Seema Bansal, 26
COFOUNDER, VENUS ET FLEUR
You can only stop to smell the roses if they’re still alive. And a garden-variety bouquet doesn’t last longer than one week in a vase.
The roses from the greenthumbed Seema Bansal, on the other hand, last an entire year in full bloom without water. “We treat them with our proprietary waxbased solution,” explains Bansal, who bootstrapped the New York-based e-commerce business with her now-fiancé Sunny Chadha, 28, in
2015. “But the rose’s texture, its shape and a little bit of its scent remains.”
Bansal and Chadha grow the flowers on a farm in
Ecuador, where they’re cut before being delivered to New York by air. From there, “we remove the color from the roses, then we can go ahead and dye them any Pantone color,” she says. Besides traditional shades of red, champagne and white, customers can opt for blue, green, silver or lavender. Prices start at $39 for a single rose, with shoppers typically spending between $300 and $1,500 for large arrangements.
Venus ET Fleur is profitable, and revenue, estimated at $7.5 million, has grown 226% in the past year. By the end of the year, Bansal and Chadha plan to open their second distribution center, in Los Angeles, where their long-lasting flora is already the talk of the town. Back on Valentine’s Day 2016, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian posted Venus ET Fleur bouquets on Instagram. “Our phones did not stop ringing,” Bansal says. “And the emails kept pouring in.”
—Clare O’connor, Vicky Valet and Katherine Love