Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen & Carrie Fitzwater.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Stephen & Carrie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Over twenty years of designing and developing home products and interiors, the husband and wife team, Stephen and Carrie Fitzwater, have combined their talents to fill the void of ‘what’s been missing’ in residential (and now hospitality) lighting… Cordless lighting that can go anywhere. We are now proudly celebrating our sixth year of operation in Fort Worth, Texas, and yes, of course we build our Made in the USA line right here in our office/shop too.
With its patented technology, each ‘Modern Lantern’ is designed and developed by the Fitzwaters. The rechargeable lamps are powered from high output li-ion battery pack, that powers a warm color LED bulb. The result is what looks and functions just like a full sized decorative table lamp, but provides cordless lighting to any space for up to 20 hours per charge. Our designs are then offered directly online to everyone with no minimum orders via our website, ModernLantern.com. That’s one more reason the Fitzwaters call this a “lighting revolution.”
Today we have over 30 different styles/glazes to choose from and we are developing and adding more all the time. We are looking to solve the age old lighting dilemma both designers and home owners face when adding ambient or decorative lighting to their open space… “Where do I plug this lamp in?!”
Has it been a smooth road?
Our entrepreneur road has been a very fun challenge you could say. The main challenge is we have continued to do this (growing year over year) without any bank loans or investors, so being “crafty” has been our mantra from day one. Of course Carrie and I can’t do it all, and have managed to work with and find some great partners over time; from our agent in Hong Kong, to our brilliant factories (here locally and in China), to our Shop Manager, our super smart Bookkeeper, all the way to some great TCU interns! For some BIG challenges in the past, we’ve had some technical ones for sure, but being “crafty” allows you to improvise, overcome, and move on while you are still small, keeping the ball rolling in the right direction every single day.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
What sets us apart from others? We have created a very unique problem solving product and done so with design top of mind. So our cordless lamps don’t look like a plastic egg, they look and perform just like a traditional decorative lamp but housing some pretty powerful technology hidden inside.
I will also say with our lamps being a luxury type product, our other specialty is Customer Service. We aim to make 100% of our customers happy with their purchase and we stand behind our product 100% of the time. You aren’t going to please everyone, but we do our part to try our best, and I don’t believe most people would say that about their online shopping experiences. We set that tone from day 1. We aren’t big, but are playing in a big field, so making our customers feel like they made a great choice working with us is very important to how we run our business.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We do feel DFW is a pretty solid place to start a company. There are lots of free local centers that offer services to start ups (like SBA, TSBDC, local incubators (i.e. Idea Works and Tech Fort Worth), etc) and in general you can find resources that are fairly affordable being in such an international city like DFW is. It has its benefits being a fairly centrally located major city within the US, particularly when we move products literally all around the globe. I just hope with all of DFW growing so rapidly, we can continue to motivate financial centers and players to keep their money local and invest in start-ups here to help them grow. If we can’t all grow in this together, maybe we aren’t doing it right. Keep embracing the entrepreneur spirit that got DFW on the map in the first place.
Pricing:
- Our lamps start at $199 (which includes li-ion battery, wall charger, LED, and shade)
Contact Info:
- Address: Modern Lantern
1500 Northpark Dr, #154
Fort Worth, TX 76102 - Website: https://www.modernlantern.com/
- Phone: 682 224-5351
- Email: info@modernlantern.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modern_lantern/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ModernLantern
- Other: https://www.modernlantern.com/blogs/news
Portrait of Stephen and Carrie Fitzwater, owners of Modern Lantern, cordless lighting company in Fort Worth, TX. Photographed at their office building in Fort Worth, TX on November 2, 2015. (Kye Lee/Special Contributor)
Image Credit:
Kye Lee (for couple shot in our office with chrome domed lamp, Abbey Cordless Lamp)
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