335: From 0 to $65m: With Farmgirl Flowers' Christina Stembel

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Faced with 104 rejections, zero-funding, and the prospect of launching a new business during an economic downturn, Christina Stembel has not only grown her company Farmgirl Flowers to a $65m empire, she has also done it completely bootstrapped. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stembel’s journey from bootstrap to business mogul is nothing short of inspiring. What began as $46k savings and a 2-year window to achieve her goal, her ecommerce flower business saw 5x growth in the first 2 years. As Stembel says,  “the fact that I was able to bootstrap without running out of money is the biggest accomplishment of my life”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this interview, listen in to discover how Stembel marketed and advertised her brand on a shoestring budget, the importance of word-of-mouth and how that helped her achieve her first million, and why she views FarmGirl Flowers as the workhorse among unicorns.<br /> <br /> <strong>Key Takeaways</strong><br /></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Stembel started FarmGirl Flowers, and why she gave herself 2 years</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Marketing on a shoestring budget</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Complications she faced selling perishable products</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why she views FarmGirl Flowers as a workhorse among unicorns</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The importance of product-quality, and why she believes that a good quality product will outsell any level of marketing</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The future of FarmGirl Flowers and reaching her first billion</span></li> </ul>