Today we’d like to introduce you to Hope Horner.
Hope, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in Johnson City, TN – a small town in the northeast corner of the state. For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of moving to Los Angeles and starting my own business. The most direct way to carry out that plan was to prepare for college in SoCal after high school graduation. When I was in seventh grade, I set my heart on Pepperdine University.
Eventually, a few years later, I visited the campus, as well as several others. Indeed, my adolescent instincts rang true and Pepperdine, without question was the school for me. When the moment arrived, I applied and was accepted.
I moved to Los Angeles in the late summer of 2004 to attend the college of my dreams and begin the exploration of my adulthood. In my eyes, California was exceptional, embracing culture and diversity in a way I never knew was possible. The opportunities seemed endless, and I was eager to leap right into the mix. I delved into an array of entrepreneurial ventures back then – everything from referral marketing to opening a tutoring business – before ultimately securing a job in gym sales. While working at 24 Hour Fitness and eventually Equinox for several years, I identified a unique opportunity within the health and wellness industry. An opportunity to bring personal trainers and massage therapists directly to consumers. This turned out to be the core concept behind the first company I started at 22 years old – BetterYou.
It was 2008 – a time when LA startup culture was very limiting. Resources were scarce, and it wasn’t easy learning how to start and run a company with no experience. Still, I plodded through the journey for a couple of years attempting to figure it all out. Although it came with some success and a lot of learning lessons, it ultimately didn’t end the way I had anticipated. The next few years were spent working with startups, immersing myself in the environment, and learning how to sharpen my leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
On April 1st of 2014, I started my second company, Lemonlight, out of a bedroom with my two co-founders, Daniel Marlow, and Chad Rogers. Lemonlight’s intention was to provide SMBs access to high-quality, affordable video content that they could use to advertise their brand online.
During that time, a 30-second commercial had an average cost of $342,000, according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies. It was full of drawn-out creative meetings and customized pricing based on the size of the company. We saw this as an opportunity to bring clarity to an industry that had long operated in a very cloudy world restricted to the business elite.
In a way, we commoditized video production. We offered a pre-built pricing menu that was affordable to the majority of business owners. Once the videos were created, we taught clients how to properly distribute them as online ads to grow their own business. After working with clients in Los Angeles, we expanded our reach to the Houston market and other major cities in Texas. From that point on, we continued to grow across the U.S. and internationally as well.
Since the beginning of our journey in 2014, we have experienced both highs and lows. There are days we celebrated, and days where I didn’t want to show up to work because reality was daunting. As a self-financed business, there’s no safety net to fall back on.
Today, we are a full-time team of 36 individuals and more than 400 freelancers across the nation. We’ve produced almost 7000 videos for more than 3000 brands and 50 partners. We’ve been recognized as one of the top 500 fastest growing companies in the U.S. in Inc. Magazine and as one of the top 360 companies for the past two years by Entrepreneur Magazine. We were also awarded the eighth spot as the fastest growing media company in the United States in 2018. We owe our success to our unwavering commitment to providing high-quality video content at affordable rates.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The entrepreneurship journey is paved with struggles and, at times, seemingly insurmountable roadblocks. Last year, I published an article in Entrepreneur [https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306734] that exposed some of these dark realities. Here are a few other challenges I have faced along the way:
It’s difficult to feel accomplished or fulfilled in your achievements. Every time you hit a goal, there’s already a new, greater, and more frightening milestone waiting ahead. To give you a better idea, imagine a dream in which you are running a marathon that never ends. Just as you are about to cross the finish line, the finish line extends another 28 miles.
For the first couple of years of business, I was completely inundated with the number of issues I had to “resolve” every day. We were expanding, and from afar, everything seemed perfect. However, it seemed as if every single day was full of new constraints and problems.
At first, these problems disheartened me, leaving me with feelings of helplessness. In my mind, I disconnected “successful” businesses and businesses with problems. Later on, I came to realize that this understanding was false. As the CEO, the toughest challenges fall on you to fix, and part of my job was and will always be, to fix these inevitable problems.
As this understanding settled in, I began taking problems less personally and focused my attention on finding quick and effective solutions so that I could handle the next one.
Lemonlight – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Lemonlight is an on-demand video production company that offers brands, despite the size or location, access to high-quality video content at an affordable price. Since 2015, we’ve expanded to major cities like Houston, Austin, New York, Miami, San Francisco, as well as many others. We expect this growth to continue across the country and overseas.
Beyond brands, we also work with creative, marketing, and media agencies around the country. Our focus on high-quality, affordable video content fits right into the marketing strategy these agencies implement for their clients. Our modernized processes guarantee a seamless experience for our partners and their clients on every project from start to finish.
We guarantee every partner:
1. Reliability: Our depth of experience assures that their clients will receive a quality video every single time.
2. Scalability: We have vetted production teams across the world. Wherever their clients are located, we are too.
3. Affordability: We believe in sharing business and success, so our partnership rates are affordable and flexible.
In addition to the accolades we’ve won, I would have to say that I’m most proud of the number of return and regular clients we have. Our monthly orders indicate that over 50% come from previous clients, which means we’re delivering a great service that brings value and is appreciated.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To be successful is to be resilient. No successful business escapes struggle. It only overcomes it. Many of the most influential and profiting businesses failed numerous times before ever achieving success. What sets them apart is their ability to quickly adapt and overcome hardship. As a startup, you have to be comfortable with the hardships and the change that comes with it – we’ve moved offices four times, we’ve altered our products and services, we’ve added team members and let others go – but what’s most important is we have come out the other side stronger than before.
Success is also defined by the people you surround yourself with. We would not be where we are today if it weren’t for my business partners – Daniel Marlow and Chad Rogers. It is hard to imagine having to make some of the most crucial decisions that could make or break the success of a business without them. Having a support system that motivates each other and holds each other accountable is everything.
Of course, being successful also means surrounding yourself with a happy, thriving team you can rely on every day to provide your customers with an extraordinary experience. We owe everything to our dynamic team of strategists, editors and producers who stick together, celebrate together, and succeed together! We could not be where we are or where we are going without them.
Pricing:
- Brand Video: $3000
- Product Video: $3500
- Animated Explainer Video: $1750
- Highlight Video: $1500
- Event Video: $3000
- Crowdfunding Video: $3000-$9000
- and many more!
- In addition to these popular videos selections, we offer packages to carry out your video strategy long term, or à la carte options for a totally customizable, on-demand experience.
Contact Info:
- Address: 226 S Glasgow Ave Los Angeles, CA 90301
- Website: https://www.lemonlight.com/
- Phone: 310.402.0275
- Email: hello@lemonlight.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemonlightmedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lemonlightmedia/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lemonlightmedia
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lemonlight-media/
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition, please let us know here.
