"Christina Stembel, 39, grew up on an Indiana corn and soybean farm and didn’t go to college. Now she’s building Farmgirl Flowers in San Francisco, which will clock $15 million in revenue this year. When she launched the company in 2010, the $18 billion U.S. flower industry was dominated by four big players who offered huge selections, mostly made up of flowers shipped from overseas to small shops where about 40% of the inventory wound up in the trash because it spoiled before it could be sold. Stembel’s strategy: source flowers locally and slash waste by selling a very limited number of arrangements direct to consumers from her website. She wraps her bouquets in distinctive burlap donated by nearby coffee roasters. When she tried to raise money, she was dismissed by VCs, but she managed to bootstrap the business and now has investors approaching her. In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, she explains the impact legal marijuana is having on her business and why she thinks the company could ultimately produce $1 billion in revenue."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2017/12/03/bootstrapped-farmgirl-flowers-is-taking-on-the-flower-industry-and-a-host-of-venture-backed-rivals/#5a699fa26fb6
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2017/12/03/bootstrapped-farmgirl-flowers-is-taking-on-the-flower-industry-and-a-host-of-venture-backed-rivals/#5a699fa26fb6