Entrepreneur Spotlight: Goquets
The idea for a floral startup began at a Startup Weekend Ames event during April of 2013. We were tackling an issue for many people (including myself) who had experienced extremely poor service when ordering flowers online. Key problems included the time wasted scrolling through picture galleries, only to find out the flowers being delivered did not match the pictures they were ordered from.
My business partner Lyndsay Horgan and I knew local florists who had the ability to deliver high quality bouquets from their store, but we couldn’t figure out why there was such a discrepancy when it came to ordering online. While working with the florists and analyzing the buying habits of today’s customers, we were able to identify the exact problems for both sides. Basically, people have been wasting their time sorting through all those pictures not even realizing that the flowers they buy could be out of stock!
Goquets, previously known as Bloomsnap, was launched as a new method to save the customer time while once again giving the florists back their artistic freedom. Through Goquets.com, we’ve provided an easy method for people to order in less than 3 minutes by stating the core details, i.e. who it’s for, what is the occasion, and how much they want to spend. We have access to 25,000 florists in all 50 states, and can deliver flowers anywhere in the U.S. What we’ve found, is a higher satisfaction rate as our florists can always choose from their fresh inventory without being limited to a picture promise. This also helps the florists to manage their small business, where inventory management can make or break their bottom line.
My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs would be to dig deep at your targeted industry’s core problems before fully developing your solution. Even though our team was full of energy coming out of Startup Weekend, we had a long way to go before launching. By meeting, researching and interviewing key people, we were able to find the unsolved problems of the floral business while establishing key partnerships that have helped in our company’s early success.
Currently, we’re taking Goquets through the Iowa Startup Accelerator, an intensive program that matches tech-based startups with world-class mentors, seed funding, and development expertise to take them from concept to successful launch in 90 days. If you have questions or want to reach out, contact us at [email protected] and follow our experience as we go through the ISA. And lastly, be sure to mark your calendars for Launch Day 2015, on November 5th!
Shawn Harrington, Co-founder, Goquets