Flowers Make A Perfect Gift
Farmgirl Flowers
I'm Christina, also known as the farm girl behind Farmgirl Flowers.
I grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Bremen, Indiana. While I’m incredibly grateful to have grown up there, mostly for the foundation it provided, I always knew it wasn’t where I’d end up. I love a lot of things about it, but I really never fit in. It wasn’t until I moved to a larger city (NYC first and then San Francisco with a few others in between) that I felt like I was home. That's how Farmgirl got it's name though, although my Mom is the real farm girl!
One of the things I’m most grateful for in life is that I learned how to work hard, think critically, and keep it real – and I was fortunate enough to learn those attributes on our tiny farm in that tiny town in rural Indiana.
Why I started Farmgirl Flowers:
Number one on my bucket list has always been to start a business doing something innovative and hopefully, at the same time, something that makes a positive impact in the world. Admittedly, many of my kooky ideas fulfilled one mission, but rarely both. When researching the flower industry, I found the perfect opportunity to create a new model that would provide a better alternative to what was currently available. I wanted to solve a real problem that I personally experienced every time I wanted to send flowers to my peeps - I didn't like the flowers. I wanted a designed bouquet instead of something I could have gotten from a grocery store for a fraction of the price. I wanted colors that complimented each other and better flower varieties. And I wanted to be able to order easily and quickly instead of having to spend way too much time sorting through 100+ options. I sure didn't want much, huh?
How I came up with the Farmgirl model:
Initially I worked in an event planning role where we purchased a lot of flowers, and I couldn’t figure out why they were so expensive. That curiosity sparked a rabbit hole of research where I found the eComm flower space to maybe be one of the last undisrupted spaces in Silicon Valley. It was also an industry with (what I thought to be) very little innovation, so there was ample room for an improved model. I knew I wanted to start a company, but I didn’t want to simply replicate someone else’s idea and make it a tiny bit better. I knew if I had one shot to go for the gold and build my own business, I wanted to hit out of the park and create something truly unique. After researching the space, seeing the potential, and devising an innovative model, I truly thought this was my Aha! moment and went for it!