Behind the Scenes of My New Partnership with Lemon Perfect

I announced my partnership with enhanced water brand Lemon Perfect on Tuesday! This relationship has been years in the making, and I wanted to use this platform to share some more information on the backstory than could fit in the press release. As with all of the investments I make, my relationship with Lemon Perfect started with me being an actual consumer of the product. I first tasted Lemon Perfect during a meeting a few years ago. I thought the drink was so unique that I cold emailed Yanni Hufnagel, Founder and CEO, from my hotel room at World Team Tennis to learn more about the company.

Since that day, Yanni has been in my corner and kept me updated on Lemon Perfect’s growth. When the opportunity came to invest in Lemon Perfect earlier this year, I jumped on it. More than the financial investment, I wanted to structure a partnership where I could work with Lemon Perfect to support causes we both believe in, namely wellness and education. As part of our partnership, Lemon Perfect will contribute to my Doc & Glo scholarship with Bold.org - but more on that later in this interview!

Before starting Lemon Perfect, Yanni coached college basketball for 10 years. While coaching, he was known as one of the top recruiters in college basketball, and he is now known as one of the most high-energy, dynamic, and passionate leaders in venture-backed food and beverage. I can attest to the energy first hand–he is always fired up and sending encouraging texts before my matches. Over a series of multiple voice notes, I asked Yanni to answer some questions for us about his entrepreneurial journey. Fresh off closing a $31 million Series A, including an investment from Queen Bey herself, Yanni is looking ahead to the future, and I’m proud to join the team. Without further ado, let’s get to it!

SS: Ok, Yanni. Tell us about how Lemon Perfect began? How was the idea conceived?

YH: I coached college basketball for 10 years. My last year, I was at the University of Nevada, Reno. At this time, a friend of mine, Matt, had just written a book on the ketogenic diet. In the back of Matt’s book were sample meal plans, all of which called for starting every day by drinking organic lemon water. I was looking for some structure around my workout and diet plan, and organic lemon water in the morning became a nonnegotiable part of my daily routine. However, it was quite a nuisance. There was only one Whole Foods in Reno–which is where I had to go to buy organic lemons–and it was 15 minutes away from the coaches’ offices and practice facility. Then you have to cut and squeeze the lemon, juice all over the countertop, bland taste, annoying cleanup process. But I stuck with it and felt great. Toward the end of the season, I was in the locker room, and all of our coaches and players were drinking Bai and Vitaminwater. This was the first quarter of 2017, so really at the height of Bai’s growth story. I had a moment: I said, Hold on. Can you take organic lemon water and make it taste great? That seed—this idea of great flavor that’s also good for you—has been the bedrock of our brand from day one. A week after the season, I was in Santa Monica having lunch with a very entrepreneurial-minded friend, and I was talking about this idea with him. He said, “I love it. Anything you can do that can capture a piece of someone’s daily routine—what they do in the morning when they first get up, what they do at night when they go to sleep, or anything in between—is worth going for. True story: I jumped up, and that night I googled how to start a beverage company.

SS: I love that advice about capturing a piece of the daily routine. This is quite the career pivot - in what ways does college basketball coaching translate to running a beverage company?

YH: Building a beverage company and coaching college basketball require a lot of the same tools. In both, you need to wake up every day and focus on recruiting exceptional talent, developing your people or players, and focusing on the scoreboard. Both professions are win-lose propositions and require unrelenting energy and uncommon grit to be the last team standing.

SS: Lemon Perfect came on as a sponsor of my Doc & Glo Scholarship at Bold.org. Can you share more about why supporting this initiative is important to you both personally as a former college coach and professionally as a CEO?

YH: At Lemon Perfect, our mission is to promote healthy hydration and deliver the joy of flavor–anytime, anywhere, and for everyone. Through the same lens, your commitment to education for everyone is inspiring, particularly because of my time spent in higher education, and we are thrilled to support such a fantastic scholarship.

SS: Thank you! So to pivot to the tough questions, we both know how much hard work is required to keep innovating and stay ahead of the competition. But anyone that has been there knows it can feel pretty daunting to make major changes and risk upending the status quo. As you’ve built your company, have you had any moments when you’ve decided to make big changes or difficult decisions?

YH: When we launched our product, keep-refrigerated brands like Suja, Wtrmln Wtr, and Rebbl were on fire. I didn’t know what was behind the curtain; I didn’t know that those were impossible businesses because of the limiting factors with respect to being perishable and the gross margin limitations, for instance. I reached a point where I said, We’re not coming out of our cave until we figure out how to go shelf-stable, and whatever we come up with is going to be as good or better than the original product. So we basically stopped selling the keep-refrigerated product. We handled the business that we had—and we had actually just gotten into the Northeast Region of Whole Foods (keep refrigerated). When you get a little momentum, and then you have to make a big decision like this—think about that. And I had already flipped it on our investors before we had even sold our first bottle when we delayed our launch six months because I didn’t feel like our original packaging gave us the best chance to win coming out of the starting gates. But I ultimately decided to go back to our investors and say, Hold on, we’re going to completely pivot again! Looking back, I think all of our investors are happy that I made that big decision.

SS: Something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about in my leadership and managerial roles is the importance of culture for any successful team. Coming from basketball and now running Lemon Perfect, how do you think about establishing and maintaining a culture on your teams?

YH: It’s all about the people, and there must be tremendous buy-in toward a goal. For us at Lemon Perfect, it’s about being the number one brand in the enhanced water category by dollar share. That journey is tough, so we need a team of people with unbounding enthusiasm for our product and uncommon grit, and we recruit teammates who unequivocally have both attributes. We place big importance on a team-first, sales-focused culture and are very transparent with our team about our vision for the future so that everyone is chasing the same North Star.

SS: Lemon Perfect’s product exists to help people make a better, healthier choice. But running such a fast-growing business is incredibly demanding. How do you carve out that time for yourself? What does your fitness and wellness regimen include?

YH: I empower our leadership to make decisions, which helps me be more efficient with my time. I prioritize sleep, and I work out most days first thing in the morning, followed by a 3-minute cold plunge. Having a morning wellness routine holds me accountable and gives me good energy to attack the day. I enjoy weight training in the gym, and I also do high-intensity cardio work on the AssaultRunner and AssaultBike, both machines of which I recently put in my apartment. I mostly stick to eating whole foods, and not surprisingly, I keep sugar to a minimum! I certainly never drink sugar, which is the root of so much of the destruction of health in America. I think staying in the best physical shape possible is important to my work–it all carries over.

SS: I see your workout reels on Instagram, you’re putting in work! We’re close to the end here. What do you want people to take away about Lemon Perfect from this interview?

YH: I hope the audience feels my passion for building a great business that can return on capital for our shareholders, my enthusiasm for developing our people, and most importantly, the impact that Lemon Perfect can have on the health of Americans–especially in the most underserved communities–by removing millions of pounds of sugar from the American diet and changing the way that people drink water.

SS: I love that answer, Yanni! Anything else you’d like to share?

YH: Yes! If you haven’t yet, try Lemon Perfect! And if you have, share hydration that’s good for you–and good for your tastebuds–with all your friends! Use code SLOANE25 on your lemonperfect.com order, our deepest discount of the year just in time for National Lemon Day on the 29th.

Calling all NYC Bulletin subscribers - Lemon Perfect is popping up TODAY, Friday 8/26, in the Meatpacking District beginning at 2pm. I'll be stopping by after 4pm! Come out to try the drink, take some photos, and meet me!