Launching A New Platform Helped Us Double Our Sales To $18M/Year

Hope Horner

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Published: April 5th, 2022

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Hope Horner

Founder, Lemonlight

$1.5M

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Lemonlight

lemonlight.com

from Los Angeles, California, USA

started April 2014

$1,500,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books Hope recommends to grow your business!

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Pur... Tony Hsieh

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Brené Brown

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business Whe... Ben Horowitz

Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the S... Rand Fishkin

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Angela Duckworth

Want more updates on Lemonlight ? Check out these stories:

1. How I Started A $500K/Month Video Production Company From My Bedroom in LA (2019) ➜

2. How We Plan To Launch New Software In 2021 (2020) ➜

This is a follow up story for Lemonlight . If you're interested in reading how they got started, published about 5 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

Hello! My name is Hope Horner, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Lemonlight, a self-serve video production engine that allows brands and agencies to create high-quality content on-demand and at scale.

In 2014, the average cost of a commercial was $342,000 according to the American Advertising Association, which made video production unrealistic for small- and medium-sized businesses. Lemonlight was originally created to expand video production to a larger audience, making it accessible to the SMB market so they could capitalize on video’s many benefits.

As video technology became less expensive, we commoditized the video industry by creating transparency in the pricing and production process that allowed clients to customize the video services they needed. After revolutionizing how video is bought and sold, we’re now redefining the video production space with cutting-edge technology that allows our clients to make custom content at scale.

In 2021, Lemonlight grew to an in-house team of ~70 members supported by more than 1,500 freelancers across the world. We’ve produced over 12,000 videos since 2014, and we’re currently averaging $1.5M in sales per month—double our monthly sales from this time last year.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

So much has changed since this time last year.

In September, we launched a video production platform that serves as a one-stop shop for our clients to purchase and manage their production projects, whether they’re working on a single video or hundreds of videos simultaneously.

We began beta testing with real clients early in the year, and we were thrilled—and relieved—to find that it lived up to its promise to make the production process simpler for our clients, streamlining everything from the purchase process to client communication and even delivering the final video files.

We also launched a new website that more accurately reflects what we can do in the video space. Our previous website was still tailored to our focus on the small- and medium-sized business market, and we needed an update to showcase our pivot towards performance creative (video with ROI as the defining metric) and infusing tech into the video space.

On the sales front, our monthly revenue has doubled, increasing from $600,000 to $1.5 million per month. We were beginning to see our sales recover after the initial pandemic impact in the final months of 2020, and 2021 proved to follow suit. At the beginning of the year, we set what seemed like an unattainable goal to reach $10 million in sales for the year, and with just a few days left in the year, we officially met that goal. It’s a milestone we truly couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago, and it’s a huge testament to the dedication of our team and the continued importance of video as a sales and marketing tactic.

Speaking of our time, we’ve grown from roughly 50 full-time employees to over 70 full-time employees, and we returned to our HQ office on a hybrid model in June. To make room for the new team members, we purchased a new studio space to continue to elevate our productions, and we’ll be converting the old onsite studio into a “Sales Supercenter” for our growing sales team.

Make buying your product or service as easy as possible for your customer. Simplify. Productize.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

The biggest lessons I am learning this year are how to work with middle management. Until this year, we didn’t have many managers between us cofounders and our direct reports. Learning how to work with and through others has been a new experience. One of the things we implemented is a three-point system for deciding how and when to share feedback or new processes:

Level 1: The problem is minor but needs to be addressed - likely from human error. Contact the manager and talk through the problem the same day in 30 minutes or less.
Level 2: This is a bigger problem but a solvable problem through training. Plan to review the training plan with the manager and outline clear outcomes or repercussions.
Level 3: There is likely a systemic or process problem. Spend time writing out the problems, examples, and potential solutions. Schedule an in-person meeting with the manager(s) to review and brainstorm additional solutions. Put an action plan in place to roll out at the next group meeting.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

Next year, we have set our goals high. Since we met this year’s goal to reach $10 million in sales, our goal for next year is to hit $20 million and to double the size of our full-time team.

Many of those new hires will make up our product and engineering team, which will allow us to continue to invest in our video production platform. We’re planning to move 100% of our client base onto the platform next year and expand the features to include video recommendation engine, vendor staffing, and more.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

If you’re struggling to grow, focus on sales and marketing. Make buying your product or service as easy as possible for your customer. Simplify. Productize.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Yes, we are! Our open roles are listed on our LinkedIn page here.As we aim to double our team in 2022, we’ll be hiring across all departments, so keep an eye on our open roles throughout the year.