От хобби в общежитии до глобального бренда: история успеха компании Oracle Lighting

Years before Metairie-based Oracle Lighting was a global brand for aftermarket car and truck accessories, the company’s founder, Justin Hartenstein, was designing accessories for his own vehicle from his dorm room at the University of New Orleans, where he was an undergrad. The year was 1999, the internet was in its infancy, and Hartenstein was posting pictures of his early creations to an eBay store and online message boards dedicated to the automotive community. The products, including custom car lights, began to gain a following among drivers keen to customize their vehicles. “People really liked the stuff, and I didn’t really have any intention of making it into a business,” Hartenstein said. "I basically started building some very niche car parts and then just expanded out from there.” What started as a hobby has grown into a $10 million-a-year business that designs, manufactures and sells automotive lighting products, from multicolored LED headlights to steering wheel and tire light rings. In the last 20 years, Oracle Lighting has expanded its reach into a global business with international customers and a 32-person operation in Metairie. Early 'brand ambassadors' While Hartenstein was unknowingly building out Oracle Lighting’s first product line at UNO, he also met his future business partner and wife, Tiffanie Hartenstein, a business student at the college. She knew little about cars, but over time she developed his passion for the industry. “That’s why we work so well together,” said Tiffanie Hartenstein, co-founder and CEO at Oracle Lighting. “I can focus on the operation and the business decisions, and he gets to focus on what he wants to do, which is creation.” The couple founded the company after graduating in 2005, right after Hurricane Katrina, as many locals were leaving the city and businesses were struggling to reopen. They were determined to build a business in Jefferson Parish, where they grew up. It started as a direct-to-consumer website. The Hartensteins managed and fulfilled orders from a home office. As online orders rolled in from all over the country, stacks of products and customer packages waiting shipment crowded their kitchen, dining room and spare bedroom. “We would carry our orders to the post office, like 45 orders once or twice a week, and we were so proud of it,” Tiffanie Hartenstein said. They quickly learned from early mistakes, namely their need to acquire patents to protect Oracle Lighting’s designs from being copied by other companies and individuals. Today, the company still finds copycats — as far as China, where Oracle Lighting pursued and won a patent infringement lawsuit. The company’s products, which Oracle Lighting brought to car shows and product exhibitions, eventually caught the attention of West Coast Customs, which at the time hosted an automotive reality television show with celebrities. That show featured Oracle Lighting’s products on cars for Justin Bieber and the Black Eyed Peas. The company's lighting also appeared on a Hummer in a Britney Spears music video. “More customers were putting our products on their vehicles, and there was just this really easy word-of-mouth and our customers were so excited about it," Tiffanie Hartenstein said. "They became the best brand ambassadors for us unintentionally.” Product pipeline Over time, the company’s operations moved and expanded to include a main office in Metairie, two warehouses and a small office on the northshore. Just as the business has evolved, so has Justin Hartenstein’s creative and innovation process. Early on, any idea that came to him in a light-bulb moment became a product. Now, he conducts market analyses on the front end, then brainstorms potential products with a team of three industrial designers. He’s rarely short on ideas: The company releases around 50 new lighting products for sale each year and the company has secured around two dozen product patents, applying, on average, for five patents a year. “Keeping the sales and marketing team at a high enough pace just to keep up with his ideas is challenging,” Tiffanie Hartenstein said. “His innovation alone is what drives the business forward.” From those brainstorm sessions, Oracle Lighting’s team will then use its in-house 3D printers, of which it has nearly a dozen, to create prototypes of product parts and perform stress tests before finalizing designs. “We'll actually physically take the circuit board component and then install that into the lighting housing and then assemble it with the lens and everything, and then seal it up,” Justin Hartenstein said. Altogether, Oracle Lighting has developed a line of more than 11,000 products, including headlights, taillights and interior lighting. The company sells directly to large distributors specializing in truck accessories, who then sell the products to car accessory shops and a few dealerships. The products are largely tailored to Jeep, Ford, Ram and Toyota vehicles, mainly trucks. The company also designs products for other companies, including vehicle manufacturers and boutique car brands. “Larger manufacturers can't do or don't want to design a light for a vehicle that’s only going to have like 300 produced a year,” Justin Hartenstein said. “For us, that's actually kind of our sweet spot." Around 80% of Oracle Lighting’s business comes from designing, engineering, manufacturing and selling their own catalog of products. The other 20% comes from designing custom lighting products for other vehicle manufacturers — a growing sector of Oracle’s overall business. “It’s an exciting side of the business to grow, because I feel like we’re ready for it,” Tiffanie Hartenstein said. Global business Oracle Lighting has attracted a growing number of international clients, particularly in Canada and Germany, where there are many American car enthusiasts, especially for bespoke “muscle cars.” The company also has a big customer base in the Middle East. Tariffs, inflation and gas prices have slowed the company's recent growth and sales last year, for the first time since 2018, were flat. “There's this whole thing that happens when gas prices go up," Justin Hartenstein said. "The whole automotive industry just kind of slows down.” But the second half of 2026 is brighter and the Hartensteins say they're poised for growth. “Our operation is pretty robust,” Tiffanie Hartenstein said. “It can handle a fair amount of growth right now before adding a big addition.”