We recently connected with Brian Feretic and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

There’s a cute story behind the name of Blossm, which ties really well into the backstory and mission…

Back in the fall of 2019, I stopped by a garage sale in my alley. When I returned, I brought Sondra (the seller) a rubber plant I propagated as a thank you and neighborly gift. She was stoked! It turned out she was a huge plant enthusiast that lived just a block away and I never knew. As I was walking back with my new plant, I rushed home to go download the app for this. I was looking for a platform to connect with my fellow plant people in my community.

After a week of searching, to my surprise, I learned it didn’t exist!

I knew this was something not only I desired, but also others like me would love too!

I was describing the idea to a friend, telling him that I knew this was an opportunity worth pursuing, and a way to fulfill a dream of having a significant positive impact on people’s lives’. I told him, “How cool it would be to have an app that helps you find like-minded people in your community and beyond to share plants and cuttings. People connecting through the same passion… who knows… maybe even love could Blossm!” That’s when my friend had the lightbulb moment, and said, “That’s what you should name it!”

Brian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My whole career was in the science field. I moved to San Diego for a graduate degree in Neuroscience and ended up working at a few biotech firms after completing my Masters. Both the companies I worked for were acquired and I was laid off twice. I found the whole industry quite volatile and decided to take some time for myself to figure out what I truly valued the most. I realized the whole reason I dedicated my life to science was to help people, but I didn’t really feel like I was fulfilling that dream.

My journey into botany and horticulture stemmed from the same curiosity that drove my neuroscience path, but the catalyst was my girlfriend at the time. A fellow scientist, aspiring writer and plant enthusiast (I initially thought, since she knew all the scientific binomial names), I decided to decorate my desk with plants to provide a zen-like atmosphere to inspire her creative writing goals. Shortly after, I found out she didn’t care for them much, and they started to wither away. I ended up taking care of them and found it extremely rewarding. I was especially excited when a new leaf would unfurl! It wasn’t until I started propagating plants did this hobby really turn into a new passion, especially when I applied the scientific methodology I learned in grad school to running plant experiments. I was hooked!

After a fortuitous plant swap with a neighbor, I realized that there was a major need for a plant-dedicated platform for people to connect on a more personal level. A place where they could not only buy, sell and trade plants with each other, but most importantly, build friendships and community. This led me to create blossm with my friend, Nick Mitchell, in 2020, during the pandemic. Blossm recently had its 2 year birthday on June 30th and we now have over 25k+ active members in 47 states. Over 2k+ plants have been swapped on Blossm, 1k+ donated, and 10k+ sold in these past two years. But what truly makes Blossm special is the way it has connected so many people across the country and has strengthened communities around a shared love of plants!

Blossm offers the marketplace tools of platforms like Etsy or OfferUp, the functionality of a social network like Facebook, but with a plant twist! Built for plant people, by plant people, we intimately understand what our users want because we are users too and develop our platform with this in mind. We listen, record feedback and implement new features driven by our users. They are more than just new plant friends; they are now part of the Blossm community.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my co-founder at a friend’s potluck 4 years before we went into business together. We immediately bonded over surfing and climbing. After that party we went on numerous trips together in the mountains and down in Baja, and became close friends.

When I started to organize my idea of Blossm, I came to the conclusion that: 1. I wanted to create this with someone. 2. I needed a technical cofounder that had experience in programming and most importantly 3. I wanted to embark on this entrepreneurial journey with a friend, someone I knew well and someone that I could trust.

I pitched the idea to Nick, and a few weeks later, we hit the ground running. It’s been exciting and incredibly rewarding creating Blossm with a close buddy.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

As a heavy user of Blossm myself, I keep in touch with many of our users daily through the app via our messaging system or community forum. It’s extra special to interact with our users on our own platform.

I’ve actually swapped, bought and sold plants from hundreds of our Blossmrs. The reactions I get when they learn I’m a cofounder of the app are akin to meeting a rockstar. I always feel a little funny about it, because in my mind, I’m just another plant person like them.

Beyond the app itself, our user base knows they will be heard, and we personally reply to every app review, email, instagram DM, and form of communication we receive from them. We also set up weekly 1:1 zoom meetings to really get a deep understanding of our blossm family and put a real face behind the profile. They know we listen to them, and their feedback and concerns are reflected in the many updates and changes we build into Blossm.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blossm.garden/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blossmplantswap/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blossmplantswap/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlossmLLC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4C1YJfCsI1Q-lYzeHxjHwQ