Three years ago, Bin Yu and Leo Zhao, 2010 graduates of the University, got their start at the Louisiana Business and Technology Center’s student incubator, and now the two entrepreneurs have gone global.
Yu and Zhao’s LED light business began during their senior years when they started creating and selling LED T-shirts in the New Orleans French Quarter. The lights on the shirts synchronized with the noise coming from themed LSU and Saints apparel.
After the success of their T-shirt sales, they decided to expand into the light bulb business.
While the company now has its own manufacturing facility in China, and some 50 distributors currently carry its product, the owners really want to make a name for themselves locally.
The company recently hired a local sales representative who is working to promote the company’s name and connect with Baton Rouge businesses and residents.
HitLights prides itself on the reasonable and affordable prices of its LED products, which are typically expensive.
HitLights has installed LED strip lights in two Baton Rouge locations: Omi Sushi and Churchill’s Wine and Cigars.
“I’ve realized since I’ve worked here, it’s not all about paint on a building,” said Dylan Wilbur, business management junior and HitLights employee.
Wilbur said light animations are now a huge part of business décor for bars and restaurants. LED lights can do almost anything and make almost any color, which makes lighting opportunities limitless, he said.
“Bin and Leo are really proactive with working with us,” Wilbur said. “They have a lot of student workers and are really enthusiastic about helping their workers learn.”
During the holiday season, the company is coming out with a tailgating light strip that allows customers to choose two colors they want the strip to illuminate. Certain strips are accompanied by a remote control that boasts a variety of color options and animations for the lights.
“We will be selling these to people that are going to be tailgating, and they can trick out their tailgates with awesome LSU colors,” said Robert Lowrey-Dufour, psychology sophomore and HitLights employee.
“LEDs are taking off in a huge way right now, people are really starting to catch on,” Lowrey-Dufour said. “The company started on Amazon.com around 2010, and they’ve climbed up to be one of the No. 1 LED light distributors on the site.”
One big incentive for HitLights’ LED lights is the product’s energy efficiency.
LED lightbulbs run on a fraction of the energy that incandescent lights run on. Incandescent lights last about 800 to 1,000 hours, while fluorescent lights last about 15,000 to 20,000 hours. However, LED lights can run for about 25,000 to 50,000 hours — roughly 20 years worth.
“Leo and Bin are really passionate about the environment and helping people make the switch to green technology,” Lowrey-Dufour said.
He said as a local LED lighting company in a state that doesn’t place much emphasis on being environmentally friendly, the company has certain challenges.
“The green lighting movement hasn’t hit Louisiana in a big way yet like it has in California and Colorado who are very environmentally conscious,” Lowrey-Dufour said.
He added that in California, if a business outfits all of its buildings with LED lights, the energy company will pay for the switch. He and Wilbur agreed that if Louisiana could pass legislation like that, it would greatly benefit the company and the environment.
“Bin and Leo were early adopters of LED, and Louisiana isn’t really historically an early adopter of anything,” Wilbur said. “So whenever you think about technology initiatives and green incentives, that’s not really happening in Louisiana. There are no state-wide incentives or anything like that.”

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Mariel Gates

Local lighting company Hitlights sells energy efficient and easy to install light strips in multiple colors and variations.