KeepHerHappy Remembers to Buy Her Flowers When You Probably Won’t
Via Flickr user zigazou76
“Fast forward to February of this year. I found myself, for one reason or another, in a grocery store at 4:30pm on Valentine’s Day trying to buy flowers. There were a bunch of other men there, all with fear in their eyes, hoping there was still something, ANYTHING left at the flower counter so they wouldn’t have to go home empty handed. It was a terrible scene and an even worse feeling, and I wanted to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
So, we decided to do something about it.”
– Dan Fallak, Co-Founder of KeepHerHappy.
And just like that, KeepHerHappy was born. You plug in the important dates for your relationship, pay a subscription fee, and it’ll take all that pesky remembering nonsense out of remembering to order flowers.
Each KeepHerHappy subscription is good for three pre-set flower deliveries: one for Valentine’s Day, her Birthday, and for your anniversary. Subscriptions are starting at an introductory price of $99 per year — which, considering how expensive last minute arrangements can be, is surprisingly cheap. Oh! And it includes delivery costs and a free vase with each order.
And don’t worry, guys: Unless you slip up and mention it, there’s no way for your gal to know that the deliveries are part of a pre-scheduled subscription service. KeepHerHappy keeps their branding as far away from the actual deliveries as possible, thereby ensuring you score the maximum number of thoughtful-boyfriend/husband points.
The one catch: It’s only available in Canada for now. Dang it.
When we tech-minded folk talk about the flower industry, most don’t really see dollar signs floating about. I mean, it’s all cute little old men with pruning sheers and smiley hippy chicks in brightly-colored flower shacks, right?
Sure. I mean, if we ignore the fact that the floral industry is worth an estimated $100 billion a year, and has held strong at that value for decades. By comparison, the entire porn industry — a sector that is just crammed with folks trying to wring cash out of it — is estimated to be worth about $97 billion annually.
Yeah, there’s some room for disruption here.
Of that huge market, about $40 billion goes toward cut flowers and floral arrangements — and of those, somewhere between 25-30 percent of purchases are made by men.
And that’s where KeepHerHappy found its niche. I can already see the comments. “KeepHerHappy? And what’s all this marketing on their site about ‘staying out of the dog house’ and what not? Sexism! Roar!”
But that’s exactly the point. Of the countless flower sites out there, I can’t find a one that has thought to tailor itself specifically to the flower-buying behaviors of gents. Say what you will about the stereotypes at play here (the girl expecting flowers, the forgetful beau), but the scenario mentioned above by Dan Fallak isn’t a rare one. Hell, it’s not even the first time I’ve heard an entrepreneur mention it as being a good source of revenue; when I first talked to Justin Kan about his on-demand assistant service Exec, he mentioned seeing a huge spike in last minute flower requests on Valentine’s day. I’ve been there. Most guys I know have been there.
KeepHerHappy has yet to raise any capital for this project. Why? Because they don’t need it yet. It’s a two-man operation, and they’ve kept overhead costs low by working out a partnership with one of Canada’s fastest growing flower companies, CanaFlora. KeepHerHappy handles the order scheduling and maintains the boys-club tone, while CanaFlora handles all the arrangements, deliveries, and customer service. They’re considering raising a round to help with marketing costs, but nothing is set in stone yet.
Alas, the aforementioned partnership means that KeepHerHappy is a Canada-only thing for now. With that said, the founders pledge that a US rollout is in the works once they’ve refined the model north of the border.
This piece is brought to you through our content partnership with Pando Daily. You can read the original post here.
Greg Kumparak is PandoDaily’s editor in charge of covering incubators and accelerators. He was previously the Mobile Editor at TechCrunch beginning in 2008.
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