Nepseeds: Plant E-Commerce
Bootstrapped plant e-commerce since July 2021. End-to-end supply chain for perishable, regulated botanical inventory including NEA phytosanitary certifications and CITES compliance. 98% on-time fulfillment, grew social following 600 to 1000+ organically.
Origin
Started in 2021 with a friend who was growing nepenthes (carnivorous pitcher plants) and selling them as a hobby on Carousell. The volume kept creeping up. Eventually it made sense to formalize it into a real brand with real compliance, real fulfillment, and a real customer base.
What it became
A bootstrapped plant e-commerce operation focused on perishable, regulated botanical inventory. NEA phytosanitary certifications for plant exports, CITES compliance for the protected species we carry, end-to-end supply chain from grower to shipped order. The site is live at nepseeds.com.
What I picked up
Bootstrapping a physical-product business teaches a different set of skills than shipping software. Inventory math. Phytosanitary paperwork. The difference between a customer who is angry because the plant arrived late and a customer who is angry because their last shipment was wrong. Operations work compounds: small process fixes save hours every week.
It also taught me when not to over-engineer. A Shopify store with a tight fulfillment workflow beats a custom-built platform for this scale.