You probably saw LuminAID on Shark Tank, but their light shines much further than that. The brand began when founders Andrea Sreshta and Anna Stork met as architecture students, and brainstormed ways to help the Haitian earthquake relief efforts. Their invention—an inflatable solar lantern that’s easy and cost-effective to pack, ship, and activate—took off, and now helps bring portable solar lights and phone chargers to refugee camps and disaster zones around the world. And through LuminAID’s “Give Light, Get Light” campaign and other initiatives, families in over 100 countries have received free products to illuminate their homes.

Together with Amazon, we spoke with co-founder Andrea Sreshta about what’s changed since inventing a product that “brings light and energy to all”–and why no matter what, the spirit of LuminAID won’t change one bit.

You were on Shark Tank five years ago. Is it still a big business driver?
Yes, because it’s in syndication all over the world! And because of Amazon, we can ship to all these other continents really easily, which has helped us so much.

What else is valuable to you about your Amazon partnership?
We’ve always had our own website, which you’re taught in grad school to believe is like “your gateway or billboard to the world.” But that’s limiting for some small businesses—you can put a website up, but it doesn’t mean you’re reaching anybody if they don’t already know about you. And what Amazon gives us is amazing, because it just really opens up the eyeballs on our brand. But even more than that, I think the changing way people shop means we have to change the way we sell. And that’s something I think about a lot as a founder.

How so?
If you’re already on a site that sells you toilet paper and groceries, it’s a lot easier for you to get added to someone’s purchase order. Because it’s a one-stop thing. With fire season, hurricane season, COVID, it’s been a very busy year for us—and with a site like Amazon, people can find us easily, and they don’t have to go to a crowded store, which might not be the best choice for their health right now. So that means we can continue to keep people prepared for disasters or even camping trips, provide them something essential, and they can stay home.

LuminAID’s core mission is to help illuminate communities in need. How has your idea of community changed this year?
We work with all of these amazing charities, and we distribute lights to humanitarian projects and people in need. So I’m very aware of crisis situations around the world. When COVID struck, I thought, “There will still be hurricanes, and political disasters, and earthquakes, but people can’t travel to affected areas to help… can they?” And I was just amazed, and continue to be amazed, by how people are coming together to figure out different ways to distribute power, water, food, LuminAIDs, all of these important things! Seeing people be so innovative, even with the recent fires in the West, about how they can help others in such a dangerous time, it’s made me realize the strength of all the communities we work with is so great. People don’t stop, even if the world “stops.”

How has your idea of community changed LuminAID’s mission?
I think now it’s more important than ever that we do what we can to support people. Not just because of the disasters that have already happened, but so we can prepare people and make them feel a little safer and a little more secure in their everyday lives.*

*This article is sponsored.