Meet Rose Matthes | Co-Founder of Poplight

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rose Matthes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rose, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Caroline and I had just moved in together in an old 1890s house in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver. The outlets in our old house were in the most inconvenient places – the middle of the floor, in a corner – just super hard to use lighting that wasn’t the overhead light. Our bedroom was really tiny, and only fit a queen size bed and just about nothing else. So we wanted to install wall sconces in our bedroom to save some space.
We quickly learned that installing traditional, wired wall sconces was really messy and really expensive! We wanted a cute stick on wall light, but the options out there were more utilitarian and didn’t match our style. We thought there should be better options for renters and homeowners alike to make wall lighting easy for everyone to install!
We spent 3 years designing Poplight and thinking through everything that we wanted in the ideal wall light.
We essentially started this business because we had a problem with our home’s lighting options, and we learned that lots of other people were also struggling with adding cute wall lighting on a budget without risking their security deposit or spending thousands on an electrician.
Buying a house is also getting harder, and these renters want to make their places feel like home. Poplight makes wall lighting easy and accessible for renters and homeowners alike.

What should our readers know about your business?
We created Poplight because we needed it in our home! We love that Poplight installs in seconds without tools, and we’re especially in love with the built in level so installing Poplight is simple. Plus, Poplight is USB-C rechargeable so you never need batteries.
We’re especially proud of being on Shark Tank this past January and getting a deal with Kevin O’Leary. It was such a fun experience and allowed us to share Poplight with America.
One thing we’ve learned on this journey is that putting Poplight and ourselves out there has brought so many amazing opportunities our way. Shark Tank reached out to us after we went viral on Tiktok the first time, and we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing brands and creators by building an awesome community on TikTok and Instagram.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Coffee at Huckleberry Roasters is the best way to start your morning. Then, it would have to be burritos at Bonfire Burritos in Golden.
We like to mountain bike in the foot hills so no day off is complete without a spin.
There are some amazing mountain towns that we LOVE to recommend. Salida is #1 for us, and we also love Crested Butte (where we got engaged!). There’s amazing mountain biking in both places, plus lots of local restaurants, vintage shops, and coffee spots that are locally owned.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
ALL OF OUR FRIENDS. When we dreamed up Poplight, we pestered our friends endlessly about their feedback. Then, when we got deep in our business, we couldn’t reliably show up for any birthday parties, meetups, ski days, movie nights or really anything while we worked endlessly to get Poplight off the ground. We finally have a bit more breathing room and we’re making up for lost time by hosting all the people we love that supported us along the way.

Website: https://thepoplight.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoplight/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/poplight/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/thepoplight

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQgNjm3hDWCP-SgHbAX2WZg

Other: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/poplightdenver

Image Credits
The image from Shark Tank (final image) is from Shark Tank TV