Five years later, she tried again. She and her husband Marquise were redecorating their home in Houston, and they needed to fill its empty corners, she says. She drove to Lowes and bought a couple of succulents.The hobby blossomed into an obsession, and then a side hustle: After her home became"overrun" with 8-feet-tall Monsteras, she looked for ways to sell her extra houseplants online.
At PlantCon Houston, a fair for houseplant enthusiasts, she met another seller who convinced her to try Palmstreet, which was called PlantStory at the time. The platform, which promised to take over much of Pettigrew's administrative work, offered two options: a traditional online store and a livestreamed auction system, where she could sell plants on camera in real time.
Two months and several successful livestreams later, the couple sat down to develop a more comprehensive business plan, says Pettigrew.Today, Pettigrew sells roughly 100 houseplants per livestream. With an established audience and reputation, she can sell larger, more expensive plants, she says: starting at $30, rather than her old starting price of $5. Her Monsteras go for upwards of $115 each.