In today’s fast-paced world where change can happen overnight, once in a while it is nice to look back and reminisce about what things were like “back in the day”. At Inspired LED our company has grown and developed a lot over the past few years; new products, new faces, and even new spaces have all contributed to making Inspired LED what it is today…
Then:
Inspired LED began as the dream of owner and founder, Jim Levante back in 2008. By that time he had spent years designing LEDs for other companies, but he felt that there was something missing from the LED market: the average consumer. With the goal of bringing LED technology into the hands of everyday customers, Jim, and later his wife, Cheryl, began working out of a single room facility. For eighteen months they managed product inventory, orders, and shipping on their own, with only the occasional part-time assistant.
By 2011 the time had come to expand. Taking the opportunity to move out to Arizona, Jim and Cheryl opened Inspired LED’s first permanent location in Tempe. “We were eager to gather the best talent for our growing business, so we decided on a location close to Arizona State University,” explains Jim Levante, “of course, the warm weather was a big factor for us too!”
Within the year Inspired LED gained its first new employees, Garrett, who started out working part time while attending school at ASU, and Tanner, a recent Sun Devil graduate. “Back then we spent our days doing a bit of everything,” Garrett recalls, “testing lights, assembling switches, putting together kits, shipping packages, taking inventory, making custom layouts, or whatever else was needed.”
The company began with a focus on creating simple DIY LED systems, mostly designed for kitchens, but as with anything, the passing of time brought change…
Now:
Now entering its fourth year here in Arizona, Inspired LED has grown to sixteen full-time employees working in a variety of departments including Marketing & Sales, Design, Manufacturing, Customer Service, and Product Engineering. Our business has broadened from simple kitchen layouts to designing systems for commercial and industrial settings like art shows, hotels, boats, casinos, retail stores, and more!
Over the years our Engineering and Manufacturing departments have developed new products and patents unique to Inspired LED. Our Tiger Paw connectors revolutionized the process of in-field customization, our Designer Series and Radiant Edge panels broke new ground by utilizing covered lenses, and the Independence Dimmer changed the way we think about LED system control. “We are lucky to find ourselves on the forefront of this growing industry,” explains Tanner, now Engineering Manager at Inspired LED, “our goal is to use that position to help make future LED technology as convenient, efficient, and reliable as possible.”
To house all of our new products and employees our facilities expanded to include the building next door to our original location, providing us with an additional warehouse and even a custom showroom. While we still deal with customers over the phone as well as in person, much of our business is now conducted online through our new website, on Ebay, Amazon, and Amazon Canada. Our products are even distributed worldwide through Mouser Electronics!
As time continues to pass, we look forward to all the ways our business will go on to grow and change. All we can say for sure is that in a few years we will be looking back fondly on the Inspired LED of today.
To learn more about the people and products at Inspired LED, visit our website, www.inspiredled.com, or call us at 480-941-4286.
