German-born entrepreneur Markus Rauschnabel is the founder and chief executive officer of Bluum, a monthly subscription box of goodies for mom and baby. Each box is personalized and curated for each customer, containing products based on their child’s age, gender, and developmental stage.
Bluum was founded in 2011 in New York City after Rauschnabel met his new neighbors who recently had a baby and were overwhelmed by the vast selection of products on the market. A father of three (relatively) older children, Rauschnabel thought, what if there was a way to share the best products with moms and let them try these for themselves as well?
This new service needed to recommend the best products just like a magazine, but allow moms to try the actual before they buy. It also had to provide feedback, both to moms and brands, about what works and what doesn’t.
Rauschnabel named the service Bluum after “blume,” the German word for “flower,” and put together a team of moms to find products and get in touch with mommy bloggers. Within three weeks of the Bluum website’s launch, over 4,000 moms signed up to get the first boxes.
Bluum originally sent a monthly box containing four sample-size versions of mom and baby products. In 2013, the service got a makeover and now includes five or more full-size products handpicked for each child. The company currently works with more than 350 brands and 1,000 products.
An entrepreneur for 20 years, Rauschnabel has worked with several startups in both the US and Europe. With Bluum, he aims to make it easier, more fun, and less stressful for moms to discover the newest baby products, right in their own homes. Rauschnabel holds an MBA from the University of Cologne and a PhD from the University of Goettingen.
Bluum has been featured in Babble, Pregnancy & Newborn, Daily Candy Kids, and TIME.
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