Yanni Hufnagel Quotes

I jumped up, and that night I googled how to start a beverage company. And what I’ll say is the skill set between coaching college basketball and recruiting at that level and building a beverage company — they’re very harmonious. And I had a fascination with consumer brands — even when I was coaching — especially those in the natural channel. And so there’s been real utility in my coaching skill set now as we’re building this business.

The four Ps that I consider paramount to winning in the beverage business are product, price, packaging, and people. We got that right early on.

Publix, Ralphs, and Stew Leonard's are among America's most iconic retailers, and the early velocity data we're seeing in each account is very exciting. We're absolutely thrilled.

Beverage is an expensive game, and access to capital is the only way to drive a fast-scaling brand forward. We want to be a disruptive player in a large category and want to put fuel on the fire. We felt like we were able to drive great execution, but still have room to grow and want to build a big margin story for tomorrow.

Our bottle doesn’t look like anything on the shelf before us. There was never a product created even in the same realm as Lemon Perfect. No one ever said, Can we take something made from real fruit and give it the flavor profile that America craves and do it with no sugar?

I have to tell you, Ray, I’ve been obsessive about protecting our IP, really from second one. So I think the registration was not that far behind, yes. And when I speak with other founders — not only in food and beverage — the first thing I always ask is, “Have you filed to trademark your IP, your name?” Because without that, generally speaking, you’re back to zero. I mean, a name change after you launch is very challenging, if not impossible. And so one of the first things I ask after, “Are you well capitalized?” and “Let me try the product. How does it taste?” would be, “Do you own your IP?”

As we dive meaningfully into the NIL ecosystem, we're honored to have C.J. join our Lemon Perfect team as a spokesperson for great-tasting healthy hydration. C.J. is a one-of-a-kind football prospect whose reach will continue to accelerate with each Herculean play he makes on the field. Powered by lemons, C.J. is poised to have one of the best statistical seasons ever by a Heisman-winning quarterback while leading Ohio State to a national championship.

Life is never a straight line.

We’re going to change the way people drink water. To do that, you have to be able to play on price.

There’s nothing in the category with our flavor profile, the freshness of our flavor profile, our nutritional deck, and zero sugar. We’re bottled in 100% recycled plastic, and we’re organic. I think we’ve got magic inside the bottle. When people drink the brand, they come back in a big way, and the data suggests that.

I knew that flavor was going to be key, so we had to have a product that tasted great and checked off all the prevalent consumer boxes. Everything must start with a great product. You must be passionate about it.

Nothing with our flavor and health profile is on the market today. And, our price point is at where a consumer anywhere and anytime can become a customer. It is very rare that you can have a total addressable market like we do.

My heart wants this brand to be ubiquitous. Sometimes you get one opportunity to build something that can be ubiquitous in the way that Lemon Perfect can be.

The early investor enthusiasm for Lemon Perfect has been energizing and humbling. The brand is resonating broadly across multiple demographics, and that diversity is well represented by our investors.

It doesn’t matter how much money you make, what you look like, where you shop, where you live. Flavor knows no boundaries.