Starting a company can be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but it can also be one of the most rewarding. Zinnia’s Co-Founder, Andy Holz, recently sat down with Silicon Prairie News to talk about some of the lessons learned growing Zinnia. If you’re thinking about making the jump to entrepreneurship, check out his advice on product development and experimentation.
Since SPN first profiled Zinnia last August, the online floral marketplace team has been hustling.
The team is currently working with one florist in Omaha. Zinna co-founder Andy Holz explained that they plan on expanding to Lincoln and Kansas City once they secure their business and quality control plans.
Quality control has been a challenge since the team presented their pitch during last year’s Straight Shot Demo Day, according to Holz.
“The judges, who were business experts and investors, asked us how we were going to find the right partner in each city and how we were going to maintain quality control,” said Holz. “Those two things have been what we have strived to learn and grow into this past year.”
Read the full article on Silicon Prairie News: http://siliconprairienews.com/2016/08/zinnias-andy-holz-many-trials-startup-life/
In other news, are you thinking about taking your ideas for a business to the next level? Applications for the 2016 REV competition are now open! You can pitch your business for a chance to win $25,000. We participated in the competition last year and won $5,000 to help Zinnia build out our development and marketing projects.
We also sat down with TS Bank to discuss how things have changed over the past year since the competition and advice for other local businesses and startups.
1. Tell us about your business.
We are changing the way flowers are bought online by focusing on simplicity, affordability, and local partnerships.
2. Tell us about your experience at TS Bank Tank.
Our experience was a ton of fun, mostly because of the people we got to meet and the other local businesses we got to interact with. The variety of local businesses and the unique pursuits of each presenter were pretty inspiring. Whether it was a small town grocery store, gourmet popsicles, or engineers helping people pursue their dreams-all the teams were generally excited to have the opportunity to build businesses that support the local area. Our TS Bank experience was validating in the fact that many people had poor experiences buying flowers online, and it seemed that they caught on to our idea, and they wanted to help us continue to build out our technology.
Read the full interview on the TS Bank blog:
https://www.tsbank.com/about-us/blog/rev-recap-zinnia