Meet Lili Montes | Co-Founder and CEO at Limon

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

Hi Lili, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
Yes, I disagree with one piece of advice: “good things come to those who wait.” Complacency will get you nowhere. You are in the driver’s seat of your own life, and action will propel you forward. Envision your dream life. What would your day-to-day look like? What goals would you like to achieve over the next 5-10 years? Then you can work backward to decide on the steps you need to take to reach your goals and create daily habits to make your dreams a reality. Good things come to those who take action. Get clear and specific on what you want, and it will become much easier to have relentless resilience to all of the obstacles that will come your way because you have your eyes on the prize.

Risk taking: how do you think about risk, what role has taking risks played in your life/career?
High risk is essential for exponential growth, and it is necessary to understand the value of sacrifice. Since I had the idea for Limon during my senior year of college in the New Venture Competition at UC Santa Barbara, I knew that I needed to hit the ground running full-time with my startup once I graduated to turn my dreams into reality. Since I had spent the last few years networking in the startup community through various startup opportunities, I was confident that I could find a steady startup job once I graduated; however, there is no experience like trial and error and launching a startup yourself. Startups are inherently risky, but I know that you have to fail fast and experiment with countless ideas before something sticks, and I was willing to take that risk. They say 9/10 startups fail, but Limon is currently idea #8, and through rounds of market validation and pivoting many times to this idea, I saw it was the one that was starting to stick.

After graduating in June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I realized there was no better time than now to move back home with my parents and work on my startup full-time right after graduation. This took a lot of sacrifices because although we love our beach town, we live in a mobile home, and I had to share a small room with my brother until we made him a makeshift room out in the shed. It can be challenging to see your peers get high-paying jobs and live out on their own fresh out of college. Still, if you are genuinely passionate about what you do and understand that you are building an entire company from the ground up to kickstart your career and transform your life, then these sacrifices seem like the obvious choice. There is a lot to risk when launching a startup, but with high risks come high rewards.

What habits do you feel helped you succeed?
When I have an idea of something I would like to do, I have a habit of taking action to figure out how to make it possible regardless of obstacles that are thrown my way. Whenever I am unsure of how to do something, it is the perfect opportunity to learn by doing. No obstacle is too large; it is just something that I have not learned how to do quite yet.

I have a habit of seeking out resources, mentorship, and building relationships when I am unsure how to achieve my goals. For example, when I graduated from UCSB, I knew that there was still a lot that I needed to learn to create my idea. I knew that I needed to seek out startup incubators in my local community to access the resources and mentorship I would need to launch and raise capital. That is when I found the Wayfinder Incubator at UC Irvine, and it has been helping me with exactly that.

I make it a habit of expanding my network by going to at least one networking event per week and following up with those I meet with a thoughtful email or message. I keep in touch often via social media, Zoom calls, and in-person and frequently chat with founders, potential investors, and others in the tech world, so I am constantly top of mind for opportunities they come across. I make it a habit to get to know and connect with the people I meet, as transactional interactions lead to nowhere. Startups are all about building authentic relationships.

Work life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?
Being a startup founder is a lifestyle; I am grateful that I found a career path that combines my strengths, and it is necessary to find joy in everything I do. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, so I am for work/life blend over work/life balance. When I began, I was already working beyond 40 hours a week, but now that we are in our first funding round, it can sometimes be nonstop.

With Limon, for example, I get to have a creative outlet anytime I create content for my startup, whether it be filming a day trip TikTok vlog, taking photos of the picturesque destinations I explore or styling my clothes, hair, and makeup to match the day’s activities. I get to design the branding, design the layout of the pitch deck, and have the final say on aesthetics.

I also enjoy public speaking and leadership, guiding the Limon team each day towards success, pitching my startup, networking with others, talking to potential customers, and providing valuable content via social media. As an extrovert, I enjoy all things people-oriented!

I want to live a life of travel, and Limon enables me to do that. Right now, I can enjoy day trips nearby, but as we expand, I aim to travel the world. On top of that, Limon is an opportunity for me to pursue my childhood dream, and it is surreal to wake up every morning excited to take on the day and make a change in the world. When work and life can combine, it is a beautiful mixture.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My story as a founder began with Catchy Kahootz, the invention I created when I was twelve years old. At the time, I was a math tutor and babysitter and, with all of the new responsibilities, found it challenging to keep track of my keys and cell phone. I gathered a few household gadgets to create my first invention, Catchy Kahootz, a cell phone charm to click on and off your keys.

At first, I didn’t think much of it, but hard times hit my family during the Great Recession, and we lost our home. During this financial crisis, my parents could no longer afford for me to play my two favorite sports, soccer and volleyball. Determined to make it happen, I asked, “What if I make the money myself?” My parents agreed to let me give it a try. I noticed that people kept complimenting me and asking about the gadget for my keys and cell phone, so I thought this could be a great product to sell. Hard times lead to innovative solutions because it causes you to think outside the box. Over the next few months, I sold Catchy Kahootz at local boutiques and booths all around my suburban hometown of Livermore, California. I was finally able to pay my parents so that I could play both sports! This experience sparked my entrepreneurial spirit, and I pursued Catchy Kahootz further and sold it around local boutiques and booths around town.

My business was beginning to gain traction, so much to where Shark Tank had asked me to audition! This was a pivotal moment because the audition process showed me how much I still needed to learn about being an entrepreneur if I wanted to scale my business to the next level. I realized that there was so much more to learn if I wanted to pursue this goal, so I decided to put Catchy Kahootz on hold, learn how to run a business in college, and pick up Catchy Kahootz again or start something new.

When I decided to put Catchy Kahootz on hold during high school, I gained a passion for studio broadcasting and became an anchor for my high school’s news show. Little did I know that someday this would lead to my current startup, Limon. I created a segment on my school’s news show, Hot Spot, where I would show students the best places to explore around my suburban Bay Area hometown of Livermore, California. I was tired of hearing everyone complain about how there was nothing to do around Livermore when in reality, there was so much to explore if they just looked around! As high school came to a close, I thought the segment was fun while it lasted, but I didn’t think the idea would resurface again.

Once I began college at UC Santa Barbara, I got back into entrepreneurship immediately and joined the co-ed entrepreneurship fraternity, Sigma Eta Pi. There were only around ten members at the time, so I had the opportunity to play a huge role in the organization, launching and scaling it similarly to how one would with a startup. I had a fantastic experience there as External Vice President and founding our chapter’s alumni network. It gave me the skillsets and network I needed to pursue my startup.

Halfway through my time at UC Santa Barbara, I missed the Hot Spot videos I created and decided to make a YouTube channel for fun and revive my Hot Spot series around Santa Barbara since it was a much more exciting place filled with endless destinations to explore nestled between a picturesque coastline and lush mountains. That is when I enlisted the help of my brother and now Co-Founder, Ramon Montes.

At this point, I was becoming business-minded, and if there was one thing I knew about startups, it is that your first idea would evolve into something new. With that being said, we decided to take that startup idea into UC Santa Barbara’s New Venture Competition in 2020, and after a few pivots, we became a road trip app.

After graduating from UCSB during the height of the pandemic, we noticed that the travel industry was transforming. The lines between work, life, and leisure are beginning to blur, and that’s when we saw an opportunity in the untapped day trip market and are now creating Limon.

Limon makes finding and creating day trips easy. Limon’s two main elements are the personalization of trips and the social media aspects. You can discover day trips based on your preferences, so if you enjoy beach days, you will see lots of coastal day trips. Then we also have a social feed so you can find day trips created by your friends, family, or the Limon community, where they post photos and videos of their personal experiences. When you make a trip, you can save individual places you enjoy from the various posts and then string them together to create your unique day trip!

After years of following my passions to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams, I am so excited to launch Limon this summer! Limon combines my love for exploring the hidden gems around you, building a startup, and creating content. I am enjoying every minute of my journey as a startup founder!

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?
Art and creativity have always been a significant part of my life, but I did not initially try to pursue a creative career. I thought I would be back into only entrepreneurship in college, as I mentioned earlier. Still, as the creator economy has been rising over the years, I couldn’t stay away from video production, studio broadcasting, and photography. What started as a hobby with my Hot Spot YouTube videos, mixed with some entrepreneurial insight, has now transformed into Limon, a social app for day trips that brings a few of my favorite things together.

What are you inspired by?
I am inspired by the idea of living an intentional and fulfilling life, making the most out of every day that passes by, and enjoying the journey. We all have the same 24 hours in the day, and I want to make the most of every moment. Each day I want to become a better version of myself, inspire others to be the best they can be, and turn any dream I have into a reality.

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.
If you think about it, a week-long trip is seven day trips strung together. Our Limon interns wrote a series of 7 Days & 7 Day Trips, and our intern, Sofia Hathorn, features a week-long itinerary for West LA! Here is a quick synopsis of the places we recommend at Limon, and you can read the full detailed itinerary here: https://limondaytrips.com/2022/03/7-days-7-day-trips-week-in-l-a/

Monday: Manhattan Beach
Breakfast at Paradise Bowls
Soak up the sun on the sand at Manhattan Beach
Walk the Manhattan Beach Pier at sunset
Visit Roundhouse Aquarium
Dinner at Petro’s
Beer at Culture Brewing Co.

Tuesday: Culver City
Eat at Citizen Public Market
Take your food over to the Culver Steps to enjoy the sights
Tour Sony Studios
Dinner at City Tavern

Wednesday: Sawtelle Japantown
Sip on bubble tea at Yin Fang
Grab a banh mi at Nong Lá
Shop at Asian markets like Daiso Japan and Nijiya
Dinner at Big Boi or Tatsu Ramen

Thursday: El Segundo
Enjoy iced lavender matcha at Blue Butterfly Coffee Co.
Shop around the farmer’s market
Admire experimental exhibits at the El Segundo Museum of Art
Read a book in the sunshine at Library Park
Dinner at Pho Dreams

Friday: Venice
Brunch at The Rose Venice
Visit the shops at Abbott Kinney Boulevard
Stroll around the Venice Canals
Savor vegetarian cuisine at The Butcher’s Diner
Live it up at The Venice Whaler to end your night

Saturday: Hermosa Beach
Grab a coffee at Java Man
Brunch at Good Stuff
Take a coastal walk on The Strand
Shop at Pier Avenue
Eat farm-to-table food at Hook & Plow
Listen to live music at The Lighthouse Cafe

Sunday: Playa del Rey
Sip on coffee & grab a bite to eat at Tanner’s
Play beach volleyball by the ocean
Bike along the Ballona Creek Bike Path to the Marina Del Rey North Jetty
Dine at Bacari

That’s a wrap to your 7 Days & 7 Day Trips in West LA! If you’d like to see more guides like this, check out our other guides around SoCal, including:
Orange County https://limondaytrips.com/2022/03/top-spring-destinations-in-orange-county/
Irvine https://limondaytrips.com/2022/01/7-days-7-day-trips-irvine/
Santa Barbara https://limondaytrips.com/2022/05/7-days-7-day-trips-santa-barbara/

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to the Wayfinder Incubator at UC Irvine! I joined the program after college to get my startup off the ground, and it has been helpful. The mentorship we have gained has been invaluable; they allow you to pitch to all of their mentors when you first join, and we have gotten incredible guidance from them. There are also seemingly endless opportunities and resources that can help connect you within the UC Irvine and the larger Orange County startup ecosystem.

For example, free credits for software (they just helped us receive $25k in AWS credits), grants, and connections to university programs, like the UCI Informatics and Computer Science course, where the students helped design our front end and algorithm. We just wrapped up the quarter with them by celebrating at a beach bonfire!

The Wayfinder Incubator constantly offers virtual workshops to help in various ways with your startup and access to any advisors we may need to speak with on a given topic. To top it all off, they have a vast and incredible incubator workspace which has been especially helpful to have a presence there when we want to meet with people in person or even pitch our startup on stage. We are so grateful for our time at the Wayfinder Incubator! With its vibrant colors, coastal design, and many tables, whiteboards, and conference rooms, this spot inspires innovation.

Website: https://limondaytrips.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/limondaytrip/ (Limon) https://www.instagram.com/lili_montes/ (Lili)

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/limondaytrips/ (Limon) https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilimontes/ (Lili)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/limondaytrips (Limon) https://twitter.com/lili_montes_ (Lili)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/limondaytrips

Other: https://linktr.ee/limondaytrips (Limon) https://linktr.ee/lilimontes (Lili)