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\n\t<h2 class="tw:mt-0 tw:mb-1 tw:text-2xl tw:font-heading">Key Takeaways<\/h2>
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<li>The Bouqs is an online flower startup that was rejected by Shark Tank investors in 2014.<\/li><\/p>\n
<li>Since then, the startup has expanded to over $100 million in annual revenue.<\/li><\/p>\n
<li>The Bouqs\u2019 primary growth strategies are a flexible subscription engine and a selective shift into brick-and-mortar stores.<\/li><\/p>\n
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<p>When The Bouqs Company walked off <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/leadership\/shark-tank-star-barbara-corcoran-reveals-her-true-passion\/491867"><em>Shark Tank<\/em><\/a> without a deal <a href="https:\/\/bouqs.com\/blog\/life-after-shark-tank\/">in 2014<\/a>, the online flower startup looked like another reality TV disappointment. Instead, the business quietly kept building, ultimately crossing <a href="https:\/\/seilertucker.com\/at-first-you-dont-succeed-try-try-again-with-john-tabis">$100 million in annual revenue<\/a> last year by reinventing how flowers are sourced, sold and subscribed to. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The Bouqs story starts long before the company appeared on <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/how-crash-champions-ceo-went-from-1-shop-to-6b-revenue\/489054"><em>Shark Tank<\/em><\/a>. Co\u2011founders John Tabis and Juan Pablo \u201cJP\u201d Mont\u00fafar met at <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/why-notre-dames-football-coach-tells-his-team-to-choose\/471100">Notre Dame<\/a>, connecting around a shared frustration with the traditional floral industry. The two founded The Bouqs in 2012 and designed the company to ship bouquets directly from farms to customers\u2019 doors. The choice cut out middlemen and pushed against legacy models, where orders bounce from website to wholesalers to local florists. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>\u201cSelling flowers online is not a brand-new concept, but the challenge with some of the other players in this space has always been that they are more of a <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/whats-the-best-way-to-distribute-my-press-release\/474939">wire service<\/a>, so you can order on the site, but they don\u2019t know what the inventory is of any local florist at any time,\u201d The Bouqs CEO Kim Tobman explains in a new interview with <em>Entrepreneur<\/em>. \u201cSo what you order online might not be what you get from the local florist.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The Bouqs set out to address that concern and make sure that what you order is what you get. If a customer loves lilies, that\u2019s what shows up. If they want orange roses, that\u2019s what they get. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>By the time Tabis appeared on <em>Shark Tank<\/em> in 2014, The Bouqs had already <a href="https:\/\/www.women.com\/1664226\/what-went-down-with-the-bouqs-company-after-shark-tan\/">logged $700,000<\/a> in sales in its first year. The Sharks balked at his ask of $285,000 for 3% and questioned everything from margins to the name. Every Shark passed, and Tabis left without a deal. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The exposure was ultimately good for the brand \u2014 and one Shark, Robert Herjavec, later invested in the company after recognizing its value. Herjavec reached out to The Bouqs to <a href="https:\/\/www.inc.com\/guadalupe-gonzalez\/bouqs-shark-tank-deal.html">do his wedding flowers<\/a> in 2016 and later made an undisclosed investment in the company based on his positive experience. A year later, <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/billionaire-mark-cuban-spends-a-lot-of-time-on-his-emails\/494979">Mark Cuban<\/a> called The Bouqs the one deal <a href="https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Business\/shark-tank-deal-mark-cuban-regrets-making\/story?id=45661270">he regretted not making<\/a>. By 2019, The Bouqs had <a href="https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/03\/08\/nearly-5-years-after-shark-tank-debut-how-the-bouqs-company-is-doing.html">secured<\/a> $55 million in funding and expanded to 80 employees. Today, the company has scaled to <a href="https:\/\/seilertucker.com\/at-first-you-dont-succeed-try-try-again-with-john-tabis">over $100 million<\/a> in revenue. <\/p><\/p>\n
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-subscription-model">Subscription model<\/h2><\/p>\n
<p>Tobman, 44, became the company\u2019s CEO in September 2022, and says that one of its primary <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/entrepreneurs\/thought-leaders\/she-built-a-no-code-ai-company-now-worth-more-than-2-billion-heres-her-secret-to-growth">growth tactics<\/a> is its <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/what-to-know-about-the-next-phase-of-subscription-services\/496264">subscription service<\/a>. About 40% of the company\u2019s revenue now comes from its <a href="https:\/\/bouqs.com\/subscriptions">subscription offering<\/a>, which the brand deliberately designed around real customer behavior. \u201cSubscription has been a huge part of our growth journey,\u201d Tobman says. <\/p><\/p>\n
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="788" width="1024" src="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?w=1024" alt="Kim Tobman, CEO. Credit: The Bouqs" class="wp-image-415622" srcset="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=300,231 300w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=768,591 768w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=1024,788 1024w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=1536,1182 1536w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=2048,1576 2048w, https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Kim-Tobman-The-Bouqs.jpg?resize=292,225 292w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" \/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Kim Tobman, CEO. Credit: The Bouqs<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n
<p>Tobman described two core audiences: Customers who want to gift a subscription to flowers starting on occasions like Mother\u2019s Day or Valentine\u2019s Day, and \u201cpower gifters\u201d who send flowers constantly to different recipients for birthdays, promotions and life events. To serve both audiences, The Bouqs has made its <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/why-every-business-should-borrow-this-key-strategy-from\/487781">subscription flexible<\/a>. Subscribers can change the delivery date each month, they can change the recipient monthly and they can choose the specific bouquet each time. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>Subscriptions are <a href="https:\/\/bouqs.com\/subscriptions\/new\/plan">priced<\/a> at $48, $59 and $74 per month, with each price point corresponding to one bunch, two bunches and three bunches of flowers, respectively. The prices include year-round free shipping and do not increase over the life of the plan, allowing heavy flower buyers to lock in value while The Bouqs gains predictable, recurring revenue. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The floral calendar is otherwise spiky: <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/why-valentines-day-chocolate-is-more-expensive-this-year\/469727">Valentine\u2019s Day<\/a> is the company\u2019s <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/5-brands-that-had-monster-super-bowl-lviii-marketing-parties\/469796">Super Bowl<\/a>. Orders surge in a compressed window, and flowers must land exactly on the promised day. \u201cWe don\u2019t get credit when it\u2019s early, and we definitely don\u2019t get credit when it\u2019s late,\u201d Tobman says. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The Bouqs uses that pressure as a growth moment. Marketing encourages <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/he-solved-his-biggest-mistake-to-get-his-first-customer\/499290">customers<\/a> to start with a holiday gift, then extend it into a <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/5-industries-that-will-avoid-adopting-a-subscription-model\/463928">monthly subscription<\/a>, so someone who discovers The Bouqs in early February may still be receiving and sending bouquets in November. Tobman says the subscription service has grown \u201cexponentially\u201d over the past few years, becoming a central driver of the company\u2019s overall performance. <\/p><\/p>\n
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brick-and-mortar-stores">Brick-and-mortar stores<\/h2><\/p>\n
<p>The next phase of The Bouqs\u2019 growth is happening offline. In the past two years, the company has opened five <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/inside-emptio-home-decors-shopkeeping-success\/490969">brick-and-mortar stores<\/a>, including locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, San Diego County and New York. The Bouqs has also begun rolling out in-store flower shops with <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/amazon-is-giving-whole-foods-staff-new-job-offers\/496439">Whole Foods Market<\/a>. The goal is not just to have the brand more visible to shoppers, but also offer same-day delivery in those areas. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>Early tests show that the standalone stores have reached <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/building-a-business\/this-founders-unusual-strategy-led-her-business-to-profitability-and-300m-in-lifetime-sales">profitability<\/a> within their first year, which \u201cis pretty unheard of in retail,\u201d Tobman says. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>\u201cThat\u2019s number one,\u201d she says. \u201cCan we make sure that this <a href="https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/this-founders-ebay-side-hustle-led-to-a-92m-acquisition\/499534">pays for itself<\/a>? The answer is yes.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n
<p>The stores also allow The Bouqs to capture demand and service more markets. \u201cPeople do like to shop in person, that\u2019s clear,\u201d Tobman explains. \u201cIt\u2019s a great brand-building opportunity that is also really important for us.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-advice-for-ceos">Advice for CEOs<\/h2><\/p>\n
<p>Tobman\u2019s advice for CEOs is to lead with transparency and authenticity. She says it is easy to be an inspiring leader when things are going well, but that is not how business works. <\/p><\/p>\n
<p>\u201cA business doesn’t grow without hitting bumps in the road,\u201d Tobman says. \u201cAnd so as the CEO, I always try to make sure that I balance transparency with optimism and enthusiasm for what we do.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n