Meet Pistol Lake CEO Ryan Light
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The Boston Speaks Up community may recognize Ryan Light from his time in Boston in prominent executive and marketing roles at Kinvey and CoachUp. After seven years in Boston, Light moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to become CEO of Pistol Lake, a clothing brand where everything is ethically made in the U.S.
A couple weeks back, Pistol Lake stopped manufacturing clothes at its Los Angeles headquarters, in favor of making masks for hospitals and urgent care workers treating patients with COVID-19. The masks are also available for consumer purchase here: https://www.pistollake.com/products/pistol-lake-face-mask-3-pack
Well known for his creative marketing skills, Light’s creative business decision to help medical workers on the frontlines while keeping Pistol Lake’s factory workers paid during uncertain economic times really caught our interest. We’re grateful to share this story with the world in our latest episode of Boston Speaks Up. Enjoy.
You can listen to our BSU podcast discussion below via SoundCloud or on any of your favorite audio platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play.
Where were you born? Poway, California just north of San Diego. I lived there until I was 12.
Where and when did you move to Texas? I moved to Wylie, Texas when I was 12 years old. I went to middle school and high school there. After high school. I immediately moved to Austin, Texas with some bandmates.
What led you to Boston? Rather than building one-off mobile apps for people, we decided to build a platform that could be Wordpress for mobile apps. That eventually evolved into Kinvey, which ultimately pulled us to Boston when Kinvey was accepted into the 2011 class of TechStars Boston.
What was it like working with Steph Curry for a CoachUp marketing video? He could not have been nicer or more chill. He was super modest and had basic requests. In fact, one of the only things he wanted was Chick-fil-A. That ended up being the first time I had Chick0fil-A too. He also would shoot around with me during breaks, and I managed to score an “H” on him in a game of Horse.
What do you miss most about Boston?
- Proximity.
- Public transportation.
- Sports.
- And how easy it was to get people together impulsively.
What’s been most difficult about transitioning from marketing to CEO?
- Honestly — it’s been letting someone else do the marketing — that was made easier when I hired an extremely talented bud Mike Koranda to run the show.
- That there isn’t anyone else to do the annoying little things — kinda the Harry Truman sign thing — the buck stops here.
- Fundraising.
What’s the biggest difference between LA and Boston (besides tacos and vans)?
- Food.
- Driving — I HAVE A CAR!
In your Reddit post, you described your team’s “ingenuity” in sparking the decision to stop your sewing line and start making masks. How would you sum up your Pistol Lake team? Smart, dedicated, they CARE, they boggle my mind daily.
What partners are you working with in the medical field?
- Red Cross.
- Kaiser Permanente.
- Individual Docs.
- Donors.
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