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    BYO Bouquet Platform Pick’d Flowers Relaunches in Columbus

    Central Ohio native Jacqueline Rinehardt founded Pick’d Flowers in 2015 right out of college.

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    Coming from a family of florists (her grandfather opened their family-owned flower shop some 43 years ago) she witnessed the “old school” way of running a floral business growing up, including relying on a fax machine for orders.

    When she came back from college, orders were still being faxed in.

    “That got me really interested in the industry as a whole and…the ways that operations are taking place,” she said. “If you look at a lot of floral websites, they look like they were probably built in the ’90s. And most of them were.”

    She had an idea for a “Chipotle-style” bouquet platform where people could build their own bouquets online. After finding partners, she launched the platform that August.

    Pick’d Flowers was her first adventure into entrepreneurship, but eventually, she says, life happened. She would later work with some tech startups out in California, learning more about digital products and the inner workings of startup companies before coming back to Central Ohio.

    Pick’d Flowers was put on hold until this past year, when Rinehardt found a co-founder who would help scale the business consciously.

    Together they created a platform in the build-it-yourself flower arrangement space that kept florists in mind.

    Rinehardt said heavy-hitters in the flower arrangement space, such as 1-800-Flowers and the like, keep small shops back with high margins and require them to keep large inventories just to be a fulfiller.

    “What I built the foundation of back in 2015, there was so much potential to expand that to make the floral industry better for local florists,” said Rinehardt. “[We] really got to understand what was needed in the industry, what was a problem, what was holding local floral shops back, and built something to support their business and help them thrive.”

    Pick’d Flowers relaunched last month for Columbus in a pilot that will eventually see the company expand to other cities in Ohio. The conscious roll-out helps ensure the company doesn’t expand too much and too quickly.

    These first four weeks will be used to fix any bugs with the digital platform and assure florists have everything they need to operate. After the first pilot, Pick’d Flowers will expand to another Ohio city — Rinehardt thinks Cincinnati or Cleveland — and add another florist for a second four-week pilot.

    Central Ohio customers can already expect arrangements with personalization for any occasion. Pick’d Flowers pairs each kind of flower with a word or meaning to help customers tell a story.

    The platform will soon have a quiz that suggests a bouquet based on what emotion they’re trying to evoke, as well as a “monthly mantra subscription” with bouquets related to mantras launching in the next few months.

    For more information, visit pickdflowers.com.

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    Taijuan Moorman
    Taijuan Moormanhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Taijuan Moorman is a former reporter and social media specialist for Columbus Underground and The Metropreneur who covered civics, arts, entertainment, lifestyle, and business news and features.
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