Mark Smith
Athena Garden is a wholesale marketplace for home garden and natural products. Our special products are garden seeds such as vegetable, herb, fruit, flower seeds and supplies for your home and garden. We empower sellers to do what they love and buyers to find what they really care about.
Tell us about yourself?
I have been working in pharmaceutical field for about ten years. During my free time, I enjoy working on my garden.
Recently, I found that a lot of people also have the same interest like mine. Then, I created a fan page to share what I planted in my garden and some useful gardening tips.
The page attracts many gardeners and I see a lack of marketplace for them to exchange their products. Therefore, I decided to start a marketplace for gardeners to buy and sell their products.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
This market is huge. I think I should have started earlier.
What problem does your business solve?
We create a marketplace for gardeners to exchange their products. We empower sellers to do what they love and buyers to find what they really care about.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Many people love gardening but there was a lack of special-purpose marketplace for gardeners to exchange. Therefore, we create a platform for gardeners to buy and sell their products.
What is your magic sauce?
We target a very small community of like minded people to succeed. We don’t want to be a general marketplace that is so diluted like others.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
To become the biggest marketplace for gardeners in the US. When anyone think about gardening, they will think about Athena Garden.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Marketing. We have just started so not all gardeners know us. We are still working to reach more and more people so we can expand.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want all gardeners in the US know us and come to us when they think about buying or selling their products. We are always available to help at Athena Garden: athenagarden.org.
