In the city that never sleeps, Ideoli’s team makes sure to get the most out of every minute during our time in New York. For example, take a look at this jam-packed schedule of our CEO George Stroumboulis from one of his recent 24-hour trips to New York, something he does on an almost weekly basis: Sunday, 9:30 PM: Take a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Newark Monday, 5:00-5:50 AM: Land in Newark and drive into New York City Monday, 6:30 AM: Meet up with Ideoli Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Chris Hartswick in Tribeca for a team meeting Monday, 7:30 AM: Have our first client meeting of the day in Tribeca Monday, 9:00 AM: Get up to Herald Square for our second client meeting of the day Monday, 10:30 AM: Have our third client meeting of the day in Midtown Monday, 12:00 Noon: Drive just north of the city to Westchester for an on-site meeting at an exciting new condo building where we’re supplying light fixtures Monday, 3:00 PM: Head back to the city for our fourth client meeting of the day in Chelsea Monday, 5:00 PM: Cross into Brooklyn for our sixth and last client meeting of the day Monday, 7:00 PM: After a full day of meetings perfectly orchestrated to fit into this one-day schedule, it’s finally time to relax and enjoy some NYC entertainment by taking in a basketball game at Barclays Center Monday, 10:00 PM: Time to head back to Los Angeles with a six-hour flight from Newark As you can see, we fit a lot into one day in New York. But we’re happy to do it to stay connected to clients, team members and partners, and we look forward to more invigorating trips to New York and beyond.
As Ideoli’s business grows, we continue to embed ourselves in new markets around the world, such as with our recent expansion to Japan. Our CEO and Co-Founder George Stroumboulis recently traveled to the booming city of Tokyo to meet with power supply companies based in Japan, as well as to meet with some key clients. Ideoli is very excited to gain access to phenomenal suppliers in Japan, as well to get our advanced LED lighting products into invigorating spaces within the country, primarily in Tokyo. Overall, Japan is an exciting country with tremendous technology and efficiencies. The business practices here set an international gold standard, and we have a lot to learn and share with our partners here. “It’s an immaculate place to be,” says George. Our expansion to Japan marks a significant step for our growing business, and we’re excited to expand within the country as well in other markets around the world.
St. Louis, Missouri is a city known for baseball, the Gateway Arch and…barbecue! While many cities in the US have amazing barbecue joints with their own regional styles, St. Louis is definitely toward the top of the list of the best places for barbecue, if not number one. Wherever and whenever our team travels for work, we like to also get a taste of the local culture, and that often literally means a taste of the local cuisine. So when Ideoli’s Co-Founders George Stroumboulis and Chris Hartswick were recently in St. Louis, they decided to try the landmark Sugarfire Smokehouse, which offers an amazing array of barbecue meats and side dishes. Sugarfire, which received the accolade of having the best sandwich in the world from the 2018 World Food Championships, lived up to its reputation and definitely helps St. Louis’ case for being the best barbecue destination in the US. Needless to say, the boys needed a nap after this meal.
Ideoli’s team travels all over the world for business, and we’re lucky to get to explore so many wonderful, vibrant cultures. Recently, our Co-Founder and CEO George Stroumboulis took his first professional trip to Tokyo. Japan’s always talked about as a place full of productivity, organization, and efficiency. And boy they weren’t kidding! He found that these positive stereotypes about Japan were absolutely spot on. Plus, George found the people in Japan to be very respectful, and he was impressed with how clean and orderly the country is, especially in Tokyo considering it’s such a big city. “It’s unbelievably well organized with tens of millions of people functioning and respecting each other’s space. It’s pretty phenomenal,” says George These positive stereotypes align well with Ideoli’s own ideals of having world-class efficiency and staying organized so that we can meet our goals and deliver the best products to clients. Keep being awesome, Japan! We look forward to taking more trips to Tokyo and other parts of Japan to explore this wonderful country and gain more inspiration.
Growing from a startup into an international brand requires nailing key meetings with both new and existing clients so that we can distribute more of our products and invigorate more spaces around the world. While we’re confident in the quality of our products and our capabilities, it still takes a lot of work to prepare for client meetings, which we tend to have on a weekly basis. Preparing for each meeting can take weeks at a time, and we take a team-based, passionate approach to get ready for these opportunities. And when possible, we like to bring multiple members of our team to the meetings. “Any time we can actually get in front of the customer and show them our product, show them what we can deliver, the quality and the timing…It’s so much better just having everybody in that room,” says Chris Hartswick, Ideoli’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer. During our meetings with clients, we often go over several prototypes that we developed from a design standpoint to outfit their retail and office spaces, and we’re sticklers for detail. For example, the packaging that holds these products needs to be as exciting as the product itself. “Presentation is so important,” says Kathleen Keane, Ideoli’s Marketing Manager. Making a good first impression with packaging helps the client get excited about the products we’re presenting. With our attention to detail, our meticulous planning and our team’s infectious energy, our meetings with clients tend to go very well, and we’re excited to prepare for more!
In order to get the best quality glass for our LED lighting products, we only work with the best partners in this field who follow a sophisticated glass manufacturing process. To start, manufacturers create the perfect mixture of several types of filtered natural sand and chemicals. From there, these contents are mixed and then placed into a large furnace, transitioning molten materials into liquid glass. After being heated to over 1400°C for several hours, the liquid glass is then fed into the custom glass molds to start taking shape, as specified by the product needs of our clients. Last, and most importantly, once the mold is filled, the glass is then slowly cooled by applying controlled heat to prevent breakage. The end result of this process is high-quality glass that can be incorporated into our custom furniture and fixtures and accompanied by the latest and greatest technologies in LED lighting. Ideoli and its partners don’t cut any corners in our manufacturing, including when following this meticulous glass-making process. It’s what we do, and it’s what makes our end products such high quality!
Building a successful global company requires building an incredible team that can take on important responsibilities and support further growth. As Ideoli continues to expand internationally, we’re increasingly developing our footprint in Asia, which has included bringing on our newest Senior Project Manager, Mark. Serving as the project manager for the whole Asia Pacific region, Mark is responsible for all of the production and the dozens of support staff employed through Ideoli’s network on this side of the world. This team is passionate, hard-working and works closely with each other, says Mark. Having dedicated, knowledgeable team members like Mark makes a huge difference in our ability to succeed as an international business. With operations and clients around the globe, it’s important to have people that represent our brand, believe in our vision and contribute to the overall fun of the company. Wonder where the team will expand to next!
At Ideoli, we value not only building a successful global business but also leveraging our success to give back to the communities around the world that we’re active in. In this regard, we are beyond thrilled to announce our next chapter of INVIGORATE YOURCOMMUNITY– where Ideoli embeds itself in local communities to help make a difference. Our latest project took us to Michoacan, Mexico, a beautiful state within a country that’s key to ideoli’s success. Michoacan sits between Guadalajara and Mexico City, and it’s a part of the world surrounded by beauty and wonderful people. To give back to this region, Ideoli’s team went on site to work with local schools that lack the basic essentials needed to create an invigorated environment to learn in. We are helping to fix this, and we are documenting the journey along the way. Stay tuned to see how we invigorate these schools and give back to more communities around the world.
When you make incredible products, you need a freight partner that is just as incredible to help you get those goods to clients. Our freight partners help us navigate the overwhelming geographic, political and economic landscape on a daily basis. One of these partners, Lauren, a freight expert, provides three key tips to ensure that freight supports your business, rather than drags it down due to unexpected delays, costs and errors. 1.Build Trust: “You want to work with somebody you trust because at the end of the day, this person is in charge of your livelihood,” advises Lauren. “You want someone who cares as much about your cargo as you do and who is able to advise you with their expertise and recommend the best ways to go about bringing your goods in.” 2. Know the Rules: “I think the top mistakes are just being unaware or ignorant of rules and regulations at origin countries and even at destination countries,” says Lauren. “You want to educate yourself on as many different aspects about importing as you possibly can.” 3. Make a Plan: “Planning is everything,” notes Lauren. “You want to know the national holidays and the peak seasons at your origin countries so you can avoid extra costs and shipping delays. Knowing all the details about our freight and planning accordingly helps everything run seamlessly for our clients. And with large freight containers needing to ship daily from Ideoli’s factories, we need experts like Lauren to make it happen.
As a global company with clients and projects all over the world, ideoli ships products daily via air, ocean and train. In order to optimize our freight, we need to work with the best in the freight industry. We work with experts such as Lauren to learn more about what’s going on in the industry so that we can stay ahead of any potential issues that change brings. For example, the makeup of the global freight carrier industry has changed in recent years, which can affect who we work with and the details of transporting our products. “Beginning with the collapse of Hanjin in the summer of 2016, we’ve seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions among global carriers. Just a short 5 years ago, we had about 20 major players, whereas this year, we’re working with14,” explains Lauren. In addition to internal industry changes, political and economic changes also affect the freight industry. For example, tariffs between the US and China have made an impact on international freight. “The immediate impact that we’ve seen has definitely been an extended peak season,” says Lauren. “Shippers are trying to get their goods out of China before newer tariffs hit or the current tariffs are increased.” Going forward, Lauren thinks that clients will try to diversify their sourcing so as not to rely so much on China. It will take time for other origin countries to develop their resources, but Lauren sees a shift on the horizon. “I think shippers are really going to start to try and source from different places to avoid these tariffs.” This advice from one of the experts we frequently work with helps ideoli stay on top of our freight so that we can deliver amazing products to clients with amazing results.
As described in a recent article and video of ours, we rented out the luxury mattress retailer Coco-Mat’s showroom in the fashionable SoHo neighborhood of New York City for a fun night of drinks and a cooking class to reward our hard-working team. In this article and video, we’ll tell you all about the delicious food we made! The team took a class from a wonderful company called Cozymeal and we cooked up four amazing dishes. First, we started with a Horiatiki salad, which is a traditional Greek saladcomprised of tomatoes, cucumber, Kalamata olives and Greek feta. Fun fact: Greek salad is not made with lettuce. Next, we made zucchini and halloumi fritters with garlic, cumin and lemon yogurt sauce. It was as delicious as it sounds, and that was just the beginning! For the main course, we made Greek lamb kleftiko with potatoes and seasonal vegetables. “Kleftiko” means Greek lamb wrapped in parchment paper. Using this technique helps to keep in all the flavors. Lastly, for dessert, we made Bougatsa, which is a delightful Greek style custard pastry with cinnamon. It was the perfect way to complete the meal. As tasty as the meal was, the best part was how our team members were able to spend quality time together away from our daily work. These types of fun activities help make us even stronger as a company!
Ideoli’s rapid growth and commitment to excellence is not only catching the attention of clients and industry awards; we’re also hitting the public eye, such as with our CEO George Stroumboulis being featured in VoyageLA. VoyageLA is an innovative online publication that highlights the best that LA has to offer, particularly the entrepreneurs, small businesses and artists that make the area unique. The magazine recently interviewed George about entrepreneurship and created a profile on him as a result.In the article, George shares the backstory on how he and Co-Founder Chris Hartswick started ideoli and grew it into an international success, including some of the ups and downs along the way. George also shares some important personal insights, such as how he prioritizes family time despite being such a busy entrepreneur. His family is both supportive and closely involved with ideoli, and his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter is often in the office and even traveling with him to job sites when possible.In addition, George shares his views on what it’s like to run an international business with employees and partners in different time zones around the globe. Communication tools, and lots of airline miles, help him stay globally connected. Be sure to check out the full profile on George to learn more about his experience running ideoli. You might pick up a few entrepreneurial tips along the way too!