John Tabis, CEO of Bouqs, which had been (get this) passed over by the sharks over at "Shark Tank," explains how many layers of middlemen should be disintermediated right out of the supply chain.
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-tabis-bouqs-20171013-htmlstory.html
John Tabis went to the same university as some of the new FTD owners. Hmm...
Wonder if they know each other?
John Tabis is an incompetent and narcissistic person who will blow through about 100mil in VC money without delivering $1 of profit. First his Irgun story is all b—s—. They are not souring everything through a f—ing volcano in Ecuador. Sure they get a lot from there but everyone in the industry knows that and you can except a lawsuit one of these days for straight up lying. Second the company has relied on cheap VC funding to literally buy out customers vs building a business. These class of companies that prioritized growth at all costs always run out of fuel in recessions so watch for a thread on this bird soon about them as they realize you can’t build a business from buying customers through expensive tactics like free shipping. Third, they are unable to get their operations right because the ceo spends more time on his LinkedIn updates and skateboarding rather than the unsexy but critical work to build a strong ops backbone. I suspect one this final round of funding runs out, bouqs will be sold for a huge discount or shut down.
More on Bouqs...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveknox/2020/05/08/how-the-bouqs-company-is-bringing-flowers-to-every-moment-of-life/#7b7f1ca2406a
Aspiring to be "a really big floral brand."
Are they planning to acquire FTD someday?
2 Notre Dame alums perhaps plotting a major merger one day? Could be purely coincidental that these guys went to school together and are both into flowers as a business opportunity.
Having worked for a (successful) PE backed portfolio company in the past, have worked through a merger and acquisition. In those cases, management at one company becomes redundant. Like, they didn't need 2 vice presidents of operations, so one was tossed.
Hmmm
Wonder wonder wonder what Nexus is going to do with this bankrupt, furloughed staff during COVID-19, slashed pay, froze hiring, God only knows what's next of a company?
Thanks to whoever posted on another thread that these hot shots at Nexus and Bouqs went to school together.
Will be interesting to watch what happens.
One thing is for certain, though. TOO MUCH COMPETITION in the flower sector. If you're going to be in this business, you need a) a value proposition (that everyone is aware of and can articulate when asked about it) and b) you need to operate in a way that is nothing like your competitors. What are others not doing? What comoany are they not building?
Entrepreneur Peter Thiel, of Paypal fame, would argue to build an entirely unique business that no one else is building. Thiel is brilliant, however, and has rare intellectual ability. So...if you aren't an IQ outlier like Thiel, the next best thing is take your same business and do something very very different.
FTD has a lonnnnng way to go digging out after the fall from grace (being delisted, going bankrupt and almost going bye bye).