This month we were joined by Aron Gelbard, the Co-founder and CEO of Bloom & Wild – the direct-to-consumer flower delivery brand that has taken the UK and European markets by storm – for our Three Things podcast. In this episode, All Together Co-founder, Jamie Mitchell, quizzed Aron about what the word ‘brand’ means to him, why scale has been so important to Bloom & Wild’s success, and asked for his Three Things – three pieces of actionable advice – that CEOs and founders can implement today.
Hear the full interview, including the remarkable B&W fundraising story, on the All Together podcast, or read the highlights, including Aron’s Three Things advice, below.
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There can be no doubt that the foundation of Bloom & Wild’s success lies in the strength of its brand. People choose them over their competitors because they trust them to deliver a better service, and they do so with such regularity that B&W is now the market leader in the UK and Europe.
Aron Gelbard’s CV Highlights //
2013-Present // Co-founder & CEO – Bloom & Wild
2011-2013 // Manager – Bain and Company
2009-2011 // Consultant – Bain and Company
2006-2007 // Consultant – OC&C Strategy Consultants
From day one, Bloom & Wild has focused relentlessly on its customer. This is a concept lots of people talk about, but after listening to Aron speak, it’s clear that it’s a way of life for him. It radiates from his every word, and is what has fuelled Bloom & Wild’s constant effort to review, refine, and improve its service so much that it has become the number one player in its space.
The customer has also been at the heart of Bloom & Wild’s policy on scale. Many businesses choose to scale seemingly for the sake of it. In fact, growth for growth’s sake has arguably been the go-to approach for the majority of start-ups over the last decade or so. But Bloom & Wild’s decision to scale – and do so rapidly – is a considered effort to improve its customer experience as much and as quickly as possible.
How big a business a founder wants to build, and how fast, is a strategic decision. The bigger and faster their ambition, the more venture capital they will need and the more equity they will have to part with. Aron always wanted a sizeable business because he understood how crucial it would be in achieving his goal of building the best brand on the market. Listen in to hear why, for him, the pros of scale and investment significantly outweigh the cons.
Although Bloom & Wild could have curtailed its growth strategy after taking the top spot in the UK, it instead chose to continue expanding into Europe via a mixture of organic growth and M&A. A series D investment of over £100m in 2021, from some of Europe’s largest VC firms, was closed to help this endeavour succeed, but some interesting challenges were thrown up along the way.
Aron explained the difficulties of international growth – particularly in Europe – by detailing how Bloom & Wild’s organic growth strategy had succeeded spectacularly in one country, but had almost completely failed in the nation next door…
For more details and the full story, listen to the podcast, here.
Aron’s Three Things
Stay on top of your numbers.
“Be diligent about gathering data and measuring your returns. You should know what return you’re getting on your investments because that will help to make sure you don’t run out of cash”, said Aron. “Staying liquid is the best way to prepare for shocks…it means you’re in a position to dial up or down how much you’re investing and where.”
Focus.
“Try to do fewer things”, Aron advised. “You’ll have loads of good ideas, and you should probably do them at some point, but you don’t need to do all of them now.”
Continue to be kind.
“I don’t think that kindness should ever go away”, Aron explained. “It’s very inexpensive to do but it makes a really big difference to the experience you give the people in and around your business.”
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We’d like to thank Aron for sharing the extraordinary history of Bloom & Wild’s success in what was an utterly enthralling conversation. If you would like to listen to it in its entirety, you can do so via Spotify, Apple, or various other platforms.
Is your business facing any of the challenges discussed in this article? Apply to All Together today for up to five hours of pro bono advice from one of Britain’s leading CEOs.
