Lemonade Day

It's Lily Schwimmer's birthday AND she recently went full time with us. 🍋🎂

Lily Schwimmer started with us part time, made herself completely indispensable, and is now our full-time Director of Finance & Operations.

Here's what that actually means - the budgets, the systems, the thousand unglamorous details that let kids in 90+ cities open a lemonade stand and have it all just work. She's the reason the behind-the-scenes runs like it does.

None of it makes the highlight reel. All of it makes the day happen.

So today we celebrate Lily!

Happy birthday, Lily. Thanks for going all in on this team. 💛

Leave her a 🎂 in the comments 👇

You do not need a fancy stand. You need a good one. 🍋

Somewhere online there is a $400 lemonade stand with a chalkboard menu, a striped awning, and a built-in cooler. It is adorable. It is also completely unnecessary.

The kid at the $40 stand and the kid at the $400 stand learn the exact same lessons. The cardboard-and-marker stand and the hardware-store-lumber stand teach identical things: set a price, make a sign, greet a customer, count the money, decide what to do with it.

Here is everything a stand actually needs:

🍋 Lemonade (mix or from-scratch, both count)
🧊 A cooler with ice
🥤 A stack of cups
🪧 A sign a kid made with their own hands
💵 A jar for the money and change for a $20
🪑 A table, a card table, a wagon, or a driveway ledge
☀️ A shady spot and a folding chair

That is the whole list. The rest is optional.

The one thing that is NOT optional: letting the kid do the work. The sign in their handwriting. The price they chose. The "hi, would you like some lemonade?" in their voice.

Save this one for the kid who has been asking to build a stand. 👇