Bamboo Pipeline -- a bMighty Mid-Market Hero company -- uses high-tech systems to sell plants to landscape professionals used to working with sod and dirt, not keyboards and monitors
What do you do if you find yourself starting a business in the very tech-averse horticultural industry, catering to landscape professionals who are used to plants, sod, and dirt as opposed to keyboards, computer screens, and online order forms?
Why, invest in a sophisticated enterprise software system with a platform that can be customized to accommodate the unique needs of this industry and invest in all the necessary tech tools to support that platform as well as a distribution system to complement the process, of course.
And then, because the nature of your product necessitates it, flip the traditional business model of buy it, source it, and sell it on its head. Oh, and then watch the horticultural industry in your part of the world slowly be transformed.
At least that was the experience of Mike Cornell and Matt Fay, founders of Bamboo Pipeline, a seller of wholesale horticultural products for landscape professionals.
Bonus: Click here for Bamboo Pipeline At A Glance
"The horticultural market is one of the few industrial markets growing faster than the GDP," says Cornell. "The greening of America is an attractive market but there were no monolithic channels of distribution."
For Cornell and Fay, this last detail was compelling. "We would sit around and talk about how the distribution of horticulture in our part of the world wasn't working," he continued. "Matt and I realized that no one had a vested interest in building a tech-oriented platform to support the industry. The big grower wanted the right product mix and wanted to get it out to the market, the retailer wanted to buy the right stuff and sell it, and the professional landscaper needed the right product but needed large quantities. There was no obvious player to step up and say 'let's modernize the industry.' "
Cornell and Fay might not be the obvious players to attempt to transform a market typified by guys in flannel shirts, jeans, and lots of mud stains. But they aren't necessarily the most baffling choices to do it either. Fay's background is in irrigation distribution while Cornell comes from management consulting. And they both believed in the power of technology to fill the gaping hole they saw in a market whose producers were scattered all over the western region of the United States, and whose 25,000 different varieties of product was delicate at best.
"We saw early on that technology was the keystone to the transformation of both our company and the industry," Cornell says.
Next Page: Introducing technology where there was none
