Our small business series continues with Santiago Salazar of Austin’s Flor Keeps on how quality internet has literally helped his family business grow. For more of the Flor Keeps story, you can also check out the Google Fiber YouTube channel. 

How It Started

Flor Keeps is a floral company located in Austin, Texas, specializing in real flowers that last over one year. None of our flowers require any water, & should only be kept indoors!

Inspired by my father’s flower business over the last 10 years, I believed it was time to shift the mold of what flowers could look like, come from, and how long they can actually last. We quickly came to recognize that this city embodied qualities that are rare to find anywhere else. Austin radiates a sense of creativity, encourages risk-takers to be themselves, & poses an emphasis on always giving back to the community. The food, the scenery _ and most importantly — the people have elevated what it means to love what you do & where you live. 

The goal for Flor Keeps is to bring the Austin community together & reinvent our wildest visions, ideas, & passions. If there’s anything about this city, it’s that we dare to be different. We push the boundaries of the ordinary & we fall together, knowing we successfully gave it everything.

How We Succeed

Flor Keeps currently operates in three avenues: Retail, Mass Market, and E-Commerce.

We owe all of our success in those outlets to the internet. Without it, we would primarily depend on only “word of mouth” to share the story of our products! Since the beginning of Flor Keeps, we have been able to reach our customers in the Austin-area through Google searches, online delivery platforms, or simply through our social media posts. Whether it’s attending to walk-in customers, responding quickly to online orders, or fulfilling orders to our partner supermarkets, we streamline our business through the use of our Google Fiber high-speed internet – 

thankfully!

The Good Stuff

At Flor Keeps, we donate a portion of our proceeds to an Austin-based non-profit organization called WellAware. WellAware implements lasting clean water systems to drive development and empower communities in East Africa.

We wanted to contribute to a cause that not only helps people in need, but also makes sense for our brand to collaborate with. Our flowers at Flor Keeps don’t require water, but people do. The techniques we use to extend the lifetime of our product go hand in hand with water conservation. Therefore, we are able to create an initiative to help those that really do need this resource!

So take a moment to use your internet to come visit us (and maybe find the perfect gift this holiday season)!

Posted by Santiago Salazar, Founder, Flor Keeps

Today, we're featuring a guest blog post from Tom Esselman, Director of one of our amazing Kansas City community partners, PCs for People. Google Fiber works with this organization in several of our cities and have recently launched a new project in KC to help get more people online.

PCs for People Kansas City works to make digital equity a reality by getting low-cost quality computers, internet and digital literacy training into the homes of individuals, families and nonprofits with low income. Google Fiber works with this dedicated organization to help more Kansas Citians access quality internet in their homes.

One of the biggest things the pandemic made even more imperative is that access to the internet and functioning devices is critical to success. Without digital access, it’s nearly impossible for people to work remotely, apply for jobs or virtually meet a healthcare provider. For children, lack of internet and device access means they could be left behind in school.

Dating back to 2008, and to play a small part in helping close the digital divide across the country, we created PCs for People, which focuses on providing equitable access to functioning devices. We do this through refurbishing previously used (typically only two to three years old) computers and devices donated by large organizations and individuals. Then, these refurbished devices are sold at deeply discounted prices to individuals who otherwise would not have access to this technology.

Of course, we knew that having a device only gets you so far if you don’t have access to fast, reliable internet — an issue facing more than 163 million individuals across the U.S., according to Pew Charitable Trusts. In Kansas City, we were thrilled to work with Google Fiber to provide Kansas Citians with access to reliable internet. 

Most recently, our collaboration with Google Fiber has facilitated bringing fiber internet to four affordable housing communities in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. Through this project, residents get access to high-speed fiber internet for $15 per month. Now, three of these communities - Pemberton Park, Linwood Gardens and Posada Del Sol - are fully online, and we’ve already seen incredible results for those residents.

“I got my first computer from PCs for People,” said Rose Stigger, Pemberton Park for GrandFamilies manager and resident. “I was the first resident at Pemberton Park, brought up my granddaughters here, and now as I raise my great-grandson here I was the first resident to receive this high speed internet.”

As we continue to expand access to more communities, we’ve learned that building trust with residents is critical to ensuring people make use of this access. In addition to providing quality devices and reliable internet, PCs for People offers digital literacy training to ensure folks make the most of this technology. These services will save residents money, allowing them to allocate those funds to other important needs.

“Up until a few months ago, I didn’t have internet at home,” said Rose. “This internet not only helps my grandson with projects that will surely come up for school but also makes my life easier, too.”

Posted by Tom Esselman, Director, PCs for People Kansas City

Next up, Lakewood, Colorado! 

It’s official. Google Fiber is coming to Lakewood, Colorado. It's not our first foray in the Rocky Mountain state, in fact we've served customers with Google Fiber Webpass in the Denver area since 2017, but it is our first service in Lakewood through our first fiber-to-the-home network in the state. 

Residents in Lakewood have been asking for more competition and options for internet service. We are grateful to the City for working with us on a non-exclusive right-of-way use agreement that enables us to deploy the network efficiently.  

Right now, we’re getting to work on detailed engineering designs, with construction beginning in 2023.  Google Fiber is fast, but network construction is … well, we’ll go as fast as we can, while prioritizing safety and minimizing disruption to traffic and to neighborhoods. Local residents who want more information on service availability or the construction process can sign up for updates.

Lakewood, Colorado, here we come!

Posted by Sasha Petrovic, Southwest Region General Manager