find small ways of showing us how much they appreciate all that we do," she said. "Even though men think we are complex creatures, we are usually not that complicated and it is the simple, little things, that truly make it clear that we are thought of and cared for."
In an effort to relieve confusion, stress and fear some men have when buying flowers, Real Men Buy Flowers limits the amount of buying decisions and designates bouquets for occasions from “anniversary,” “birthday,” “I’m sorry,” “just because,” “get lucky” and “any woman, any occasion,” as well as special options for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. The biggest decision men will have to make is what size bouquet to buy, which is still limited to three options.
“We discovered that women wanted their gift flowers for major life occasions (birthday, Valentine's, anniversary, Mother's Day, etc)," she said. "But also, 92 percent of women say the best reason to receive flowers is 'just because.' So we created the ultimate subscription."
Using the Real Men Buy Flowers platform, customers are able to track important dates, such as birthdays and anniversaries, pick which locations to send to and write a card. Harper says men can order flowers out for the year in under 4 minutes. The startup delivers flowers overnight Tuesday through Friday nationwide.
Harper said she and her co-founder, Hill, know all too well what it's like to see the man in their life struggle to gift them flowers, or even the right kind.
"We also surveyed hundreds of women and it was unanimous, our guys were either buying too few flowers, or getting it wrong with tacky flowers and nasty stuffed teddy bears," she said. We really just want to give them a helping hand!"
