08/16/2026
Mickey Popat immigrated to the U.S. from South Africa in the early 1990s and spent weekends planting more than 80 fruit trees in his Orlando backyard alongside his wife Vicky.
When family and friends kept asking where they could get trees of their own, the idea took root. Mickey was in finance and Vicky was a teacher — but both came from long lines of entrepreneurs.
In 2007 they quit their jobs and went all in.
Going all in meant getting lean. They turned in their Lexus, their Jaguars and their luxury clothing, sold everything and put the money toward a $1,500 Ford Econoline work van.
They scoured farmers markets on weekend mornings, loaded the van and drove door-to-door — sometimes setting up 50 plants on a customer's driveway. They built their own website. They tracked every inquiry by hand in a notebook.
When a customer in Georgia sent check after check until they figured out how to ship a tree that survived, they developed the containerized shipping method PlantOGram still uses today, with a 99.9% success rate.
The business saw $4.2 million in annual revenue in 2024, ships internationally to Europe, Asia and the Middle East and has never taken outside investment.
The Popats watched every penny, stayed in the driver's seat and let bootstrapping sharpen their problem-solving instincts.
Their advice: stop talking about your idea and take action. Go get the license. Get the LLC. Don't overthink it — and watch every penny.
Read more: https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/couples-weekend-hobby-turned-into-business-with-4m/494919
