We were lucky to catch up with Matt Day recently and have shared our conversation below.
Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
This business was started in dedication to my late parents, Frank and Lisa. My father committed suicide when I was 9, and mother succumbed to ovarian cancer when I was 30. These combined traumas led me to seek out a number of different types of therapy, but the only one that actually helped me heal was gardening. Soon after my mother’s passing I nearly became consumed with this hobby and even quit my startup tech job to work at an outdoor nursery. Being around the plants and helping others care for them helped me cultivate an attitude of healing towards myself, and I knew from there I wanted to start my own plant business.
My mother taught me some of my greatest life lessons, including: “Help starts at home” the idea that our own health (mental and physical) is crucial and needs to be cared for in order for us to be our best selves to help others. Because of this we are official sponsors of the nonprofit Crisis Support Services of Alameda County and donate a portion of our monthly proceeds to their suicide prevention and resources in our local community of Oakland, CA.
Matt, 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?
Planterday is rooted in honor of my late parents, Frank and Lisa Day. My father committed suicide when I was 9 and mother succumbed to ovarian cancer when I was 30. These combined traumas forced me to seek out different forms of therapy but the most impactful was gardening. Soon after my mother’s passing, I became so consumed with gardening that I quit my comfortable Tech job to work at a garden nursery because being around the plants and helping others care for them helped me cultivate an attitude of healing towards myself. That’s when I knew I wanted to start my own plant business.
Planterday is a mission-driven plant shop dedicated to de-stigmatizing mental health and donating a portion of proceeds to our local Crisis Support Services of Alameda County. More than just a plant shop, our retail side sells tropical houseplants, pots, unique home goods and plant-related accessories while our community side shares our shop as a venue space for educational workshops, grief groups, comedy shows, poetry readings, film projects and pop-up vendors. We are committed to talking about mental health, sharing local mental health resources, and building community through plant therapy.
What sets us apart from other boutique shops is exactly what we’re most proud of: deep involvement in our community. We support small businesses and artists by providing a venue to sell their products, display their talents, and execute on their projects. Planterday started off as a pop-up and without the generosity of the small business owners who hosted us, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Our community partnership with the Crisis Support Services of Alameda County assists in their mission of providing free mental health support to people within Alameda County. Having grown up in Alameda County ourselves, my partner and I are proud to support a mental health non-profit that heals the community that we call home. Plants provided healing for Yumi and I in dark times, and we are proud to spread plant therapy our visitors and customers.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
One of the biggest multi-pivots I’ve had to make was going from a desk job, to working at a plant nursery, to starting Planterday, and then eventually working a 2nd full time job in addition to running Planterday.
In 2018 after my mother succumbed to Ovarian Cancer, I knew a needed a change in life which led me to my first big pivot. I quit my job at a healthcare tech startup to pursue and opportunity at a local garden nursery. During my time there I learned about plant care, potting mediums, and pest control and this experience inspired me to embark on a new goal: starting my own plant store.
In late 2019 I used my savings to purchase an old trailer to sell houseplants at pop-ups. It was finally ready to hit the road in March 2020, the same month that the COVID-19 shelter in place order was implemented in the Bay Area.
Instead of pop-ups I pivoted to online sales. Because of the quick pivot I didn’t have an ecommerce store ready, so I created a Google Form, posted the link on Instagram, and thus the business had officially started.
A few months later when the shelter in place order had lifted, we pivoted back to in-person sales and hosted our first trailer pop-up. At this point my partner, Yumi, had joined me part time and after 18 months of throwing weekend pop-ups we opened our brick and mortar. This called for our final pivot – I began working a second full time job as a Recruiter at a mental health company, Headspace, and Yumi took a break from her career as a 2nd grade teacher to run the day to day operations of the store.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
This question ties into my personal life because my business partner is actually my life partner – Yumi!
It was a very organic and natural progression for us to go from life partners to business partners. After my mother passed away we had both started gardening and landscaping as a form of therapy. When I had finally worked up the courage to start the business she was always right there guiding me in the right direction.
When it comes to operating the business, we executed every event together; made every business decision in consensus; hand-picked every plant that we’d sell; grew our community involvement; and eventually fully renovated our first brick and mortar in true DIY fashion.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.planterday.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planter.day/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/planterdayplantshop?fref=mentions&_rdr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmEEYnXR2s
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/planterday-oakland