John Machacek, Chief Innovation Officer for the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, has worked with countless startups throughout our community over the years. He knows their ups, and their downs, but most of all, he knows the questions to ask them. Here are John Machacek’s 10 questions for Jackie Maahs, Co-Founder/Director, The Plant Supply.
1. Jackie, will you please tell me your The Plant Supply elevator pitch?
The Plant Supply is a houseplant product company and plant store, with products in 500+ stores across North America, and a shop in the center of Brewhalla in Downtown Fargo.
We help people and businesses grow happier through plant-themed events, plants, plant advice, and plant accessories. Products are made by hand with love in Fargo.
2. What is the origin story for your own plant-focused business?
Five years ago, we had just gotten married, and we were scared that we might become boring. We were seriously considering some big changes. I was thinking about getting a master’s degree, and we thought about moving to Boston for a while. We took a vacation to clear our heads, and we landed on launching The Plant Supply at the Red River Market. But starting a business wasn’t the original plan.
Originally my husband and I planned to do a podcast. The podcast was going to be called “Worth a Try.”
The concept was that we would do a new experiment in each episode. Starting a little farmers market plant booth was supposed to be the first episode of that podcast. But we fell in love with that first experiment, and we never got around to using the fancy microphones we bought— maybe one day.
3. Folkways’ Red River Market was my first introduction to your new business. How did their market play a role in the evolution of your business?
I think it’s safe to say we would not have a business without the Red River Market. We started our business specifically to be a vendor at the market. We basically used the vendor application as a to-do list to get our business started. The application requested info on business insurance, so we got business insurance; they asked about our business plan, so we made a business plan. We had never actually done a lot of things we said we were going to do, but when they gave us the green light to join the market, we were forced to figure it out and make it happen.
And joining the market was the catalyst for our growth. Through the market, we ended up making our first wholesale connections, corporate customers, and met many of the people who became fans of our work and started to spread the word.
4. So, another obvious big or next step from being at markets was opening your store at Brewhalla. At what point did a store like this factor into your gameplan?
This was another case of jumping on an opportunity that presented itself, rather than pursuing some carefully laid out plan. It was also a ‘right-place-at-the-right-time’ situation. By the time Brewhalla was on our radar, my husband and I were in a tough spot—the business was too big to manage on top of our full-time jobs, but too small to quit our jobs for. Then Drekker posted about breaking ground on Brewhalla, and it sounded like the perfect next step. They posted a form on Instagram for anyone in the public who might want to be involved, and we gave it a shot. On the one hand, it felt like a leap to open a store and go full-time.
On the other hand, it felt like literally the perfect opportunity to use our market experience and scale the business into something sustainable. I was faced with the choice to quit my job or say no and probably never get to operate a permanent plant shop. After two meetings with the crew at Brewhalla, I put in my two-week notice.
Quitting your job during a pandemic to work on opening a brick-and-mortar store is scary. We just really believed that in-person shopping is here to stay—especially if you can make it a social experience.
5. From your initial products of plants and concrete planters, you’ve grown your product line to additional items such as leaf care spray bottles, fertilizer, neem oil droppers, candles, and more. Can you please tell me more about the expansion of your products?
We started expanding our product lines in preparation for opening our space at Brewhalla. We’d always sold handmade items and wanted to keep handmade items as a part of what we do.
But once we had those new products designed, other plant shops started showing interest in carrying them too.
I’m a lifelong crafter, and my husband is a product manager and marketer, so we ended up putting our brains and skills together to come up with new ideas. Having a business partner who is also a life partner can be hard sometimes, but we complement each other well, and our different perspectives have resulted in the creation of some products that have resonated with thousands of people. Our most popular product is our Leaf Care Spray. It’s carried in hundreds of stores across North America and it’s very giftable, plus people tend to buy it again and again. But newer products, like our plant-themed stickers or our candles, have become popular lately too.
6. I love your candles. They look cool and smell great. I guess you could consider it another product, or at least revenue stream, but you also do classes and workshops. Will you please tell me more about that part of your business?
Yes! We’ve been slowly growing our candle game over the past couple of years, but we just started hosting candle-making classes.
We were doing workshops before Brewhalla, partnering with Unglued when they were downtown. Which, as a side note—big thanks to Unglued for getting so many people into crafting and making. We still join forces with Unglued occasionally, and now we are often teaming up with Drekker to host plant-related workshops at Brewhalla. Most weeks we’re hosting classes, like planter painting, plant pot making, candle making, and a lot more. The candle-making events are brand new, and it’s been fun seeing people enjoy those. All our events can be found at theplantsupply.com/events.
The great part about events is their ability to connect people and bring them closer together. A class is a great excuse to hang out with a new friend, or just spend time with people you care about. I didn’t expect how much it would also help people meet each other—I love seeing people exchanging numbers at the end of a class and forming new friendships.
Growing more plants is fun, but growing more happiness comes from investing time in people, and classes help make that easy.
7. You mentioned wholesale a moment ago. I didn’t realize you had a wholesale facet of the business until I heard your husband Jordan mention it at a StartupBREW Fargo. How does your wholesale part work?
Yeah, most of our team spends time making products for other stores outside of Fargo. There are some really cool shops across the country that carry our products—The Sill, Plant Shed, Wild Poppy to name a few. We’re in 48 states and in over 500 stores.
Often a new brand will order from us, and we’ll look them up online and say, “Whoa! Them? Their shop is so cool!” So, it has been exciting. We’ve grown mostly from people discovering us online or in person. We have not spent a lot on advertising, but it’s been cool to see word spread in pockets around the country.
8. So, what is next for your future hopes or ideas?
This one is especially exciting. We are opening a brand new shop in early 2025 in Brewhalla. It’s a gift shop called “Tiny Things.” It involves miniatures, jewelry, and some stuff I guarantee you won’t find anywhere else in town. But if someone is looking for the inside scoop, I’d tell them to go to tinythingsfargo.com and join the list to get the inside details.
Also, our Plant Bash will be back in the spring too, and it’ll be bigger than ever. We’ll be bringing in a truckload of beautiful plants from the coast and putting them at a steep discount for one weekend only. Over 1,000 people came out in 2024, and it’ll be an even bigger party in 2025.
9. What hindsight advice would you give yourself, if you could go back in time to Jackie from several years ago?
Probably to care less what people think, and spend more time being grateful for the many amazing people and things in my life.
10. Ah yes, that is a nice thing about getting older, is if you can start worrying less about what others think. To wrap up, what can we do as a community to help you and The Plant Supply succeed?
The easiest one is this: make a plan to visit Brewhalla this week. Come to our shop, but also visit some of the amazing other places—Unglued, Mangata, The Bird, Drekker, Thunder Coffee, Duchessa Gelato and a lot more—there are so many great places. Bonus points if you can come with a friend and turn it into a chance to spend time with someone. Swing by and say hello, we’d love to meet you.
About John John
Machacek has been helping local startups with the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation since prior to his position with the GFMEDC. Before joining the team, Machacek was the VP of Finance & Operations at United Way of Cass-Clay and a business banker at U.S. Bank.
The Plant Supply
theplantsupply.com
Instagram | @theplant.supply
Tiny Thins Fargo
tinythingsfargo.com
Instagram | @tinythingsfargo
