Every designer we speak with wants the same thing: clarity.
Not just around performance, availability, or lead times—but around price.
And yet, for an industry as vital, creative, and data-driven as lighting, the process of getting pricing remains anything but clear.
A quote can take ten days. Two reps might offer two different prices for the exact same fixture. And the logic behind the numbers? Hidden behind a curtain of “call for pricing” and “let me check with the factory.”
This isn’t just frustrating—it’s inefficient. It slows down decisions, muddies budgets, and creates unnecessary tension between specifiers, reps, and manufacturers.
And here’s the thing: we’re not alone. This kind of opacity isn’t unique to lighting—it’s just one of the few industries still clinging to it.
Look at how other commercial and wholesale markets have evolved over the past decade. Across the board, industries once dependent on middlemen and opaque pricing models have shifted—radically.
Once dominated by in-person visits and long lead-time RFQs, the construction supply industry has been transformed by platforms like Build.com and Procore-integrated vendor networks, where contractors can now compare materials, lead times, and costs instantly. What used to take days of phone calls is now handled with a few clicks.
Ten years ago, buying a car involved haggling, gut instincts, and “let me talk to my manager” moments. Today, most buyers walk into a dealership knowing the MSRP, invoice price, and competitive rates from five different sellers. Sites like TrueCar and CarGurus changed the game—by making real pricing data available to everyone.
In sectors like packaging, hardware, and even agriculture, marketplaces like ThomasNet, Alibaba, and Faire have introduced tools that provide estimated costs upfront—even for complex orders. AI and data aggregation make it possible to give real-time estimates without compromising the manufacturer's margins.
So why is lighting stuck?
There are a few reasons:
But here’s the truth: lack of transparency is not a moat. It’s a liability.
In today’s market, it’s not just the speed of the product—it’s the speed of the process that wins.
Designers aren’t trying to cut reps out. They’re just trying to move faster—with more certainty. Here's what they're telling us:
In other words, they want tools, not workarounds.
We believe the next evolution for lighting specification is simple in principle, if challenging in execution:
These ideas aren’t radical—they’re inevitable. The only question is: who builds it right?
This isn't just a win for designers. It’s a shift that stands to benefit everyone:
And just like we’ve seen in adjacent industries, when transparency rises, trust follows. And when trust follows, so does innovation.
Every industry reaches a point where the old model starts to show its cracks. For lighting, that moment is now.
Specifiers are no longer willing to wait weeks for a number that may or may not be accurate. Manufacturers are looking for smarter ways to get their products specified. And the traditional sales layers—while still valuable—need to evolve to meet the moment.
So let’s start with the first step.
Let’s start with tools that give designers the clarity they’re asking for.
Let’s start with better access to better data.
Let’s start with a little more light.