Table Colombia Challenge

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The menstrual cup solves mainly the problem of women feel disgusted by their own blood and body. Through the use of the cup we learn a lot of inside about our won body. We connect with our bodies and our perspective of periods becomes positive. it is a life changing experience were we can do all our daily activities and hobbies without feeling limited by the period.

Bloom specifically focus in educating women about their anatomy and menstrual cycle. Women's lack of information about their bodies and about menstruation creates a negative conception about what it is to be a woman. Women get judged very easily as crazy, sensitive or hard to deal with and the worst part is that we end up believing it. This environment drives a low self esteem were women are afraid to pursue powerful positions and to defend their own rights.

1. Through a high quality product and personalized advise we are able to show women the amazing benefits of a comfortable and sustainable product.
2. Using social media as a communication channel with our current and future customers, we are able to present useful and interesting content about female anatomy, menstrual cycle, benefits of the menstrual cup and usage of it.
3. By creating a community of women who support each other with no judgement, we open spaces for women to ask any questions they have without feeling shame, to tell their stories and share their experiences. This is how they verbalize and normalize concepts and words like menstruation, vagina, clitoris, vulva, etc..
4.  With our Donation Program we have the opportunity to bring menstrual cups and educational workshops to women in need, who don't have affordable access to feminine hygiene products and who suffer from several social issues such us: domestic violence, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy.

The global market for menstrual cups was valued at around USD 995 million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 1.4 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of around 4.6% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2023

In Colombia 14 million women have between 12 and 50 years old, what is considered the menstrual age.

The menstrual cup is becoming a trend in social media. Our goal is to bring the cup to all types of communities, they ones with or without access to the internet or credit cards. We want every woman to have the possibility to have a good quality menstrual cup and enjoy a healthier, informed and conscious period.

Bloom's unsatisfied customer rate is less than 1% of our sales. Our customers love the product, its comfort, its environmental and health benefits. Women are now convincing their friends and family to make the change. We are ready to expand Bloom all around South America and the world.

Risks: There are a lot of cultural barriers that make this journey a challenge. We believe all the taboos come from lack of sexual and reproductive education. We have already worked with different types of communities (Barú, Chocó, Isla Fuerte, Yopal, Charalá, between others) and we proved we are able to get close to this women, to make them feel comfortable and gain their trust. It takes hard work and commitment. We know we can do it with the help of our stakeholders.

Global biggest competitors:

1. Diva Cup
2. Lunette
3. Me Luna

Colombia's biggest competitors:

1. Life Cup
2. Eva Cup
3. Me Luna

Competitive Advantages:

1. Customer service: You won’t be alone. We will guide you through all the adaptation process with videos, tips and personalized advice.
2. Strong community: Our followers and customers know exactly the mission of our company, they feel connected, related and interested with our content. We build together with our community, they love having the opportunity to be part of it.
3. Donation Program: If you buy BLOOM CUP and post a photo of you in social media with it, we will donate one cup to poor communities in Colombia. We share your as a participant and you will be able to track the impact of the donation. You can see the follow ups we do with the communities on our social medial.
4. We have a direct and fresh style, where there is space for everyone, where taboos are left behind and judging is not an option. We all, as humans, crave that fresh and relaxing feeling of being who whatever we want to be. We go straight to the point and we defend women rights.

Currently we have more than a 100 written reviews, more than 10 video reviews and more than 23.4k followers on Instagram.

In year and a half we have donated around 100 cups in poor communities in Colombia and each one of them came from a customer who published hes/her photo on Social Media supporting our program.

At the moment Bloom is a e-commerce business focused on capturing clients and attention through Instagram. It has been growing in the past year and a half and now we want to keep expanding into other markets at the sametime.

We have built strong relationships with other e-commerce brands such us Grato Mysterio, De Planta and Merkabah.

In 2019 we started attending sports events such us: Medellin Half Marathon, Bogotá Half Marathon and coming up in September we will be part of the Women's Bogota Race expo.

We also attended the women enterprenuer EVA Expo in Bogotá in April and the Women Economic Forum in Cartagena beginning of August.

Now we are looking forward into retail spaces such us pharmacies, super markets, gyms, yoga studios, etc..

Laura Restrepo - Founder & CEO: I went to Business School at Universidad de los Andes (2017). Since I was very young I always came up with some kind of business to make extra money for my travels. I remember when I was 18 telling my parents "I want to go to Europe with my best friend" and their answer right away was: "Thats awesome you want to travel, how are you going to pay for it?". And yes, I figure it out my self. I learn to be resourceful selling: empanadas during soccer season, imported backpacks from Thailand and cookies during christmas.

When I was in college I tried the cup for the first time. I loved it after the first month of using it and realize that none of my friends knew about it. It was a clear sign for me that there was a huge opportunity to start a business around the menstrual cups, they are eco-friendly, healthy and much more comfortable that other feminine hygiene products. I became a reseller for another brand in Colombia and got a lot of feedback that allowed me to understand better what women really wanted and needed. A couple of months later I was in the US looking for suppliers. I was determined to find the best quality to create my own brand and then Bloom Cup came to life.

Maria Teresa Diaz - Commercial Director: She is my mom! A woman full of energy who loves negotiating. She is a dentist but didn't develop her carrier in that field, she found it boring after a couple years. She decided to become a real state agent and has worked on it for more than 20 years. Most of my commercial skills I learned them for her. The best teacher!

Ana Maria Zuluaga - Social Media Assistant : She studied Design at Universidad de los Andes. She works part time with Bloom, specifically managing the customer service on social media and designing the content. When ever we have big events she helps us in sales.

Jenny Hortua - Shipping Assistant: She is my dad's assistant and she helps Bloom putting together and sending all the packages. She is also an amazing sales woman who helps us during big events.

Click here to see the Financial Model

Bloom Colombia is currently a profitable company and is ready to start growing at a higher scale with some investment in marketing and opening to the offline market.

Milestones:
1. Start selling in pharmacies in Colombia
2. Have at least a 10% growth in revenue each quater from now on.

3. Be recognized as the most sustainable and socially committed menstrual cup company in Colombia

Bloom has a huge environmental and social impact in the community and in the world.

Environmental:

• The menstrual cup is reusable and lasts up to 10 years.
• A woman generates around 90 kg of waste in tampons or pads during 10 years. Which are not recyclable because they contain blood.
• For each women that starts using the cup, we are reducing the wastes in plastic from 90kg to 20 gr every 10 years.
• In Colombia, 14 million women are in they menstruation age (between 12 and 50 years old). This allow us to estimate that the pads and tampons wastes in Colombia are around

Social:

• We have an amazing donation program for women in need in Colombia. Colombia is a very poor country where most women struggle each month to access feminine hygiene products and are not able to have a healthy period. Most of this women also suffer from several social issues such us: domestic violence, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy because of lack of information and education.
• For every person who buys a BLOOM cup and posts a photo on social media with our tag, we will donate one
• With our Donation Program we also have the opportunity educational workshops to women in need, who don't have affordable access to feminine hygiene products. We found that the menstrual cup is a great tool to open the doors around other fundamental topics such us: women rights, gender equality, women empowerment, etc..
• Because of the lack of resources they end up reusing pads for more than 2 days, they stop going to school or work and additionally they are bullied for having the period. Being a woman turns into a negative understanding of ourselves, causing rejection and disgust towards our own body. The bullying and taboo around the menstruation brings a lot of negative pressure in being a "woman", making us feel less valuable, weak and limited.
• With the use of the menstrual cup we are able to change the perception and behavior of women towards their period. We realice the period doesn't smell bad when we remove the cup and smell it. What causes the bad smell are the chemicals of the tampons and pads in contact with the blood.

All our employees not only learn the beauty of the women body, but also become ambassadors of the menstrual cup, they see and understand by themselves the power behind Bloom Cup, they enjoy their job and for that reason they are committed with the cause.