571: No Funding, 104 Rejections & $411 Left in the Bank - How She made $65M+ on Flowers

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers, reveals how she built a $65M+ floral business from her dining room—with no funding, no degree, and no industry experience. She reveals: • Why she chose a perishable, logistics-heavy product in a recession • How she scaled with no marketing budget and $411 left in the bank • The scrappy strategies that drove early word of mouth and virality • Why she received 104 VC rejections—and why she’s now grateful • How she handles seasonality, shipping subsidies, and customer obsession • Why bootstrapping gave her the power to run the business her way If you're building a physical product brand or navigating growth without outside capital—this episode is a masterclass in grit, resourcefulness, and strategic thinking. Foundr Community Offers Want 1-on-1 mentorship to launch or scale your brand faster? Apply for eCommerce coaching: → Starting your ecom biz? ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ → Already selling and want to scale? ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Want all-access to step-by-step training from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders? Start your Foundr+ $1 trial today → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Omnisend | Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get started. Connect With Nathan Chan Instagram → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect With Farmgirl Flowers Website → Click Here Instagram → Click Here Christina’s Instagram → Click Here Follow Foundr for More Business Growth Strategies YouTube → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Founder Fam, I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnysend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnysend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling the seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results.
0:24.0	Did you know on average, Omnysend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment.
0:32.6	And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Founder 50.
0:39.3	Just head to Omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now
0:46.2	let's jump back into the show.
0:49.0	Hey Founder fam, Nathan Chan here. Welcome back to another episode. Today, we're revisiting our interview with Christina
0:56.3	Stemble. She's the founder behind Farm Girl Flowers. This was an amazing interview. What started in
1:02.8	her dining room with $49,000 in savings, zero floral experience has grown into a $60 million a year
1:10.2	business, fully bootstrapped, disrupting
1:12.4	an entire industry.
1:14.1	This is a massive business, guys.
1:15.7	She built it out of San Francisco, and she talks about all of these investor rejections,
1:22.2	104, 104 investors rejected her, and she still kept going.
1:26.4	She built this massive business, and she really shares really shares like the real unfiltered story of building a standout brand in her own way so hope you enjoy this episode now i'll jump in the show
1:36.9	hear the stories learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship.
1:47.8	Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
1:55.4	The first question I ask everyone that comes on is how did you get your job?
2:05.5	Yeah, so I got my job by just doing the hard work. I mean, my job was every job so i i you know wore all the hats and so um just being willing to do every single job gave me the job yeah okay yeah that's that's
2:13.7	usually how it is when you first start so how did did you find yourself doing the work you're doing today?
2:19.1	How did Farm Girlflowers start?
2:20.8	Yeah.
2:21.1	So it's not the story that most people think.
	...

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