Coulter and Trent Lewis, Colorado-based brothers and co-founders, wanted to give yards across the U.S. a major update — and it led to the launch of an innovative lawn care brand in 2019: Sunday.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sunday. Trent Lewis, left, and Coulter Lewis, right.
”I’m standing in the aisle in a home improvement store and smelling [lawncare products] from 30 feet away, [and] I just had a moment like, What the hell is this?” Coulter recalls. “This feels like it’s from a different era. There are a lot of things in life where we just accept it the way it is until we get the gift of perspective and see it with a clear set of eyes.”
Coulter started the health-conscious brand Quinn Snacks with his wife Kristy Lewis in 2010, and through their work on that business, he got an up-close look at how crops grow. He found himself in that home improvement store a few weeks after visiting an organic cornfield and considered how “better, more natural, safer” products might reshape lawn care, too.
Related: This Couple ‘Sold Everything’ and Bought a $1,500 Work Van to Turn Their Weekend Hobby Into a Business That Sees Over $4 Million Annual Revenue
With a mechanical engineering and design background on top of his entrepreneurial experience, Coulter teamed up with his brother Trent, who brought expertise from his career in finance, to turn the vision into a real business.
The co-founders didn’t waste time; they kicked off an extensive research phase, which included finding 100 people across the U.S. to send lawn care products to for a full season.
“It was not just the product that was refined over the course of that year.”
The brothers made those early products in their garage, and although some challenges arose — like the “gut-wrenching moment” when they delivered 100 product-filled pouches to UPS only to be told black liquid had leaked from every single box — the process helped them “innovate across everything,” from hose ends to plastic waste reduction.
During the research process, the co-founders also conducted home visits, calls and surveys to get a deeper understanding of their customers’ wants and needs. That’s how they learned that people not only wanted improved lawn care products but also wanted to do more with their yards. “They want to grow more things,” Coulter says. “They want to have a more verdant and sustainable landscape.”
Related: This 29-Year-Old’s Side Hustle Brought People ‘to the Dark Green Side.’ It Made $10,000 Within 2 Days and Sees 6 Figures a Month.
Despite a clear interest in bettering their yards, many people lacked confidence in their abilities to do so.
“After talking to customers, we understood they don’t know a lot about this stuff, and they’re actually going to need their hand held a little bit more,” Trent says. “So [we didn’t refine just] the product over the course of that year, but also the communication with the customer.”
In a sense, the co-founders realized they’d been trying to solve the wrong problem. Yes, people wanted their lawn care products to have fewer pesticides in them, but Sunday needed to reinvent the experience and build confidence among customers caring for their lawns in order for the brand to make a real impact in the space.
”We’re basically doing ag tech at the backyard scale.”
The realization that Sunday would have to become a technology company to innovate in that arena was daunting at first, the co-founders admit. Alongside its physical lawn care, pest control and garden products, the business launched custom pest and lawn plans, which use proprietary technology and expert lawn care advisors to help customers level up their yards.
”We’re basically doing ag tech at the backyard scale,” Coulter explains. “Our customers send us soil samples. We analyze every single customer’s soil. We have the largest soil database ever created from that now. It’s precision agriculture at that tiny scale.”
Related: After This LGBTQ Couple Lost Their Jobs Within 30 Days of Each Other, They Started a Business — With Goats. It Led to More Than $150 Million.
With increased technological needs and the expertise to back it, the co-founders decided it was time to raise money for Sunday. Being able to tell their story to investors effectively was key — and is an invaluable asset for entrepreneurs at every growth stage.
“People always lean on like, Oh, I have a vision, [or] they make a cash flow sheet of how things are going to work out generally,” Trent says. “It’s a dream; it’s a hope, but you really don’t know until you get into the world and start selling your product. So, being able to raise capital is really important for businesses. And to have that muscle and understand how to do that allows you to get out into the world [and] spread your idea.”
Sunday has raised more than $100 million and serviced over one million lawns to date. The brand’s products are available in more than 5,000 stores across Walmart, Target and Home Depot.
“We get to have this cycle that helps us leap forward and innovate more.”
Sunday experiences its peak season in March through mid-May. Even in southern regions of the U.S., where lawn care happens year-round, Coulter notes that there’s “still a spring mindset” that contributes to the uptick in sales. Sunday uses lower-demand seasons to set itself up for the following year.
“The positive way I’ve always kind of spun it in my own head and to the team is that we get to have this cycle that helps us leap forward and innovate more,” Coulter says. “Right now, Sunday is entirely focused on building for 2026. We’re still selling product. There’s a lot of business that we’re running, but in terms of innovation and what we’re building, it’s already looking forward to 2026.”
Related: The ‘Hustle’ He Started Out of His Station Wagon Became a Nationwide Business That’s About to Hit $300 Million: ‘Everything We Do Is Pretty Simple’
As Sunday eyes continued growth and technological advancements, including more AI integration, the co-founders remain grateful for the year they spent researching the market and their customers thoroughly — and suggest any aspiring entrepreneurs do the same before following their big ideas into business.
“ A lot of entrepreneurs are really passionate; they want to get their product out in the market,” Trent says. “But to do it at a small scale and really take your time and learn if you can do that is a better way to do it because you’re going to launch a better product. You’re going to trip over those small problems at a much smaller scale and learn those things before you launch it at a bigger scale.”
Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.
Coulter and Trent Lewis, Colorado-based brothers and co-founders, wanted to give yards across the U.S. a major update — and it led to the launch of an innovative lawn care brand in 2019: Sunday.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sunday. Trent Lewis, left, and Coulter Lewis, right.
”I’m standing in the aisle in a home improvement store and smelling [lawncare products] from 30 feet away, [and] I just had a moment like, What the hell is this?” Coulter recalls. “This feels like it’s from a different era. There are a lot of things in life where we just accept it the way it is until we get the gift of perspective and see it with a clear set of eyes.”
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.
Read the full article here
