Our story
The classic driveway pastime, rebuilt for kids growing up online.
Lemonade Stand is a safe, kid-first marketplace where kids create, plan, and launch their first real business online by selling the things they already love to make.
How it started
The idea came from my own daughter (whose recess activity throughout second grade has been starting various businesses: a spa, a salon, a bracelet shop, etc.). One night she saw an ad for an ecommerce platform we’ll call “Schmopify” and asked me what it was. Pretty quickly she connected the dots and asked for her own “Schmopify” to take her budding bracelet business online.
I set out looking for a kid-safe version of what she was picturing and couldn’t find one that let kids build their own storefront (with a platform designed and built for her age group as the primary user), much less one that also taught the business fundamentals behind her choices. When we were growing up, we got our first experience running a business with a lemonade stand in the driveway. This is the same idea updated for a generation growing up online.
What we believe
Technology, used for good.
I think a lot, as a mom, about how to teach my kids healthy boundaries and the safe use of technology. I want to impart to them that technology can actually be used productively to make something, run a real business, and interact with their community, but I don’t see that gray area or nuance in how we talk about ‘screens for kids’ today. Lemonade Stand has a different approach, one that I believe sets kids up for long-term success with technology.
Keeping kids away from tech isn’t the answer. Instead, we need to teach kids how to use technology to achieve their goals with reasonable boundaries and incentives for getting offline too. Lemonade Stand is a first step in teaching kids to use technology productively and creatively to actually achieve their goals.
Meet the founder
Marilyn Yacobovsky
Founder & CEO
I’ve spent my career as a direct-to-consumer operator and CEO, so I know what it takes to set up a marketplace and consumer business for success.
And as the mom who went looking for this and couldn’t find it, I’m the person who’s going to obsess over making it work for kids. The difference between this venture and the ones that preceded it is that I don’t just want Lemonade Stand to exist, I need it to, so my own daughters have a safe, educational and (most importantly) fun tool to explore their own creative business ideas.
Common questions
The things people ask before they trust us.
Who built Lemonade Stand, and why?
Marilyn Yacobovsky, a mom and longtime direct-to-consumer operator and CEO. Her second grader wanted her own online store for a bracelet business, and there was no kid-safe way to give her one. Lemonade Stand is that missing product: a real store a kid runs, with a parent approving everything.
Is Lemonade Stand safe for my kid?
It was designed for kids under 13 and the federal privacy law that covers them (COPPA) from day one. The parent owns the account and gives verified consent. A parent approves every product, price, word and order before it goes live, and every customer message goes to the parent, never to the kid. There is no messaging between kids and strangers.
What do you do with my family's data?
As little as possible. We collect a kid's first name only, no photos of children appear anywhere on the site, and we never ask kids for birthdays, last names or addresses. There are no ads and we never sell or share family data. The privacy policy spells it all out. Read the privacy policy
How does Lemonade Stand make money?
From families, not from data. Membership is free for the first month, then $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year for up to five kids, and we keep 5% of card sales to cover payment processing. In-person orders recorded in the app have no fee.