Man on a Mission   

You thought you had it all figured out after years of celebrating Succos, when suddenly, there’s that guy who does this thing to make your succah nicer or your lulav and esrog easier to handle. Meet the young entrepreneurs who’ve made it their business to ratchet up your Yom Tov.

The Man: 

Menachem Rosenfeld, Brooklyn, New York

The Mission:

Succah Light

A born entrepreneur, 24-year-old Menachem Rosenfeld was selling arba minim sets on Boro Park’s 13th Avenue at the age of 12 before and after yeshivah hours. Eight years later, he decided to reengage the succah market, albeit with a twist: Rather than selling arba minim, Menachem invested in manufacturing and importing the first-ever hanging light designed with all the nuances of today’s succahs in mind.

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how I got into the lighting business

I always liked selling things — as a kid I used to sell lulavim and esrogim in Boro Park, and I always had a few side hustles like selling meat platters. One summer, I sold sushi out of the basement of a medical building in the Catskills. Four years ago, I wanted to get into the succah market, and I decided to look for an item I could import that could turn a decent profit. I found a manufacturer who had hanging lights for outdoor use, bought them on consignment, and sold them out of a truck in Lakewood and Boro Park. The lights sold out that year — 1,000 pieces in total.

People need lights, I realized, but I knew the light I had sold wasn’t perfect. Immediately after Succos, I reached out to a friend in the lighting business, who introduced me to some of his contacts in China, and we collaborated to create my new Sukkah Light. It took us a full year of back and forth until I received it, but they came right before Succos, which wasn’t enough time to sell them publicly. I stored them for a year, and two years ago, I sold them to the public for the first time.

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the operations behind the scenes

Even though this is a seasonal business, it requires a lot of logistics. I have a salesman, and one of us has to call store owners or physically go down with a sample as a preliminary step, so they know what we have and why they should sell it. That starts right after the summer ends. I also sell my lights in the Lakewood arba minim shuk, and we have to prepare for retail sales there by hiring workers and setting up credit card processing machines. Finally, we have a team of drivers because we offer free delivery in Brooklyn, Lakewood, and Monsey.