Paraíso Plant Studio – Berkeley, CA
Meet María Blum-Sullivan — passionate entrepreneur, dedicated community builder, and owner of Paraíso Plant Studio in Berkeley, CA. When Maria needed capital to help her small business grow, Working Solutions stepped in to invest in her dreams.
María Blum-Sullivan built Paraíso Plant Studio from the ground up during a period of profound personal change. What began as a cathartic practice of tending her garden while navigating job loss, new motherhood, and postpartum depression soon grew into a larger creative practice. On daily walks with her daughter, María discovered old chandeliers at a local reuse center and started transforming them into lush "plant chandeliers" filled with succulents. With encouragement from friends and family, she found success selling them at the Alameda Antiques Fair and local markets and began investing every dollar made back into the business.
In October 2019, Paraíso Plant Studio opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Berkeley — a 15-by-15-foot shop — just months before COVID-19 forced it to close. María pivoted quickly, launching an e-commerce plant shop with a local delivery operation, drawing on her background in art and web design to photograph plants and build the online store. During the pandemic houseplant boom, Paraíso became a destination, and when the shop reopened, customers lined up down the block, waiting hours to get inside.
Rather than banking on that momentum, María found ways to future-proof her business by centering on plant education and customer relationships. She added QR codes linking todetailed care instructions to every plant sold in the shop, and invited customers back for free "plant doctor" visits when needed — a model designed to reduce the disappointment of a plant not surviving and to deepen connections with the community.
Over time, the original storefront became too small for workshops, back-of-house operations, and the environment María envisioned. When a larger space opened down the block, she saw the opportunity to grow but needed resources to make her vision a reality. Determined to avoid working with investors who asked her to compromise her values, María was connected to Working Solutions through the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development.
Working Solutions made two loans to Paraíso Plant Studio: an initial loan to support growth, and a second to finance the build-out of a new, larger storefront. Working Solutions was also able to help María refinance existing, high-interest debt, reducing her monthly payments by more than 80%. At the same time, María raised over $200,000 through a grassroots community investment campaign, with many individuals contributing small amounts to be part of something they believed in.
The support helped Paraíso to stabilize while staying true to the values thar María holds dear as a business owner. In María’s words, “To be seen by Working Solutions for what we are and what we’ve built, it was really heartening and energizing.”
Today, Paraíso pays above-minimum, living-wage rates, employs a long-tenured team, and maintains visible commitments to LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. In the future, María hopes to transition Paraíso Plant Studio to a worker-owned cooperative, ensuring that the people who have poured their creativity and care into the shop share in its ownership and future.
Learn more about Paraíso Plant studio on their website: https://paraisoplant.studio/
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