Sunday - Reinventing How We Care for Our Lawns and Gardens

Ramon Vela (00:02.914)
Welcome back everyone. We have a great show. I have with me, Coulter Lewis, who is founder and CEO of Sunday. Welcome to the show.

Coulter (00:29.22)
Thanks, Raymond. Great to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:31.106)
Well, I have to let the audience know that, culture here is actually an alumni of the show. He's been on the show. we, we did a great episode. it was titled transforming lawns and lives through empowerment and sustainability. And that was back in November 21st of 2023. So that one is up on our website. You can take a look and we go deep into his background and all sort of like the startup story of.

how he started Sunday and why and so forth. And we'll cover a little bit of that today. But just in case anyone wants to know and wants to go back, I definitely encourage you to go listen to that one. We go deep into the startup story as I mentioned. And today we're gonna cover a little bit of that like I said, but we're also gonna cover a lot of what's been going on in the last couple of years. And it looks like there's a lot of stuff going on. So before we do that, let's...

take on my first and my favorite question. And this is my signature question. I ask for every founder, any CEO who's been on the show. I always ask this question. It's really important to me. And there's a couple of reasons why. One is it's a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. It has helped me through my darkest moments. And that is gratitude. So this next question centers around that. And again, for me, it's something that's so powerful.

and it's free and it's available to everyone. I do a meditation practice, but others journal, some people pray, whatever it is, but it's very, very powerful. And if you're feeling stress or anxiety, which there's a lot of stuff going on in the news, you can definitely use gratitude to help put things in context and just help control and manage your nervous system. So definitely encourage that. The other reason why I ask it is that on a consumer standpoint, it's very easy to see products

on the shelf or online and simply think it's a faceless corporation. And they don't really think twice about the people behind the company. And here on the show, I want you to know that there's real people who care deeply about their products, about their community, about their consumers, and who really bleed sweat and tear over bringing a product to market. And one kind of way to humanize that is to get to know who we're.

Ramon Vela (02:53.678)
featuring here who we're speaking with, Kulture in this case, and really kind of get to know who he is as a person. And I find that knowing what someone's grateful for is a great way to do that. So Kulture, with all of that said, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision, or your potential?

Coulter (03:17.442)
Yeah, absolutely. I think I'd say like first, like there's a lot. There's no chance you can do something like this and something from scratch to a scale without a whole lot of people believing in you and a whole lot of help along the way. So I'm deeply grateful for so much help. So many different steps. I think I'll have to go back to kind of really right at the beginning.

Ramon Vela (03:24.757)
Thank

Ramon Vela (03:39.918)
Thank

Coulter (03:45.486)
when Sunday was an idea and I was exploring the space and learning how much there was to fix and how we might approach it totally differently. And I had a rough idea of what that was, but no proof, no product market fit, no nothing. It was just a kind of a wild concept. I also didn't have any of my own funds to be able to start something like this and to be able to start to bring together the resources needed to actually get it off the ground.

So it was probably a reckless move for me to do this and not just go get a job. I think my wiring is probably a little off in that regard, but I needed help. I needed to be able to have some early support in the brand. And I was lucky to have some really, really amazing pre-seed, whatever you want to call it, type of investors that basically just believed in me and believed in the rough idea of what this might become, knowing it would probably change.

And among them, John Forker was someone that we knew well and had supported the journey of Quinn Snacks, my wife's business, as that developed. And we built that business brick by brick and he was along for the journey with that and always kind of lended his ear and his advice and his expertise in the world of CPG and food, which was invaluable. And then when it came to this, I called up John and he said, yeah, I'm in, I'm back in, I'm with you. And just that.

Ramon Vela (05:09.837)
you

Coulter (05:11.812)
kind of that immediate, like this is a no brainer, surprised me so much. That level of, I don't know, just he didn't need convincing, didn't need any sort of dog and pony show. He just understood me and understood what we were trying to do here and I want to be part of it. And that was huge. And in those early moments of starting something, you're so vulnerable. I am, think, you know, maybe it's not always true, but...

You're really looking for signals of like, I crazy or not? And that sort of, someone's showing that level of belief in me is, I don't know, essential for it to keep going and to figure out, scale something and make it bigger. So that's why we're here.

Ramon Vela (05:56.002)
Well, I love that example. And there's a couple of things I want to point out on that really quick. And that is it does, it does go to the, to the, you know, the core of the question, which is that he believed in you, and was believing in your vision and your potential. But the other thing I want to mention too is, and I think what people forget is he believed in you because he's already seen

kind of who you are, what your personality is. And it wasn't just like, hey, I'm going to out of the blue, just, you know, become the person that someone would invest in. You were already that person that someone would invest in. And I know it's a slight difference, but the thing is I always see a lot of people think, you know, when I, when I do this, I'm going to

be better at it. When I try this, I'm going to be better at it. When I do this, I'm going to do a better job. When I get this job, I'm going to really push hard. And I always tell people, like, it's an old saying, but that old saying about how you do anything is how you do everything. people see your character, see who you are, see how hard you work, see how committed you are to whatever you're doing. And that lends itself to all your future.

opportunities. Anyhow, that's how I looked at it, what you said. And I think it's important to note that because, you know, people don't just, when they give up business money, it's not necessarily about the mission or the plan, because plans and ideas are a dime a dozen. It's really about investing in that person and their, and investors believe that they will execute what they, what they say they will execute. Bottom line. And so,

To me, that's what makes your story really, really important.

Coulter (07:57.242)
Absolutely, totally agree.

Ramon Vela (07:58.862)
Well, let's we have a lot of stuff to catch up on. So like I said, everyone, I'll list the episode that we did originally, we're going to go. We did a deep dive into the background and so forth. Today, I kind of want to do a little bit something different. There's a lot of stuff that has been changed, a lot of updates, and I kind of want to go through some of those. I'm sure there's new challenges in place as well, both from a business standpoint as well as.

climate change wise and so forth. So when we get started first with, for those who may not know who Sunday is, why don't you give us sort of like a 100,000 foot overview of Sunday and then we'll dive into certain areas.

Coulter (08:42.916)
Yeah, so Sunday is revolutionizing how we care for our piece of the earth. How people care for their yards, their gardens, and their outdoor home. And the way we do that is we do that through making products that are better for the environment, part of the ecosystem, but also help you have that kind of beautiful outcome you're looking for and have a yard that you're proud of.

But we combine those products with an actual end-to-end experience. So there's a whole lot of technology and data we can get into that, that we do. kind of like Ag Tech at the backyard scale. So we analyze your property and help support our customers every step of the way. So, you know, most homeowners are start at a state of kind of like, I kill houseplants and they need a tremendous amount of help every step of the way to be able to be better at this part of the light, to be to care for this really important piece of the earth. So somebody is there to do that.

to make the better way the easy way essentially.

Ramon Vela (09:35.682)
Well, and I actually may need you to be more specific on that because I think we're kind of missing the magic a little bit. mean, what you said was fantastic, but I remember now a couple of things that we talked about in terms of like how you do this that I was very impressed by. The other number that I remember being very impressed by was that lawns and please correct me, lawns.

Coulter (09:41.572)
Sure.

Coulter (09:47.074)
Yep.

Coulter (09:55.576)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (10:04.191)
if taking as a crop within the United States is the largest crop in the United States, right? So there's more lawns per square footage than there are of any other crop. And so that's really kind of like the opportunity for you because there's so many lawns. Unfortunately, I don't have a lawn anymore, but when I had a lawn, man, what could I have used your help because I was terrible at...

you know, not only just mowing the lawn, but also just caring for it. Like most of the time it was pretty much dirt. I don't even know if I would call it a lawn. It was more like a little plot of dirt that I was trying to water and fix. And no matter what I did, it never seemed to do well. And I just felt like I didn't have a green thumb. And that is the story of so many different people. So we just are, we're just, I don't know what it is. We just don't know how to do it.

Coulter (10:36.366)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (10:59.233)
So walk us through because it's so interesting how from satellite and computers and the models that you have and everything else really to me is really interesting. So let's go into that a little bit.

Coulter (11:11.074)
Yeah, but I also want to hit on what you're saying. You're completely right. think what was astounding to us when we first started Sunday is we did a lot of user research as part of my background to get inspiration for really kind of wild solutions. we learned that everyone, I mean, generally speaking, very, very nearly everybody's in the spot of IQ houseplants. But on top of that,

I'm a little different. I'm not very good at this. This idea that other people are generally good at it, but me personally, I'm not. And the reality is that almost nobody is. It's agriculture. This is really complex stuff. And so the need for support and help is essentially universal. And just this, I don't know, it's wild to me that it's been an unmet need for this long. And then just...

It is the third largest crop in the US. There's more alfalfa and corn, but it is tied with wheat. Pretty much, if you zoom in on the United States, you're going to land in a cornfield, soyfield, sorry, soy not alfalfa, soyfield or someone's backyard. Absolutely huge part of the landscape. The way we care for it, just talk about the problem we're solving a little bit here. When you have a yard that is managed, it gets about five times for pesticides per acre than an industrial farm gets.

Ramon Vela (11:55.724)
Yeah.

you

Coulter (12:21.87)
The science and the toxicity applied here is all very poor and very dated and very toxic to the environment and to the people living there. So it's just, there's so much to fix here. But at the root of that is empowering that homeowner to be like, I can do this and taking that third largest crop that's managed by 90 million homeowners and making them feel like they can go out there and do it, take control. So that's really the core of Sunday. And the way we do that is we...

We need to earn a spot of being their pro. The place they turn for advice and the place they turn for inspiration to help be better in this part of their life. That means we need to know everything about them and their yard. That's the thing about this space that's so specific. So yeah, there's satellite imagery that we use. We actually take soil tests.

our customers on the direct to consumer side of the business send us soil samples. It's optional, but the majority of them do. We now have 350,000 soil samples, so largest soil database ever accumulated as far as we understand. So we have actually publishing scientific papers now on the data we have and carbon sequestration of yards, all these different things that we can see because of all this data now. But all of that goes down to service you and your yard. to be, you know, the metaphor was what if you had

Bob Villa as a neighbor and Martha Stewart as a neighbor and they would lean over the fence at just the right time and give you that advice for the thing to grow or look out for this or we're in drought just so you know you should do these things. How much more do you do in your yard? How much better do you care of it? How much different is that experience overall? If we all had that, mean, the earth would look different from space. It'd be huge. So we collect a lot of data and then interpret that data to become your professional and give you that actionable advice all the time.

Ramon Vela (13:39.117)
you

Coulter (14:02.522)
And that's the role of Sunday, really. And then, you know, on top of that, we supply the products as well. And that's how we're able to offer all of that support and guidance for free because the products go along with it.

Ramon Vela (14:12.448)
Wow. I love that. then that whole just what you just described, that whole process to me is so amazing. And so it's almost as if, it's almost as if you've, you've taken an industrial, type of process that corporations and farms and everyone, you know, thousands of dollars, millions of dollars for, and you've, you've been able to scale it down to a homeowner.

Coulter (14:15.098)
Thank

Ramon Vela (14:42.706)
And it made it make it accessible to homeowners, which to me is incredible because you know, like, like I said, the whole satellite thing and the soil testing and all of that is really just amazing. And to me that that puts you so far above like pretty much anyone who does lawn care. I don't want to denigrate anyone, any other company, but I mean, the, the, the, the,

data that you capture, the analysis that you do, and then of course you have these products. It's like, don't know any other company that does this kind of stuff. So it's pretty impressive.

Coulter (15:20.846)
Yeah, and I think if you compare it to what the experience is today. So the experience today for a typical consumer is you go to a home improvement store, you see a shelf that you smell from 20 feet away. It smells like poison. You're kind of holding your breath a little bit. And there's just racks and racks of bags of stuff. And they might say 20 % more nitrogen. And you're like, what's nitrogen? So you buy a bag of something that looks like maybe it'll work. You check out and in the parking lot, you're on your own. But the thing you're caring for is so important. It's your piece of the earth.

Ramon Vela (15:38.89)
Mm-hmm.

Coulter (15:50.822)
thrilling to me is like what we're doing is people to take their values that they espouse and live out in other parts of their life and extend them into their backyard. And we're doing that not just through lawn but also through garden and pest control. All of the things you do outside home is kind of where Sunday is focusing. That may be a bit of an update from last time we spoke as well.

Ramon Vela (16:09.418)
Yeah, well, so this is amazing. Let me let the audience know if you want to take a look at what we've been talking about and what we will be talking about, talking about, you can go to get Sunday.com get Sunday.com, which by the way, this episode will be out before Black Friday and Cyber Weekend, Cyber Monday. And I think this makes a great gift. So if you have someone.

If you own a house or if you have someone in your life who owns a house and takes care of a lawn, this couldn't be a better gift than, there's no better gift than this for them. This would be the gift that keeps giving it. I'm sure we'll go into it like maybe there's like a gift car that you can give people and so forth. But, so this is amazing. So let's talk a little bit about some of the changes that have gone on.

Coulter (16:50.596)
Sorry.

Ramon Vela (17:01.93)
I don't know where you want to start because I know there's environmental changes that have gone on just in general, but then there's also specific changes have gone on. One of the areas that I wanted to talk about, and we don't have to talk about it first, but we can start wherever you want, is we've seen a lot of the weather patterns change. We've seen crops being impacted by climate change or whatever you want to call it.

Coulter (17:08.195)
Yep.

Ramon Vela (17:30.1)
And so it just feels like it's just getting more severe, like the weather and so forth. And it's definitely affecting crops. So if we're looking at lawns as a third largest crop, is there anything that is challenging from that perspective for homeowners?

Coulter (17:40.782)
Yep.

Coulter (17:45.518)
I mean, yeah, it's interesting to see a debate about it, but in our data, it's so.

so evident and moving continuously. And so we constantly have to adapt. think, you know, typically in the past, you would use what's called 30 year historicals. And so you base climate on a 30 year average. That's no longer really relevant. That's going to give you the wrong data because data now is different than it was, you know, 30 years ago, obviously. We're seeing prevalence of things like ticks, which we help people control, just continually move south down the country and, you know, just expand in their habitat because it's

changes. We're seeing things like Bermuda grass growing in the northeast where years ago it would not have grown there. the earth is adapting and so it's a bit of a moving target for people as well because know their chiropractors have to adapt too.

And then in terms of extreme weather events, yeah, absolutely, that's relevant to us. I mean, we watch weather continuously. It's a huge part of how this Sunday is run, not only nationally, but locally. And we're able to do things like respond to specific weather events. if some of our customers are in an area that has a specific, more devastating weather event.

We'll pause everything we do for them, write them, reach out, ask how we can help. And we're able to kind of have that level of awareness on a per customer basis. And that's every year, right? That's not a rare event anymore. That's very common. yeah, weather and the changing weather patterns and changing climate are a big part of Sunday.

Ramon Vela (19:19.668)
And by the way, I just want to point out for the listeners in case they kind of missed that, but I love that, that you, because you know so much about their lawn and you have the technology around it, you are able then in...

in real, well, you know, more or less real time, as you see the weather patterns, you can email them, call them, whatever, however you communicate with them and let them know like, hey, there's going to be some weather patterns. There's going to be, you know, possible flooding or whatever it is, you know, and then kind of give them an FYI in terms of their lawn, in terms of, know, so to me, that is amazing. That is really, really above and beyond. So let's also talk about,

The other changes that you've had, one is you, I think you recently got some funding and that was just great news. But I'm really interested in how, what is the plan for that funding and how are you going to, how is that going to impact the business or your goals for that to impact the business?

Coulter (20:18.458)
Sure.

Coulter (20:25.434)
I mean, yeah, it's such a, I don't know, a great moment for Sunday and ability for us to continue to pursue what is really a big objective. I think one of the things as an entrepreneur that may be a flaw of mine, or maybe the workout we'll see is we tend to go down both with Quinn and with Sunday, right down the middle of a really large category.

You know, not, not a niche thing, not something that's just for a certain audience that maybe communicates a lot and can share it. It's more like, no, we're going to reinvent the norm. And so that is, that is, that's challenging, right. And in, in law and garden is that the DIY side is about a $50 billion market. So trying to go right down the middle of that is, is, is quite a big endeavor. So we're very.

Ramon Vela (20:55.34)
Thank

Coulter (21:08.036)
fortunate to have amazing people behind the brand to always have Seed to Growth or S2G as they're commonly referred to as our newest investors. And they've been just incredible supporters. They're highly aligned with the mission and impact of the business. In fact, we went through a really extensive audit on our actual impact and what the results are over time of doing things the Sunday way. So really proud to have them as part of Sunday and that we made the cut there.

Ramon Vela (21:35.564)
Thank

Coulter (21:37.434)
Yeah, what does that do for Sunday? How do we use those funds? I think there's some key parts of the business that are continuing to expand and I guess core themes. I'd love to give you like a simple, it's just this one thing, but it's really a lot of things. Maybe that's the nature of going down the middle of a big category, but technology side. So there is so much we can do to continue to make it so that...

Ramon Vela (21:49.708)
Yeah.

Coulter (22:00.644)
We can take someone from I can house plants to I can do this. Maybe I'll plant an apple tree, you know, and just continually bring them along that ladder of capability and confidence to do more in their yard. So we're, we are experts at collecting data on outdoor home and knowing everything that's happening in real time around your yard, interpreting that data into action for our customers, something that will be a forever, you know, challenge and something that we're continuing to build towards. So, and amazingly AI is a technology that's almost purpose built for that.

And so we've been, we launched an agent this year and have been digging deep into incorporating AI, not just on an LLM basis, but throughout the business and throughout the customer experience. So that's been a huge, really exciting way for us to upgrade the customer experience in a big way and make it feel more and more like you have an actual companion for this part of your life. So that's been a big move for us. Retail continues to be a...

Ramon Vela (22:50.518)
Mm-hmm.

Coulter (22:56.122)
a growing part of the business as well. we started in direct consumer, started with a hyper custom solution. And then as we built a brand through that, we were able to extend into retail and have amazing retail partners and Target and Walmart, Ace and Home Depot. continuing to work to grow the presence there and make that part of the business more more successful. There's not been a lot of new brands on that shelf over the past 50 years.

Ramon Vela (23:23.83)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Coulter (23:25.69)
You know, it's a pretty big move to be able to go there and succeed. So that's another area of development for sure.

Ramon Vela (23:33.216)
Well, and in the AI perspective, it sounds like it's going to be on the consumer side to help with that customer experience. Internally, how is it going to help you interpret more data or analyze the data?

Coulter (23:52.814)
Yeah. I think it's interesting to see how this technology has been deployed by different businesses. I see a lot of conversation around like, you know, reducing customer service costs and that sort of thing by using AI. I think they're missing the broad theme here and the capability of this. Like we're building all of our technology to be consumer facing core parts of the experience.

And that's pretty bold and there's not a whole lot of that right now. And I think part of the reason why we can do that too, is that we know so much about them and their yard that we're able to have a relevant conversation. I always say like, there's a big difference between having, meeting a genius on the street versus having a genius for your best friend. When they have the context of you and the things you need, you can have much more rich conversations and get a lot more value out of all that intelligence. So that's the kind of core of Sundays is...

is that intelligence? so examples would be like on the soil test, for example. So right now, or in the past, when you took a soil test for Sunday, we would give you all of your readouts, different deficiencies and issues in your soil areas where it's really strong as well. And then some static text that would tell you kind of about that different reading. Now we're able to develop that into more of a conversation and a more comprehensive plan and get basically two levels deeper.

in terms of interpreting that data and then helping our customers take action on it, which is really, really exciting.

Ramon Vela (25:14.828)
Yeah.

Well, you know, it just occurred to me and I don't mean to make this sound so kind of a funny or humorous, but I'm wondering in all this data that you capture, has there ever been a time where you analyze the soil and it just like, it comes out like this is not good soil at all. Like this is not good soil. You know, and then I could imagine the homeowner or the lawn owner thinking like, I knew it, I knew it. Like it wasn't me. Does that ever happen?

Coulter (25:41.85)
Well, I mean, it happens all the time. Yeah. mean, in so much of our customer base are kind of newer homeowners, newer developments, HOAs, outside cities like that. And, you know, a way to save money is to not put in a whole lot of topsoil and just put some sod on top of, you know, some pretty unhealthy soil. So it's very, very common to find underdeveloped soil and poor soil. I think for our customers actually,

Ramon Vela (26:00.589)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (26:08.48)
you

Coulter (26:10.094)
The worst experience they have is when we're like, no, it looks all good. I think they want to hear that there's some sort of one key deficiency that's easy to fix. What's really neat that we are doing now is that since we last spoke, we've been able to do a lot more retesting. We have enough time in history now to actually see the impact we're having on the soil. And we're seeing that we have this really large increase in organic matter. And so when we talk about poor soil, that's the key thing. Low organic matter is just like infertile soil, that is soil that is...

Ramon Vela (26:14.956)
That's it.

Coulter (26:39.578)
dirt, not soil kind of thing. It's not going to grow anything. And we're actually seeing that people who follow the Sunday plan have this really incredible increase in the amount of organic matter in their soil. And organic matter is another thing, it's straight up carbon. That's just carbon taken from the atmosphere, put in the soil. So it's really, really cool that we're able to close the loop now and see the sequestration of carbon from the environment and then how that actually makes that soil more fertile over time. But yeah, very common for us to see soils that are in poor shape and we can work with that.

Ramon Vela (27:02.092)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (27:07.606)
Well, so, okay, so we've talked about AI, we talked about retail, what have been now the challenges? In the last couple of years, obviously, there's a change in the business environment, there's tariffs, there's, I mean, all sorts of other stuff going on. What have been, for you, what are some of the bigger challenges facing Sunday right now?

Coulter (27:30.126)
I mean, you know, I think because I think a lot of your audience are entrepreneurs. I think that a lot of times the story is told in retrospective of business. It's good we get to have a check-in, right? But I think there's a version of story, which is like, was, we started off, we had a really hard thing. We got past it and then it blew up. And I don't think that's ever, I mean, I've my whole network of people who've started businesses, that's all my friends. And that's never true. It is a continual series of different...

Ramon Vela (27:48.224)
Mm-mm.

Ramon Vela (27:52.364)
you

Coulter (27:58.318)
things you have to address and challenge you have to get over and problems to solve. And, you know, it's no different on Sunday. And I think what makes some of that more acute for us is that we're seasonal. And this is maybe advice for people starting business out there. When you have a business, which is seasonal and, you know, it's concentrated on a shorter period of the year, that really limits the speed at which you can learn. And also puts that much more emphasis on perfect execution. You know, it's not like we can miss a month and just make up for it the next month. If we miss April.

Ramon Vela (28:23.222)
Mm-hmm.

Coulter (28:27.418)
as a business where we missed a huge portion of our season. And so, when things happen, when there's announcements from the White House or other things that affect consumer behavior and happens to happen right in the spring for us, that hurts. And we don't get a second try at those things. So yeah, we're pretty susceptible to external factors during the spring timeframe. And that's been...

Ramon Vela (28:42.412)
Mm-hmm.

Coulter (28:52.152)
That's been a challenge and we have to be just that much better and that much more ahead of things so that when those things happen, which they inevitably do, we're still okay.

Ramon Vela (29:01.31)
And then I would imagine that your push into retail has probably added some more challenges as well, because it's kind of a different animal than direct to consumer in terms of inventory and all sorts of other stuff.

Coulter (29:02.394)
Thank

Coulter (29:13.818)
It certainly is. Yeah. So, you know, think we have such a strong retail team has been just a huge part of what's enabled that part of the business to grow who are not just dialed on the relationship side of thing and be able to get the placement, but also the follow through the inventory management, like the continuous conversation with those retailers of, I think you're ordering a little bit too much, you know, and, those kinds of things, which I've, you know, in my past and previous business have made mistakes of letting that happen.

Ramon Vela (29:36.332)
you

Coulter (29:42.266)
you have to be so on top of retail or else you get in big trouble. You can have huge consequences from an inventory and cost standpoint. So we started strong there, which is good. So I think we probably dodged a lot of serious pain points that I've seen in the past. But I think in retail for us too, we're...

there is a name in this space which has been established for half a century and it's kind of become the de facto. There's a lot of problems with that. It's a lot of pesticides and other issues. Most of the products are not available for sale in Canada, for example, because of poisonous, right? And so we have an entirely new approach, but there's also in that space, there's deep ruts and we're bringing a new consumer into that part of the store. And so we're...

Ramon Vela (30:15.051)
Thank you.

Coulter (30:28.73)
We're kind of rolling a boulder up a hill there in terms of getting kind of the next generation of homeowners to say, I can do this myself and to go in that part of store and to look for a brand that's value-based. So, you know, it's a long build there, but it's been working and it's exciting.

Ramon Vela (30:41.727)
Mm-hmm. Well, that's fantastic. I have one entrepreneurial question for you, and then I want to switch over to the product side so that people know what they can find and what to look forward to. And then I have one other question in terms of expansion. So from an entrepreneur's side, you mentioned a little bit

Coulter (30:47.994)
Sure.

Ramon Vela (31:06.549)
today about the startup area. And then in our previous interview, we went a little bit deeper into that. And I'd love to kind of find out from your perspective, as now the company has grown and then you've recently, earlier this year, got some additional funding. And that funding is not a drop in the bucket. I mean, it's a nice chunk of change. And so...

From your perspective, what can you share in terms of how you've been able to evolve as a founder and a CEO? Because the startup CEO is one thing, right? And then you move into a different stage and now you're into a different, and you're gonna continue having grown at different stages, but at this stage, how do you continue to evolve both from a leadership standpoint, management standpoint,

Coulter (31:41.434)
No.

Ramon Vela (32:00.894)
as a founder and a CEO as a company grows.

Coulter (32:00.974)
Yeah.

Coulter (32:04.625)
I mean, first, I'll be really honest, it's really challenging, right? I think what's required of you and how you need to show up changes drastically every year. And I think I wasn't as aware of that in past experiences of how much the earth was moving under my feet and how I needed to be able to regain my balance and show up in the way that was most helpful for the rest of the team. You know, I think what's helped me a lot is I'm

been really thoughtful about like what my range is, where I'm strong and where I'm not. And I mean, look, it sounds like a compliment I'm giving myself, but the truth is I've gotten punched in the face a bunch of times on thinking I could do things that I couldn't and learning the hard way, you know, where I'm not strong. And so I was really deliberate around hiring for that.

as you go Sunday and having an executive team, especially around me that were really, really strong where I'm not as strong. And that's so essential. And that's enabled me also to be more myself, right? To be able to continue to be the inventor, be focused on innovation, focused on the customer and kind of lead the charge for where we're going. that's been a huge...

I don't know, unlock, I guess, to be able to have those people around you that enable you to continue to focus on where you're strongest. But in terms of leading a culture and keeping the entire team in line and help people around me do their best work, that's just, I don't know, continuous calibration. I don't think there's a simple answer for it, but it is my job.

Ramon Vela (33:45.036)
Yeah. And I mean, obviously you learn from not only your spouse, but also other entrepreneurs and, and I'm assuming you probably gather in other places as well. So it's, it's also learning from, I don't know, mentorship or, or, uh, relationships with others and so forth. Um, the point I'm trying to make too, is that from that perspective, you're not alone, right? Like there's, there's places where you could.

and people that you talk to and I'm sure you learn from that. None of us is an island, right? you know, the media makes it sound like it's just one individual climbing the mountain. There's a lot of people hoping you climb the mountain, right?

Coulter (34:26.8)
I mean, it's a couple of calls a week, at least, you know, of just kind of sharing thoughts, sharing challenges, learning, that sort of thing. It's part of my regular routine. Even the awareness of getting ahead of how much my role was going to shift and how much I needed to change over time, that came from others who had already gone through it. And then I would be more aware of it because I kind of understood the concept, but you definitely need help.

Ramon Vela (34:54.091)
All right, so thank you for that. I really appreciate you sharing that. Because I think a lot of people need to hear that because as you're growing and you're starting up, you don't often have a moment to stop and think about, what's that next phase going to look like? And what skill sets do I need to develop in that next phase? So thanks for sharing that.

Let's get into the website. So someone out there listening, they really like what they heard. Sounds like an interesting potential in terms of a gift or maybe a service that they want either for someone else for Black Friday or Cyber Monday or Cyber Weekend. So let's talk about what they're going to find at the website, which is everyone out there. It's GetSunday.com. GetSunday.com is the website. And we already talked a little bit about the process.

But just walk us through in terms of what else is going to be available for them as they go in there. GetSunday.com is the website.

Coulter (35:56.814)
Yeah, I think it's worth visiting just if you're curious, right? I think just like try it out. There's a lot to see, a lot that's specific to you and your yard. I mean, for one thing, we show you the people around you who are using Sunday, not the specific location of their home, but it's a little bit generalized, but you see kind of the amount of your neighbors who are already using Sunday, which is, I think, pretty fun and to get a bit of a view into that. But then also, where our conversation with our customers, the website starts with, where do you live?

Ramon Vela (36:09.419)
He

Coulter (36:24.25)
which is really unusual, right? And when we first started Sunday, we're like, are people going to answer this question? This is really personal. But that's because the whole thing, we have to know that in order to have the specific plan for you and to tailor it to you. as you go through and enter the home address, we're going to share insights on your climate, share soil data. we're pulling, there's neighbors soil tests that have already come to Sunday and analyzing those to get a really good guess of what your soil is like. And so we share that. So there's a lot kind of that we feed to our

to our customers before they even sign up. So it's kind of fun just to put in your address and see what we know about you and your yard. And then I think if people do choose to sign up for themselves or for others, and we will have Black Friday, Saturday, kind of things going on, I'm sure.

What ends up happening or what you're signing up for, I guess, is this custom solution for your yard, focused on lawn, but there's also a garden and pests that can be part of that as well that you can add on. Basically, what you're doing is you're getting the right products at the right time with comprehensive of guides to your yards, all measured and everything specifically for you and your yard. You're to get about three shipments in a year that have exactly what you need.

And alongside that, a comprehensive plan of every single step of the way of all the things to do and when to do them, beyond just the products, but also just for general yard care to kind of get on top of this part of your life. So yeah, what you're signing up for is that total yard support as well as the products that you'll get in the mail too. And then maybe a little more specific on the yard side, like it's the primary product that is part of most plans is a hose on fertilizer. so

Ramon Vela (37:56.649)
Yeah, and I want to.

Coulter (38:05.71)
You're connecting this to your hose, you're hosing it on, and in 10 minutes you're done. The intent of Sunday is to, I think what I learned is if you want to make change in the world and you want to do a really positive thing, you have to incentivize people in all the ways you can. And one of the key ways we're doing it here is making this part of your life a lot easier. Quicker, less work, easier, better results, all those sort of key things are essential to making Sunday work.

Ramon Vela (38:30.251)
Well, and then I also want to point out, so you get sunday.com is the website, but within that, you know, you're talking about the lawns and part of that, you know, for all of us who have had this experience before, a big part of that is also pest. So you've got, know, um, you might have a good lawn, but there's pests that coming in there and they're eating your, they're ruining your lawn or ruining your plants or whatever it is. So you also have a custom pest plan.

for those who are interested. And by the way, when you go on the website, there is a little section there where it says, you know, get your plan. If you click on that, it tells you like, what can we help you with? And it goes into, you can choose a lawn, you can choose pest, you can choose garden, and then you hit continue. I haven't hit continue yet, but you have these three options. So walk us through a little bit about your custom pest plan, and then also about the garden.

Coulter (38:58.031)
Yep.

Coulter (39:22.852)
Yep. Yeah. And I think on on the pest sites, not just about helping to eliminate, you know, pests that are damaging your yard, things like that. A lot of it's focused on just being able to enjoy this part of your life and being able to manage pests in a way that helps you, you know, have friends over and hang out in the backyard without it being miserable. As well as inside your house, right? And reducing, you know, the kind of pests that are your house that you just can't have there.

Ramon Vela (39:41.631)
Thank

Coulter (39:50.542)
You and I think in the same way we did with, with lawn and the pest control side, this is like, you could pay a thousand dollars a year to have someone come to your house for about four minutes and do a thing. And it's really poisonous. And, you kind of want everyone to stay inside while they're doing it, cause you're worried about it and it costs a fortune. And we're making it, we're kind of unlocking the door and say, no, you can do this yourself. And we're going to guide you and bring that level of expertise to you. And on the product side, like it's, it's really, I'm so proud of those products. We have to pick a mosquito product called Mosquito Delito.

We like to have fun with our names a little bit. You'll see that across all of Sunday. But this is powered by...

Ramon Vela (40:22.315)
Thank

Coulter (40:28.204)
cedar oil and lemongrass oil, so it smells amazing, but it is a natural insecticide. you, again, with the hose, you can spray your yard and really reduce that mosquito population. It makes you enjoy that space. And another product called Bug Doom, and this is more for keeping bugs out of your house. You kind of spray the foundation as that pest control person would have done. But that uses chrysanthemum extract. So this is a direct extract from chrysanthemum flowers. It is incredibly powerful.

It's used in organic gardening, but you can also spray it on a wasp nest and they will just fall. Like that's how powerful this is, but drive straight from nature. So, you know, really kind of amazing cutting edge products there that help you get all of the efficacy you need. Like it's got to work while not putting you and your family in danger.

Ramon Vela (41:11.891)
Yeah, no, I think that's phenomenal. And, and I see here, you've got a list of pests that you deal with mosquitoes and house, house and spiders ticks, flies, fleas, harvest and cockroaches, all the, all the, the, yeah, all the name, big name players there. and by the way, like I, like I said before, I wish I, when I owned a house, I wish I would have, I live in a townhouse now. my kids are grown. So,

Coulter (41:15.13)
Thank

Coulter (41:28.546)
All the things.

Coulter (41:40.92)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (41:41.802)
But I wish I would have had this because the pests were just, just, know, like all year round, there was always something. And then I hated using all the main companies out there, the chemical, just like, it smells, you know, you spray it once in the whole room and the whole house smells. and I used to hate that. And, what I see right now on your website, which is, on get sunday.com.

and I am on the custom pass plan. There's videos there that you can see and I've seen somebody spray their, they're spraying their bush or the, yeah, the bush areas and all of that, but they're also spraying like near the foundation of the house. They also have a spray that you can use within your, inside your house. So I see someone spraying their counter and so forth.

Coulter (42:36.623)
Correct.

Ramon Vela (42:38.997)
Cause you know, we all have those, you know, one of those challenges of the house is that every year you start to see ants all like, you know, like clockwork, like right after the rain, they start coming in or right before summer they all come in. So I love these videos that you have on there and the fact that you have this stuff available, I think it's pretty cool.

Coulter (42:39.022)
Yeah.

Coulter (42:48.503)
Yep.

Yep.

Coulter (42:58.458)
I think in the development of the pesticide business, we worked with entomologists at Cornell to really zero in on how we can make this more custom and specific to individual homeowners and their needs and how we can get products that really work, but then find that balance where it's not toxic for your family. So on the inside, we have a product that uses spinosa, which is a natural bacteria that exists in soil. And again, it's like kind of using nature's superpowers.

And it kills the entire colony. they bring it back and that natural bacteria infects colony and kills all of the ants. But it is not really, you know, it's not a synthetic pesticide. It's a bacteria, which is pretty amazing. It's naturally occurring in soil.

Ramon Vela (43:33.994)
Hmm.

Wow. And then how about on the garden side? Is this something similar where you can have sprays and everything else?

Coulter (43:42.81)
Yes, it is. Yeah. So on the garden side, you know, I think we see this as one of the most neglected parts of people's yards. And, you know, I think most people have a couple parts of their yard that they really kind of are proud of and they want it to be really healthy, want the hydrangeas to be huge this year, know, whatever it may be, things that they want to put a little more care into. And so we primarily focus there is on the fertilizer side of helping those plants thrive. And typically they're not getting any of that. So the response people see is pretty, pretty massive, starting to feed a little bit of

the core nutrients into those plants, trees, shrubs, things like that are kind of core focus of that. And again, yeah, hose-on, super easy. Also, we have organic gardening products from vegetable gardens, things like that. Yep.

Ramon Vela (44:19.221)
Yeah, fantastic.

Ramon Vela (44:26.655)
That's fantastic. One area that I was going to ask because like, for instance, I don't live in a, I live in a townhouse area where there's different units and there's a building and so forth. And I can hear it right now actually, they're cutting the lawn and you so that part I like, I don't have to deal with that anymore. But I'm curious in terms of expansion, like do you guys work with HOAs and with...

Coulter (44:36.58)
Yep.

Coulter (44:45.338)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (44:52.456)
Areas like because I know they spray too. I don't know what they spray, but I know they spray stuff

Coulter (44:56.056)
yeah. Yeah, I think that, you know, the thing I'll say to everybody who just in terms of like what they spray, look for the little yellow flags. So those yellow flags you see on yards and everything, especially in spring, you'll see them throughout the year. That's EPA mandated because that ground's not safe. And they're saying, you know, for some period of time, stay off of this because it's poisonous. And, you know, it's a good question to ask, well, how long does that last? And do I want to be around those things? And so is it just staying on that piece of grass?

You know, it's really kind of a shame that we have grass in order for us and our pest to play on, but we can't even go on it because it's covered in toxins. those yellow flags help make the problem much more visible. And it is prevalent, it's everywhere. And yeah, working with professionals and working with HOAs is something that we've talked about a lot internally. We've made some headway there and like just done enough to know that there's an opportunity and there's a lot of demand for what somebody's doing there. But we haven't scaled that because we have to have some focus.

part of my talk about my job earlier and how I need to show up and having some degree of focus and assuring that we're focusing our premium energy in places that we can have enough concentration of energy to make a difference is important. So in the future, you will see that, but not today.

Ramon Vela (46:10.836)
Wow, by the way, I've never even knew that I've seen those slides before but I had no idea what that was So thanks for illuminating that because I had no no idea Wow, that's that I never I knew that's kind of interesting now. I know next time I see it I'm gonna be much more aware of that Okay, so this has been fantastic I want to be respectful for your time. We've gone through a lot of a lot of updates and I love

Coulter (46:17.849)
Yep.

Coulter (46:28.505)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (46:39.014)
where you guys are going and where you're headed and what you're doing. mean, in terms of the retailer, I wish you the best success. But I personally think, and I thought this before when we did our first interview, is that this is a great service. I mean, we've touched on a bunch of stuff today, everything from how they use satellite and they use the data and they have so much data already captured on soil and how they're proactive with you in terms of, you know, weather changes and everything else going on.

They're right on your side and they can be proactive and help you with your lawn and your garden and so forth. So for me, like this is the no-brainer. This is a product worth buying and a brand we're supporting from our perspective. So I really appreciate you being on the show, Kulture. so before we leave, let's make sure people know where to go. And just a reminder, everyone, you are going to be, if you're listening to this and are eventually watching this,

Coulter (47:11.002)
you

Coulter (47:29.391)
Sure.

Ramon Vela (47:35.947)
Well, you may watch this and it may be over, but you should still go over to the website. But you'll be listening to this definitely before Cyber Week, Black Friday, Cyber Weekend, Cyber Monday. And so I'm sure there's going to be deals there. And the best thing that I would do if I was you is I would sign up for the newsletter and I'm sure you'll be up to date on all the promotions on new products and everything else. So, but let us know where to buy it. Let us know your social media and anything you want to leave with the audience.

Coulter (48:06.01)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think where you can find Sunday is a lot of places, thankfully. And that continues to expand, which is so exciting. So obviously you can go to GetSunday.com and like I said, enter your address and kind of see some of the things we know about your yard and explore there. So that's one of the spots. But in retail, it's a great spot too. And so starting spring in 26, we'll also be at Costco. So you'll be able to find kind of a full season kit at Costco. You can find us at Home Depot, at Walmart, at Target.

at many ACE stores. So you'll be able to find something in a lot of places. And I would ask if you don't find it there, if you go to a certain store doesn't have it, ask for it, please. Help us make that shelf less toxic. And yeah, I think maybe I'll circle back just to kind of one thing to tell the audience would be to the beginning of the call about how behind these companies, there's real people who are really fighting every day to try to make something better for the world.

I guess, you today I'm the spokesperson for that, but behind Sunday, there's 75 people here who do that, who are just incredible. And that's my most proud thing is the team we have and how dedicated and aligned we are to what we're doing and why we're doing it and this mission of empowering the American homeowner. So, you know, it's a pretty remarkable thing. And I don't know, anybody wants to be a part of that? I appreciate that.

Ramon Vela (49:28.478)
Well, well, and I will just add to that, in that, I don't know anyone else at Sunday other than yourself, but if you are in the indication of the rest of the team and, and how passionate they are, I really love it because for me, this is not just about what I love. And this is what I love about the business as well. It's not just about a product.

It's not just about selling the product, which of course your business, you have a product, you have a service and so forth. But what I find from my conversations with you is that you and your team are so passionate about this area, about taking away the toxicity, helping homeowners and lawn owners and gardeners and garden have a better lawn experience, a better gardening experience, a better home.

uh, pest free experience, but do it in such a way that doesn't add toxicity to the environment, to the air, to your family and so forth. So to me, there's a bigger mission in place. And I think that's what I think along that, that I would imagine that's what, um, attracts people to working with Sunday as well, not as in just as a consumer, but I'm sure as, employees as well. So, um,

Yeah, I love it. So thank you so much, Coulter, for being on the show. I love my conversation with you and I wish you the best success. And I highly encourage everyone out there to go to the website, getsunday.com or look for them in your retail stores. So thank you again, Coulter.

Coulter (51:02.724)
Thank you, Raymond. So good seeing you.

Ramon Vela (51:04.606)
Yeah, likewise. So everyone out there, we have just had Colter Lewis, who is founder and CEO of Sunday. Again, as I mentioned, getsunday.com is the website. We're going to have that link as well as our social media links on our podcast description, which you could find on Apple, Spotify, pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, you'll be able to find it. Beyond that, as I always say, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. I think one way of doing all three of those is working with Sunday, especially if you have a lawn or

If you have a loved one who has a lawn, has a garden, who loves, who wants a better world in terms of toxicity and the environment and so forth, and also wants just a great garden, a great lawn, this is a great gift and a great suggestion for anyone out there, especially because we're coming up to these holiday seasons, there's going to be some deals. So go make sure to check it out and encourage someone that you love that can benefit from this. Encourage them to go take a look at this as well.

Beyond that, everyone, as I always mentioned, and will continue to do so, there's a lot of stuff going on in the world, in our country, in geopolitical wars, politics, everything else. Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something. And if we can just do ourselves a favor and just be a little kinder to each other, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.