Wondering what Venture Forth can do for your startup?
Local Plant Source is a platform for the commercial landscape industry, connecting supply and demand in an industry that has not been significantly impacted by technology. Behind Local Plant Source is a duo of Zac Tolbert and Andy Fletcher. Zac is a landscape designer and Andy is the technical talent.
Two years ago, frustrated with the challenge of sourcing plants and unhappy with his desk job as landscape architect, Zac joined forces with his friend Tommy, a plant re-wholesaler to start Local Plant Source (LPS). Zac and Tommy parted ways last summer after realizing that their visions for LPS were too different. After the friendly “founder divorce”, Zac turned to Andy, the smartest tech person he knew, to help him find a developer. At that time, Andy was looking to join a startup that solved meaningful problems. Although Andy was initially hesitant to join LPS, “the more I talked with Zac, and the more people I met in the industry, the more it drew me in”.
In its original iteration, the company was more of a service than a software tool. The intrepid LPS team didn’t think they could make software that was simple enough for farmers and growers to use unassisted. They’d visit a client, take photos of everything, and manually enter each item in the database. This approach proved very inefficient and the price point ended up being too high. Eventually, they found a developer who created an iOS app on spec and relaunched their product. After the “founder divorce”, LPS took a hiatus until Zac and Andy joined forces. Local Plant Source now has their Minimum Viable Product and the web site and the app are well integrated. Over the last eight months, they have built a solution that works. They changed the company around to enable farmers to manage technology on their own. They now see their mission as more educational, with LPS helping to introduce farmers to technology, make them self-sufficient, and bring everyone up.
To get to this point, they pivoted several times, read a lot of books on startups, and attempted to create their own financial projections, pitch decks, and business plan. They iterated internally but never reached out and put themselves in front of other people. This is the point where they joined Venture Forth® 17. They wanted to find advisors and possible investors. At VF, everyone was an entrepreneur, despite the diverse range of products and experience among the participants. During their first class, Kevin Koym told them that they should pitch as often as they can, so they stayed up all night before the second class and redid their entire pitch. Instead of a 7-minute pitch, they did a 15-minute pitch that included everything and then pared it down over the course of VF. The accountability VF provided helped build their confidence. They had structure and had things to get done every week. VF improved their understanding of fundraising and how things worked and put them ahead of where they would be on their own. The camaraderie and the networking were also a huge plus. They felt challenged and validated – they did the right things but now got to do them better.
Local Plant Source is not a sideline for Zac and Andy, and financing has been a challenge. At the beginning, they bootstrapped and Zac got a half-secured credit line to get LPS through its first year. They made mistakes and overspent on web development. Last August, when Andy joined, he told Zac, “If you’re serious about this, we need money to move forward”, so they went to friends and family. “There is no better place to test out your pitch than on your family”, says Andy. Before they started re-engaging customers, they made a list of friends and family who could invest. First, Zac pitched to friends and family. With the money he raised, they were able to reorganize, rearrange the legal structure, and clean up. A month later, Andy was fully on-board and it was his turn to pitch to friends and family. This money brought them through the redesign of their product. They are now seeking funding to scale the product and add features and a sales team so they can go out and really engage with the farmers. They’re currently focusing on Texas, but Zac is well connected in the landscaping community and will later tap into his countrywide network to expand. They’re working closely with Texas Nursery and Landscape Association and in January sponsored a table at a business management workshop and got good response on their product. Zac and Andy are now advising the association on technology and connecting them with services and startups.
The name Local Plant Source seemed logical; it had the important keywords that potential customers would search for. LPS’ clients want everything straightforward and Zac thought that dropping vowels or coming up with a fancy name would not connect with them. Zac and Andy don’t want to be the biggest or shiniest, but to have substance over image.
Their main advice to startups is to go get mentors, get advisors, find people with experience, but before hiring someone to do things you can’t do, “at least attempt to do everything yourself, even if it’s outside your wheelhouse, and outside of your knowledge base, read a book and try it and you’d be surprised how much you can accomplish that way and how it prepares you when you need someone else to handle that role”.