The surprising challenge of delivering flowers – Aron Gelbard, CEO, Bloom and Wild

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UKTN

Technology, Entrepreneur, Tech, Business, Hr, Sales, Uktech, Investing, Funding, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

5 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aron Gelbard, co-founder and CEO of Bloom and Wild, discusses why flower delivery has been a surprisingly difficult practice to perfect, how the Covid-19 pandemic massively boosted his firm’s popularity and how he went from management consultancy to founding a startup.

Bloom and Wild is an online flower delivery platform that posts assemblable bouquets through peoples’ doors. Gelbard described how his family has had a history of entrepreneurship that inspired him to found his own company – but not before a prominent consulting career in the City – and how he has had to learn to avoid perfectionism in the scrappy world of startup founding.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The traditional flower supply chain process will have six or seven middlemen in it, so flowers will be grown somewhere in the world, and then they'll be transported to, often to an importer in the Netherlands for the European market, then to an auction, then to an exporter,
0:21.6	then to an importer in the UK, then a wholesaler, then a retailer.
0:28.6	Many people couldn't see their loved ones, and a lot of our recipients in particular tend to be
0:33.8	the, you know, in older generations who are particularly vulnerable. So the notion of sending flowers as a substitute for a hug,
0:41.3	especially the contactless nature of letterbox delivery, really resonated with people.
0:48.3	I found that switch from sort of very polished world of management consulting to a scrappy startup, a bigger one than I may be realized at the time.
0:58.0	From the first time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different.
1:04.0	Our episode partner, HSBC Innovation Banking, is proud to accelerate growth for tech and life science businesses, creating
1:12.2	meaningful connections and opening up a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors alike.
1:18.5	Discover more at www.h.hsbc Innovationbanking.com slash EN-GB.
1:28.9	Hello and welcome to the UKTM podcast, a weekly chat with the movers and shakers of the UK
1:34.3	tech industry and the destination for all things UK tech related. And I'm going to apologise
1:39.6	because you can probably tell for my voice that it's not operating at an optimum level.
1:44.8	I am suffering from a little bit of a cult, so apologies.
1:47.6	Luckily, I'm not in the same space as Aaron, so I'm not going to infect him, but I'm very pleased to be joined by him.
1:52.8	Aaron Gelbard, the CEO and founder of Bloom and Wild, a letter flower delivery company.
1:59.3	Welcome, Aaron.
2:00.3	Thank you for having me, Jane. It's lovely to be here.
2:02.4	Now, first of all, let's talk a little bit about Bloom and Wild. I'm actually a customer.
2:06.6	Thank you. I was quite cynical about this idea when I first sort of read about it. The idea of
2:12.2	flowers coming through the post, it doesn't feel like a natural fit. So how did you kind of come up
2:17.4	with this?
	...

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