Jeff Sheely and Ajay Kori want to send you flowers. So if you’re feeling the Valentine’s Day crunch or maybe just want to send your new crush a token of your admiration, try out UrbanStems, Sheely and Kori's new District-based flower-delivery startup. Just five minutes and $35 will see one of three bouquets delivered in about an hour to the lucky recipient.
“We want to make it all happen in three clicks,” Kori said.
He and Sheely had seen an opening for applying the convenience of other services to the flower business after some frustrating experiences of their own and had heard of plenty others.
With UrbanStem, the flowers are sent by bike messengers from Urban Delivery, another local startup that UrbanStems contracted with to deliver the flowers in their best condition. Part of making it a better experience, Kori and Sheely say, is how a picture is sent to the purchaser when the flowers are delivered; that way, people can see not only when they arrived but that they arrived in good condition.
“We think our bouquets look just as good or even better than their pictures,” Kori said.
A picture of the recipient's reaction can also be sent along if they so choose – definitely a little bonus for the social-media- minded couple. The flowers are shipped up from farms in Columbia and Ecuador and housed in storage units in the area in advance of their delivery.
Kori and Sheely said they had made sure to pick farms that pay living wages to their employees and participate in environmentally sound practices. “95 percent of the employees are women,” Sheely said. “It’s pretty unique in that part of the world.”
Cut flowers are an $8 billion industry, so it’s probably not too surprising that a way to make it easier and more intuitive would find appeal in D.C. Bloompop, for example, also delivers flowers, but Kori and Sheely are quick to discount the idea of a District “flower war.”
“It’s two entirely different models for two entirely different sets of customers,” Kori said.
He explained that Bloompop focuses on local florists and more customized bouquets relative to the already made and relatively less expensive bouquets they offer. In fact, Kori and Sheely have already started discussions with the people over at Bloompop about possible partnerships.
Even though they aren’t giving out numbers yet, Kori and Sheely said that they’ve been pleasantly surprised with how many people are buying so far. “We’re projecting to be sold out by the end of the week,” Sheely noted.
That would be quite a success considering they had tried to over order as part of a promotion to replace bad bouquets sent by major flower companies for free. Although their overhead is low the company is running off a relatively small budget after a round of angel investing, primarily from family and friends.
The explosion of companies offering quick and simple web and app-based services is not slowing down, although Kori pointed out that there is a difference between flowers and some other services like laundry or taxis, in that there aren’t really that many florist options compared.
But he admitted the draw of simple flower service fits into the broader concept.
“I think these things are becoming more and more popular,” Kori said. “It’s part of the uber-ification of everything.”
If you want a little extra savings with your flowers, use the code FB5 and you can get $5 off your first bouquet.
