Photo credit: Brandon The Plant Guy/ Instagram
In 2020, he was working as an administrative assistant at a Los Angeles real estate office and living paycheck to paycheck when he lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic. He decided to try the same idea, posting his first listing, a pink plant in a pink pot, in April or May 2020. Six years later, Hurst’s company has sold more than 100,000 plants in 2026 alone and now generates millions of dollars in gross annual sales, as per the report. What once operated from his roughly 600-square-foot apartment now employs 24 people, sells about 5,000 plants each week, and processes around 1,000 orders a day. The business has also moved into a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, giving Hurst and his family room to grow beyond the apartment where it all began.
Customers began messaging him almost immediately, and that small experiment became the foundation of a multimillion-dollar family business, according to PEOPLE. Brandon Hurst never planned to become a plant seller. Looking for a way to make extra money, he began reselling items on Facebook Marketplace, then noticed a woman selling inexpensive plants bought from a dollar store.
At one point, the family was selling more than 1,000 plants a week from the apartment, sometimes reaching 2,000. Hurst received an early invitation to sell through TikTok Shop and hosted his first livestream on April 18, 2023. He expected to sell about 30 plants. Instead, he sold 250 in roughly three hours, far beyond what he and his family had prepared for. New sellers were limited to 300 orders during a probationary period, and the business repeatedly reached that cap. In February 2026, Hurst began renting space at a family-run nursery in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The new location includes a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse and an attached house, providing much needed room for inventory, packing, and livestream sales.
Hurst recalled that they were “shoving plants in places” they never expected, turning every available corner of the home into storage, packing space, or a sales area. The early days were physically demanding. Shelving units filled the balcony, dining room, and living room, while Hurst’s former bedroom became a livestreaming space. With no employees at the time, Hurst, Josh, and his mother packed orders late into the night, filling the living room with nursery bags and plants. The approach has helped the company scale while keeping the personal connection that made it successful. Hurst hosts live sales several nights a week, sometimes for six to eight hours at a time. Rather than presenting the livestreams as hard selling, he treats them as community gatherings where customers can ask questions, share stories, and feel part of something. As the business expanded, the apartment could no longer keep up. The move marked a major shift from a home based operation to a more established business.