Lemonly

John Meyer

Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Cofounder & CEO, Lemonly (Acquired by Click Rain)

In 2009, I started my first company—9 Clouds—with my brother. We received Economic Development grants from the State of South Dakota, and we were off building a company. My second company was born out of that experience, taking something that we did really well and developing it as our niche. That company—Lemonly—is a digital design agency that helps businesses tell their story. As Lemonly’s CEO, I led a team of 20 over ten years, and we worked with some of the world’s best and most recognizable brands.

In late 2019, I decided to sell Lemonly. I knew my entrepreneurial journey had multiple chapters, and I was ready to wake up to new challenges. We began looking for buyers in early 2020, and we had three interested buyers by the beginning of March. Ten days later, COVID hit and upended everything. At that point, I wasn’t sure a sale would happen, but by August, we had regrouped and eventually signed a letter of intent on New Year’s Eve.

Following the acquisition, I stayed on for 12 months to help with the transition. That was a desirable component for me since typical earn-outs can be two to four years, and once I had decided to move on, it wouldn’t have made sense to stick around longer. The acquirer didn’t refill my role, but everyone else kept their roles or were elevated following the acquisition. People seem satisfied with the outcome. I think the strong culture we built made the acquiring firm super receptive to Lemonly.

I had promised my wife a six-month vacation after I rolled off in January 2022, but it was only about six weeks before I started my next company in the Web3 space. That venture was a great idea but a bit ahead of the market. Today, I am the Executive Director of Leadership South Dakota. It’s a nonprofit that provides personal and professional development to a statewide cohort of 40 leaders annually. I also coach entrepreneurs and founders, and I am working with eight founders right now. Several of them are interested in exploring selling their businesses, so I’m relaying my experiences and coaching those founders to make sure they’re running acquirable businesses. A lot of people have approached me and remarked that they didn’t know that they could sell a digital agency like Lemonly. The truth is that if you’re creating value, you can sell anything. This is good for economic dynamism and ensuring people are in roles that they excel in and are passionate about.

One thing I would impress upon policymakers is that these transactions take a village, especially for rural founders. In our case, our attorney was deeply involved, we had a business broker, and my CPA was involved in the process. To get to the finish line, there’s a lot of knowledge required and unfamiliar terrain to be traversed that a typical entrepreneur isn’t experienced in. I don’t know exactly what it looks like in terms of policy, but support to help bridge these knowledge gaps could go a long way to bolstering the entrepreneurial ecosystem.