Sisters Aviva and Arielle Vogelstein had the same troubling observation when they got married nine months apart: All of their thoughtfully planned floral arrangements from their nuptials were simply tossed out when the celebration was over. The resourceful siblings seized on that as a business opportunity, launching their own company in early 2019 to upcycle those flowers for eco-minded customers. The beginning The flowers ReVased sells are enjoying a “second life,” says Aviva Vogelstein. “They’re still beautiful, and they’re still fresh.” Aviva, an attorney who’s worked for various nonprofits, and her sister, a marketing professional with experience working for mission-driven tech firms, took the leap last January and started ReVased. The company operates here in Baltimore, where the sisters grew up and where Aviva still lives, in parts of New York City, where Arielle resides, and in Washington, D.C. Their initial business model was to charge a fee to event hosts to donate flowers, then give them to local nonprofits and worthy causes. The idea was well-received, but the siblings sought a steadier way to generate revenue than simply charging people who wanted to do a good deed. They found their solution — and received $125,000 in total seed funding — while participating in two local business accelerators, the Emerging Technology Center’s Accelerate Baltimore program and SHIFT Ventures’ Conscious Venture Lab based at Baltimore City Community College. “They were really encouraging us to figure out a way to make our company become more scalable and to increase our impact,” Aviva says of the mentors they worked with. “Something that we realized was that all along, people that we were speaking to were constantly asking, ‘can we purchase these flowers?’” Since November 2019, ReVased has instead picked up flowers from event hosts, as well as some florists, wholesalers and grocery […]