Blooming talent

• When was the last time you received flowers? If it has been a while since you’ve gotten or gifted flowers, check out 500-backed e-gifting platform BloomThis, helmed by husband-and-wife team Giden Lim and Penny Choo.
• Naturally, it all started at a flower shop. “My mother was a florist,” Giden shared. “I started helping her when I was ten years old. So, I basically grew up in the business, seeing the potential of the business at the same time, and the challenges.”
• “[There was] very little innovation in the early days in terms of product design and the whole experience,” he added, “Very little digitization  — or, you know, there’s no e-commerce at all. So, I wanted to make a difference in at least injecting a digital way of how people send a gift and buy flowers.”
• The BloomThis you know today is many iterations away from how the company originally operated. “When we first started, we actually did subscription flowers and we only sent [flowers] once a week,” Penny shared. “In fact, it was every Thursday of the week.
• But customers began asking for deliveries on other days, The couple then realized that what people actually want is an on-demand service. They also learned that people want these gifts to be ready to display as-is. That’s how they created their proprietary hexagonal box design.
• 9 years in, what insights have they gained? “We always hold on to the principle of three Ps,” Penny shared. “The people, the process and also the platform. I think one very important thing that all entrepreneurs should be aware of is organizational development.”
• “As we grow, we need our people to also grow together,” she explained. “And the right culture is very much important, and having everybody move at the same pace at the same time is equally important as we scale the business. The ‘people’ part and the ‘culture’ part is something that we should all put our effort into thinking about.”
• Read the full story here.

Other stories you may have missed:

• Decube launches Copilot to help business leaders with no coding skills make better decisions with all their data
• Transcelestial keeps the festival fun going at Coachella and Stagecoach with over 7.5x faster Internet speeds
• WORQ empowers businesses to reimagine their office spaces for better employee productivity and well-being
• Aliena, Applecrumby, DealCart, iMotorbike, and Proglix honored on Forbes Asia 100 to Watch for their strong innovative streak
• Bukalapak increased the comfort and safety of its platform, including combating counterfeit products and strengthening its intellectual property (IP) protection measures
• Gilmour Space to launch Malya thermal imaging camera, with potential applications of bushfire detection and earth observation
• OhmniLabs to debut OhmniCare telehealth robot at industry day event for advancing veteran healthcare