Yanni Hufnagel is the founder and CEO of Lemon Perfect, a sports drink that promises to make water taste better without adding unnecessary calories or sugar. The drink was created by Hufnagel after he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2015. Hufnagel has used his entrepreneurial skills to market the drink and has begun to expand beyond lemon-flavored water by offering flavors like mango, cranberry, and orange. Hufnagel says that Lemon Perfect is a “game changer” for the bottled water industry.
Hufnagel studied finance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) before transferring to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles. Hufnagel began his career as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at UNC-Charlotte before moving to New Mexico State University as an assistant under coach Marvin Menzies. Hufnagel left his job at NMSU in order to become the head coach for the UNCC men’s basketball team before being hired as head coach of the women’s basketball team and earning an NCCSIA National Coach of the Year award.
Lemon Perfect
Lemon Perfect is a flavored water created by Yanni Hufnagel and owned by his company of the same name. Unlike many other flavored water brands, Lemon Perfect promises to make water tastier without adding unnecessary calories or sugar. Hufnagel began to use the drink after being diagnosed with diabetes in 2015. He has used his entrepreneurial skills to market the drink and has begun to expand beyond lemon-flavored water by offering flavors like mango, cranberry, and orange.
Hufnagel says that Lemon Perfect is a “game changer” for the bottled water industry and believes that his drink will have “the best chance of disrupting any industry.Hufnagel has raised $167 million in funding for Lemon Perfect and he has secured celebrity investments from Rachael Ray, the Kardashian sisters and Tiffany Haddish. Hufnagel also co-founded a sports drink called Zio that was designed to be used by athletes to boost their immune systems