Justin Mast | Bloomscape
JUSTIN MAST
Founder & CEO of Bloomscape, an online plant shopping platform that offers home ready plants and tools for plant care.
What Is Bloomscape? Tell Us About How Your Business Model Works, And What Supply Chain And Logistics Are Like When It Comes To Shipping Plants!
Bloomscape is the modern garden center delivering the largest variety of quality houseplants directly from the greenhouse to peoples’ homes. We have five generations of greenhouse growing and horticulture knowledge, coming from a real plant family. Bloomscape is the only plant company that ships plants directly from the greenhouse to the consumer’s front door, as a result of our mastery of the supply chain and deep relationships with suppliers.
First and foremost, we’re a customer focused plant company, but behind the brand, we’re a plant logistics company. We’re redefining the way consumers purchase plants, with our innovative potting, shipping and packaging processes, combined with plant care advice and ongoing care support so new plant parents can become knowledgeable and confident in their abilities. Because our plants are coming directly from the greenhouse, they’re larger, healthier and shipped directly from a place with natural sunlight and proper humidity levels vs. a big box store where your houseplant spends an average of 4 weeks traveling from greenhouse to warehouse with fluorescent lights (likely not receiving appropriate light, humidity or care). Our plants are cared for by experienced horticulturists and kept in optimal conditions at the greenhouses where they’re shipped directly to consumers.
We have a patent filed for parts of our packaging technology. And for many of our plants, we also use a proprietary soil mix that has a bonding agent that holds the soil together better during shipping and better protects the roots. But really more than anything, it's our people, processes, and systems that are really top notch. Key people on our product and supply chain team have decades of experience in shipping plants around the country through couriers and best in class fulfillment processes. And now internally we have gathered a massive amount of information about which plants ship well during varying conditions. We are now systematizing this information so we can really optimize our product mixes to ensure healthy plants, more successful plant parents, and ultimately a much better customer experience.
What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company, And How Did You Choose This Space?
My family has a long history in the greenhouse business, going back five generations of growers and floral industry innovators. My grandparents on both sides immigrated from the Netherlands, where one side owned greenhouses and the other sold tulip buds in Chicago and eventually grew a wholesale floral distribution business. Fun fact: my grandfather was even anointed by Dutch Royal house for opening the Tulip trade to the US.
I grew up spending a lot of time in the greenhouse and started selling plants when I was 9. My parents let me start a plant stand where I sold plants directly from our family greenhouse on a street corner. I’ve always been hardwired to be an entrepreneur, and even as a young kid seeing people lining up to buy plants fresh from the greenhouse was a transformative experience for me. The evolution of Bloomscape is really the culmination of my passion for plants and entrepreneurship.
What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?
My favorite part of the entrepreneurial journey is building something. As a creator, I think of myself as a business architect. I like the art of crafting and bringing something to life. It never goes exactly like you think it will, but to be able build something, see the response, and interact with the market and consumers is the thrilling part. That said, it can be exhausting at times!
The last 9 months have been exciting and challenging at the same time. We’ve seen a lot of great demand and it’s been an honor that we’ve been able to bring a lot of people comfort and calm through the products we sell over the last year. At the same time the market and our supply chain has been hard to predict and it’s required us to really focus on the day to day business, which has been challenging for me and the team.
What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us About Your Investors And What You Use The Money You’ve Raised For.
We recently announced our Series B funding round this September, led by General Catalyst with participation from Bob Mylod (Managing Partner at Annox Capital Management), Jeff Boyd (Home Depot Board of Directors and formerly Chairman of Booking Holdings) and John Replogle (formerly CEO of Seventh Generation and Burt's Bees) and existing investors including Revolution Ventures and Ludlow Ventures. We’re excited to use these funds to take our product offering to the next level with new plants, tools and educational information to ensure our customers have everything they need to be successful plant parents, all in one place.
In addition to acquiring the Vera by Bloomscape app, we’ll be using these funds to grow our premium plant care offerings (new varieties and launching into the outdoor plant category next year), expand our “Grow-How™ Team” (our incredible customer experience team led by Plant Mom, my actual mother Joyce Mast, who has over 40 years of horticultural experience), and refine our regional fulfillment strategy with the goal of installing localized centers and systems that shorten transit times and lead to faster shipping.
There were a lot of changes that made this fundraising unique during a pandemic. On one hand, one benefit was all the virtual meetings, which made it easier and faster to meet. The early stage of the fundraising process was fast. But so much of the fundraise is selecting partners and people you trust and that you want to work with and share the same outlook on business and values. It was more difficult both ways to get to know each other and align on deeper things via virtual meetings, so we moved a little slower in the deal making process to make sure we got the chance to really get to know each other.
How Has Growth Been Over The Past Couple Of Years? Anything Exciting That Will Be Launching Soon?
We’re excited to expand our product offerings over the coming months. With the success of our Edible Garden beta (which sold out in less than a week), we recently launched our official Edible Garden Shop, including a small tomato, lavender, sweet pepper, hot pepper, kale mix, mint and chamomile plants as well as the aromatic, savory and spicy collections. We’ll also be launching into the outdoor plant category next year, as we continue to pioneer the online garden space.
We also recently launched the Vera by Bloomscape app, adding another tool to our customers to help them be successful plant parents. With the app, they will have customized care instructions, troubleshooting and more right at their fingertips. New plant parents can leverage the knowledge of our collective team of plant experts to gain the knowledge and thus the confidence they need to help their specific plant species grow and thrive in their homes. All plants require different care, so our Vera app breaks it down to offer specific watering reminders, fertilizing, repotting and care instructions per plant. We want to meet our customers where they are and the Vera app is the next step in that direction.
How Has Covid-19 Affected Your Business And What Have You Done To Adapt To Any Changes? Did You See A Rise In Orders Due To People Spending More Time In Their Homes?
During a time of immeasurable difficulty for so many people, we are very fortunate we were not negatively affected by the pandemic. During the first few months of COVID, along with the rest of the world, we saw a lot of things change. A lot of people found comfort and became interested in plants. We are incredibly grateful that our plants offer that little bit of solace and joy via nature into the home. We were thrilled to be able to bring something so meaningful to people during that time.
But running a business and growing a business got extraordinarily difficult. Our team has adjusted well to the new rituals of remote working but we definitely miss being together. Physical supply also got more complicated during this time, so it’s been a very “all hands on deck” experience for all our employees with everything going on - we’re very proud of our team for stepping up.
How Do You Think Your Industry Will Change Post-COVID?
Plants bring people joy, and more people than ever are realizing that caring for them helps contribute to their well-being. Plus they’re accessible for people of all experience levels and a good addition to homes as we spend more time working from home. We’ve seen that once people get into plants and plant parenting, it often becomes an integral part of their lifestyle. It's a way to relax and connect with others. Once people break the initial seal of buying houseplants, they find a lot of joy in it. That's what we were seeing a lot of during COVID, a lot of people trying out gardening and getting into being plant parents for the first time.
Can You Walk Us Through A Typical Work Day? What Are Your Morning And Evening Routines And Some Products Or Brands You Love To Use?
Mid-morning is my most productive time for creative work, so I’ve scheduled a daily morning work block to deep dive on projects, memos or anything else that I’m working on. This leaves my afternoon free for meetings and more chaotic work, and it’s created a nice balance. I have kids, so I’ll typically work up to dinner and then take a break to spend time with my family. We have an evening ritual where we’ll eat dinner together, play a game or do something as a family, and then my wife and I will get the boys ready for bed and I’ll read to them. I’ll then end my night by relaxing and reading a book, or hanging out with my wife.
As far as products go, I'm a big fan of Peloton! I love how goal oriented it is and get really into their tracking and analytics, and the classes are fun. I’m also a big fan of Daily Harvest, Huckberry, and Patagonia.
What Are The Top Three Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful? And What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?
In my opinion, the top three most important skills a modern day entrepreneur needs in order to be successful are:
An ability to cast a vision, communicate that vision, and hold onto that vision through growth.
A deep understanding of business models, what really makes a business work and tick, being able to zoom in on the critical levers, explore and push the boundaries.
An ability to build a team and delegate.
I’ve noticed that when you follow other entrepreneurs who have made it, the story always makes it seem like they knew what they were doing the whole time. People tend to skip through the hard stuff, and it can be hard to share how messy it can be at times. My advice to other entrepreneurs is to take everything you read and listen to with a grain of salt and to keep going when it gets difficult. It always seems easier from the outside than it is on the inside, and it’s important not to get discouraged by that.
Tell Us A Story Of Something That Happened To You That Either Made You Laugh Or Taught You An Important Lesson.
One of the really cool things about being a parent is that you get to watch little humans go through the process of not knowing things like how to walk, talk and process emotions, and then figuring them out. It’s taught me an important lesson about the process of learning and how to apply that to my own journey, as being an entrepreneur is a constant process of learning and adapting.
If You Could Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous, Who Would It Be And Why?
Rem Koolhaas, an amazing Dutch architect, is extremely innovative and has pushed the boundaries of what architecture is. He’s been nimble in how he’s thought about his practice, both in architecture and outside of that, and it would be cool to talk to him about his process and what he sees as the connecting thread in his creative practice.
What Does Success Mean To You?
For me success is crafting and building and creating something beautiful. I think of a business holistically, as something that is economically viable and good for stakeholders, but also as something that’s a positive for all people involved. It’s really an integration of a lot of different moving parts, and to really craft and bring something into the world is my ultimate goal and sort of how I define success.
