How UrbanStems Built a $100 Million Flower Delivery Empire by Solving a Simple Problem
What if the key to building a successful business was hidden in your personal frustrations? For Ajay Kori, a frustrating experience trying to send flowers to his long-distance girlfriend sparked an idea that would eventually disrupt a multi-billion-dollar industry and create a company valued at over $100 million.
In 2013, Kori was living in Washington, D.C., while the woman he was dating lived in Philadelphia. When he tried to order flowers for her, the experience was nothing short of painful—clunky websites, unpredictable delivery windows, inconsistent quality, and prices that seemed disconnected from what actually arrived at her doorstep.
"Why hasn't anyone fixed this?" he wondered. That question would become the foundation of UrbanStems.
The Problem with Traditional Flower Delivery
The floral industry had been operating the same way for over a century. Major national brands would take customer orders, then pass them along to local florists through a "flower wire" system. The local florist would attempt to recreate the arrangement based on a description, receiving minimal compensation while having little incentive to ensure customer satisfaction.
The result? Senders had no idea what would actually show up at the recipient's door. The bouquet in the photo rarely matched the bouquet that arrived. And with middlemen taking cuts at every step, prices remained high while quality stayed inconsistent.
The industry was ripe for disruption. Kori saw it, and he knew exactly who to call.
Finding the Right Co-Founder
Kori reconnected with Jeff Sheely, his friend from Duke University. Both had taken corporate paths after graduation—Kori had worked at Quidsi (the parent company of Diapers.com), while Sheely had his own business experience.
What made their partnership work wasn't just shared ambition—it was complementary skills and mutual trust built over years of friendship.
"Having a co-founder is crucial," Kori later explained. "When you're going through something as uncertain as starting a company and facing industry headwinds, having that emotional support from a business partner who is going through the same thing with you is incredibly important."
The Simplest Possible Test
Instead of spending months building a perfect product, Kori and Sheely did something brilliantly simple: they bought flowers from Costco.
They created basic bouquets and offered to deliver them to friends and acquaintances for $15-20. No fancy website. No logistics infrastructure. Just flowers, bicycles, and a willingness to learn.
The response was immediate and enthusiastic. People genuinely wanted an easier, more affordable way to send beautiful flowers. The founders had validated their concept with almost no upfront investment.
"You just need to go out and figure out what the least amount of things you need to do to offer whatever your idea is," Kori said. "Which is a lot less than people think. Then go out and do it."
Their first real website? A basic Squarespace template that Kori would later describe as "horrible." But it worked well enough to process orders—and that's all that mattered.
Valentine's Day 2014: The Official Launch
UrbanStems officially launched during Valentine's Day week 2014 in Washington, D.C. The timing was intentional—and terrifying. Valentine's Day is the Super Bowl of the floral industry, representing up to 30-40% of annual revenue for many flower delivery companies.
The founders went all-in. They offered beautiful bouquets starting at just $35 with free delivery, promising to deliver within an hour using their own fleet of bicycle couriers. No middlemen. No mystery about what would arrive.
The value proposition was clear: know exactly what your recipient will get, have it delivered fast, and pay a fair price.
Building a Different Kind of Flower Company
What set UrbanStems apart wasn't just better technology—it was a fundamentally different approach to the business.
Vertical Integration: Unlike competitors who outsourced fulfillment, UrbanStems controlled their entire supply chain. They worked directly with farms, designed their own arrangements, and employed their own delivery team.
Employee-First Culture: The bicycle couriers weren't independent contractors—they were W-2 employees with benefits. This wasn't just about doing the right thing; it created a team that was invested in delivering great experiences.
Customer Experience Focus: "When we began to develop the idea for UrbanStems, we started with the customer experience first," Kori explained. "We thought hard about the ideal way of doing things, so that it would be fun for people to send flowers on a whim."
Transparent Pricing: While traditional florists hid delivery fees and service charges, UrbanStems offered flat, predictable pricing. What you saw was what you paid.
The Disaster That Almost Ended Everything
Success breeds confidence—sometimes too much of it. By 2017, UrbanStems had expanded to New York City and was growing rapidly. Then came Valentine's Day.
At 3 a.m. on February 14, 2017, Kori and Sheely knew something had gone terribly wrong. Orders were piling up faster than they could fulfill them. Delivery windows were missed. Customers who had paid for guaranteed delivery were left waiting—and furious.
The team worked through the night, delivering bouquets until 1 a.m. The next morning, they started again. Eventually, they had to suspend new orders entirely until they could clear the backlog.
For a company built on reliability and customer experience, it was a catastrophic failure.
What happened next defined the company's character. Kori personally sent an apology email to every affected customer, including his personal cell phone number and an invitation to call him directly. He received more than 300 calls.
"It was brutal," Kori admitted. "But real value is created when you hang on long enough to get past all the doubt."
Knowing When to Bring in New Leadership
The Valentine's Day disaster forced a moment of honest self-reflection. Kori and Sheely realized that building a company and scaling a company required different skill sets.
"We're not optimizers, we're builders," Kori acknowledged.
They recruited Seth Goldman, the former U.S. CEO of HelloFresh, as Chief Operating Officer. Goldman had scaled HelloFresh from $20 million to several hundred million in revenue—and more importantly, he had experience managing the operational complexity of perishable product delivery.
The founders offered Goldman the CEO role. They would remain involved—Kori as Chairman—but they recognized that the company needed operational expertise they couldn't provide themselves.
This level of self-awareness is rare among founders, who often struggle to relinquish control of their creations. But for UrbanStems, it proved transformational.
From Disaster to Inc. 5000
Under Goldman's operational leadership and the founders' continued strategic vision, UrbanStems turned its Valentine's Day failure into a catalyst for growth.
The company expanded same-day delivery to more markets while also building out next-day delivery nationwide through logistics partnerships. They added new product categories beyond flowers—plants, morning survival kits, gourmet treats—while maintaining their core focus on delightful gift-giving experiences.
By 2019, UrbanStems landed at #385 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America.
In 2021, the company raised $20 million in Series C funding, pushing its valuation past $100 million. Investors included SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, Motley Fool Ventures, and Great Oaks Venture Capital. Notable early supporters included Under Armour founder Kevin Plank.
Even the pandemic, which initially caused a 60% decline when local delivery services were suspended in March 2020, couldn't stop the momentum. When operations resumed in July, the company roared back. Sales grew 130% in 2021.
As of 2024, UrbanStems had raised over $57 million in total funding and continues to expand its same-day delivery footprint to new markets.
Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
The UrbanStems story offers several valuable lessons for anyone looking to start a business:
Start with a Real Problem
Kori didn't set out to "disrupt an industry." He experienced a genuine frustration and wondered why no one had solved it. The best businesses often emerge from personal pain points that others share.
Validate Before You Build
Before writing a single line of code or signing any leases, the founders tested their concept with Costco flowers and bicycle deliveries. They proved demand existed before investing in infrastructure.
Embrace the Minimum Viable Product
Their first website was a template they would later be embarrassed by. But it worked well enough to process orders and learn what customers actually wanted. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress.
Choose Co-Founders Carefully
Kori and Sheely's friendship—built on years of trust—helped them weather the inevitable storms of startup life. When things got hard, they had each other's backs.
Know Your Strengths (and Limitations)
Recognizing that they were "builders, not optimizers" allowed the founders to bring in leadership that could scale what they'd created. Ego often prevents founders from making this crucial transition.
Failure Doesn't Have to Be Fatal
The 2017 Valentine's Day disaster could have destroyed UrbanStems. Instead, Kori's personal accountability—giving out his cell phone number to angry customers—turned a crisis into an opportunity to demonstrate values.
Focus on Customer Experience
From day one, UrbanStems designed backward from the customer experience they wanted to deliver. Every decision—from W-2 employees to flat pricing to same-day delivery—served that north star.
The Future of Flower Delivery
The floral industry continues to evolve rapidly. The global flower delivery market reached approximately $7.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $11 billion by 2030. Digital platforms now account for 65% of flower sales in developed markets, and subscription-based delivery services represent nearly 28% of online orders.
UrbanStems positioned itself perfectly for this shift. By combining technology-enabled convenience with genuine quality and customer care, they've created a model that the traditional "flower wire" system simply can't match.
The company that started with Costco flowers and a "horrible Squarespace template" has become a genuine force in a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Keep Your Finances Organized from Day One
Whether you're launching a flower delivery startup or any other business, maintaining clear financial records is essential from the very beginning. As UrbanStems learned during their Valentine's Day crisis, operational issues can spiral quickly—and without clear visibility into your numbers, you can't make the fast decisions that survival requires.
Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data—no black boxes, no vendor lock-in. Get started for free and see why developers and finance professionals are switching to plain-text accounting.
