Aron Gelbard is the founder of Bloom & Wild, an online flower delivery service based in London.
In this week’s Founder in Five Q&A, Gelbard talks early regrets when he first started his business, being critical with how you spend your time and the motivating power of authenticity.
What one thing do you wish you’d done differently when launching your company?
Walk first. Initially, our excitement about Bloom & Wild meant we were too eager to power ahead. E.g, to start out, we were buying box samples at the crazy price of £27 per box. After some negotiation, our supplier instead offered us 1,000 boxes at £2.70 per box.
In search of better unit economics, we invested £2,700 of the limited savings we had to start the company into buying these boxes. Later that week we started getting feedback that the flowers in these boxes weren’t surviving the journey and it turned out the boxes needed better ventilation. £2,700 later, we understood the importance of learning to walk before you run
Which role was the most important early hire you made?
A critical early decision was to in-source our technology. We spent the first year of Bloom & Wild with development outsourced to various third parties but we didn’t have enough control over our digital experience or operational systems. Hiring our first lead developer and rebuilding our technology from scratch was a pivotal decision in establishing technology as a differentiator vs our peers.
How do you motivate your team?
I’ve learned over the years that my team value seeing me be as authentic as possible. In the early days I used to try to tell people what I thought they wanted to hear when sharing company-wide messages.
As I’ve matured as a leader, I’ve understood that I should instead be completely honest and transparent about topics like team pay or how we manage our budgets. Being authentic and even showing vulnerability when communicating at times difficult messages has been really valuable in bringing the whole team together around a certain action.
How do you prevent burnout?
Over the 12 years since founding Bloom & Wild, I have got married and had 3 young children. Having a family has been so important for navigating the intensity of founder life with a degree of balance.
It’s critical for me to be not only present but also healthy for my children. As a result, I am much more critical with how I decide to spend my time. I now say no to many more things that I don’t think will move the needle for our business and which I don’t think it’s right to prioritise over the mental and physical health that I need to look after for my family’s sake, as well as my own
Excluding your own, what’s a sector that’s ripe for disruption?
One sector I’m really passionate about that doesn’t work as it should is food distribution. Huge amounts of perfectly good food in the UK are wasted each year throughout the supply chain, from farms to supermarkets to the foodservice sector to our own homes.
As a country, we rescue a much lower percentage of food waste than other developed nations. With the right incentives and technology, this can be addressed. It’s part of the reason why I joined the board of the charity Fareshare back in 2023 – they do incredible work in this sector but with more disruption we could significantly reduce both hunger and also the carbon impact of wasted food.
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