David Charles Daneshgar (born June 18, 1981, in Westlake Village, California) is an American former professional poker player and the co-founder of BloomNation.com.
An unconventional success story
When he was attending the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he, along with his two best friends, decided to form a start-up to help both florists and customers alike. However, they lacked funding.
That’s when Daneshgar’s world-class poker skills come into play. His friends enter him into a competition where he ends up winning $30,000 dollars—enough to begin funding their business. “We didn’t think of it […] for PR reasons. From 2005 to 2008, I was one of the top five poker players in the world, so if you have an asset like that, and there happens to be a poker tournament half an hour away, and you happen to need the money, it’s like all the stars kind of align, right?” says David.
Answering a need
Founders David, Farbod, and Gregg felt that they needed to bridge the gap between florists and consumers. They also realized that large floral brokerage services were only making the problem worse. Furthermore, the unique artistry that local florists can bring to the table was being ignored, leaving the florists with little credit for their work.
That’s where their start-up came to play. “BloomNation was created so that all the top florists in the country can come together [and] upload their work of art,” says David. They respected the art that went into the work of local florists. They also came across other problems such as annoyance on the part of florists who felt exploited by these big companies. Hence, they wanted to create a platform where customers would find high quality, beautiful flowers and the individual florists would be recognised for their work.
Currently, he is also the CEO of Stealth Startup, a start-up company that operates in stealth mode, i.e. that avoids public attention. David Daneshgar’s story deserves an Oscar-nominated feature film of its own.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Daneshgar
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-daneshgar-a47474b
https://www.businessinsider.com/bloomnation-founders-story-2014-8
Entrepreneurship Development Cell 
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