NEW YORK, NY — Ready to Bloom is the first video e-commerce farm-direct marketplace disrupting the $48BN floral industry. We empower flower growers to make a profit on the thousands of stems of overstock flowers that they would normally discard and take huge financial loss on. Selling these flowers via our marketplace enables small flower growers to survive and thrive, and it helps larger flower farmers control huge amounts of eco-waste.
Through our video-forward marketplace, consumers get to know flower growers on a highly visual and personal level. Consumers can support local farmers directly rather than going through an intermediary grocery store or florist, and they finally have access to luxury Instagram-quality flowers delivered right from the field to their door at great prices.
The OCMX™ is pleased to announce the listing of Ready to Bloom to its online portal which offers Investors and Advisors the ability to learn more about this exciting opportunity.
The OCMX™ has spent considerable time completing its due diligence on Ready to Bloom and concluded that there is indeed a tremendous potential for this opportunity.
The OCMX™ noted that Ready to Bloom exhibits the main components of any solid opportunity, namely a solid management team, a great track record, and a number of key competitive advantages.
What They Do
There is a tremendous amount of waste in the floral industry with over 50% of all flowers grown never being sold. We have exclusive access to real-time flower availability data for over 300 farms around the world. Through our Ready to Bloom marketplace, we are able to help those farms sell overstock flowers by featuring their stories and product on our site and on social media.
We are able to introduce people to all new flowers and varietals they’ve never seen before and tell the stories behind the stems. We make people fall in love with flowers in a whole new way.
OPPORTUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
• Ready to Bloom is the first video e-commerce farm-direct marketplace disrupting the $48BN floral industry.
• We have exclusive access and personal relationships with farms all over the world who share with us the varietals and quantities of flowers that are overstock.
• Through our platform, farms are able to update quantities available as well as, for the first time ever, set real time pricing by stem, thereby giving customers unprecedented access to unbelievable flowers at the best prices.
• We have an incredible 71% discount on floral shipping rates through the relationships we’ve developed over the years with floral shippers.
• Ready to Bloom is a discovery-driven platform that uses video. We do this because video is engaging, memorable, and marketable: 85% of millennials reported buying a product after watching a video. With Ready to Bloom, farmers are now influencers, and their stories help consumers fall in love with flowers. Flowers are now seen as entertainment and as a must-have lifestyle purchase.
Where They Are Headed
We are creating for farmers a desperately needed waste-management system and strong way to increase profitability, AND we’re tapping into gigantic consumer demand for floral and plant lifestyle aesthetics, currently booming on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. We plan to do for the floral industry what the Food Network did for food – making flowers more covetable and accessible to younger consumers.
We are currently working on a television series with an executive producer who just came off of a Netflix original series, we are publishing books, and are also creating a podcast all about flowers and culture. We envision an exit for our investors that could involve acquisition by a public media company, consumer products company, or a retailer looking to grow their presence with customers embrace floral and plant lifestyles.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Our team collectively has over 60 years of experience within the floral industry and also in digital media production and distribution.
Caroline Strzalka, Co-Founder, CEO – Business development executive, having built digital business for media companies like Sesame Street and Scholastic. She is also a Wharton MBA and former investment banker, has taken technology, media, and consumer companies public as an investment banker with Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney.
Christine Strzalka, Co-Founder, CPO – Christine is a 7-time winner of The Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show in the world and is also an accomplished Teacher, Writer, Host and Media Training Specialist. She holds her Masters in Journalism from New York University.
Frank Biddle, COO – Frank is one of the godfathers of the modern floral industry, being among the first to ship flowers directly from Latin America to the US beginning in the 1980s. He is the President/Founder, Francis Biddle International Floral Distributors. Owner of Sun Vista Flower Farms, Managing Partner at Tradewinds Int’l Floral Logistics and President at California Association of Flower Growers and Shippers.
ABOUT THE OCMX™
The OCMX™ is changing how companies generate exposure in the financial marketplace and raise funds as we know it. The OCMX™ serves both public and private companies in need of market exposure during financial raises. It does this by way of connecting the relevant companies with financial institutions all in one online transparent portal. The OCMX™ (P2P Financial Inc.) launched in September of 2009 out of Toronto but has since expanded its operations to include Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia.
The OCMX™ connects investors and advisors directly with companies seeking to raise funds or gain broad market exposure. The OCMX™ provides an open venue for innovative growth companies and leading investment funds to generate market awareness, raise funds, or connect with investors and advisors. The OCMX™ provides companies, funds, investors, and advisors instant access to its Online Portal so that they can actively source and connect with their next opportunity, advisor, investor, client, or financing partner.