Kangarooed to Canada
Blue sky. Sand. And Meat pies! Australia is one place I am really looking forward to travelling to one day. But if you haven’t been, at least one thing we are no longer missing out on are their fabulous meat pies! I would like to introduce you to Megan and Erynn, the founders of Kanga.
This past week, Kanga opened their doors to their second location in Toronto—in the PATH (this might be too close once you’ve tasted their delights). They sell different sorts of personal pies, and I would recommend the Butter Chix, Northern India inspired one. As you salivate, let’s get to know the Founders a bit better! Megan noted this product was inspired by both the founder’s travels to Australia. Megan was there for 4 months, while Erynn was there for a year.
At the time, Megan was working at KPMG doing a work exchange to the Brisbane office. She said the first time she tried a meat pie was at one of the rugby games, which is very popular in Australia. They do a pint and a pie sort of thing in the side lines. But they didn’t think about this idea until they were inspired by the Toronto Underground Market, which was an incubator for people who wanted to start a restaurant or food truck. They went there as eaters and were so inspired that they thought they should work on a project on the vending side.
After thinking of what would be fun, unique, and interesting, they came up with the idea of selling meat pies, over an evening of wine and oysters. And that is when meat pies kangarooed to Canada! They started with Meat Pie Mates with another friend, Monica, and they did a bunch of research and development, or more so, recipe development. Eventually, they tried out for the market, for you have to go through a tasting, and then a certain amount of vendors were selected. And they were selected! They started doing pop-ups in different locations, including the TO food festival, and music festivals like Turf and Field Trip. Eventually, they wanted to change the name to be shorter, catchier and Erynn’s Dad sent an article about the success of company names starting with a K. Setting themselves up for success, they started brainstorming…Kangaroo…Kanga. And it stuck!
They sold their first meet pie in September 2012, then Megan quit her job in October 2013 and started their first store in May 2014. Megan noted, her decision to quit her job came because she had a block of 2 weeks for vacation, she was planning to go somewhere, and then realised she just wanted to work on Kanga and at the time they were just launching their wholesale business. She noted they made so much more progress in comparison to working on it after her 9-5 day job. That really turned the dial. She said it was really fun and thought that she may as well go for it.
To start Kanga, they did receive funding through a few different avenues. They did a Kickstarter where they raised $16,000, obtained a Canadian Small Business Loan, a loan from Futurepreneur, and also self-funded. She noted that Kickstarter was a lot of fun but also a very emotional ride because you have to get to your goal to trigger the disbursement. She noted it’s a huge marketing effort that needs to be managed all on its own. They did meet their goals and it provided them with quite a bit more capital. She noted that people who don’t make their goal, she believes, either don’t have a great product, or they didn’t put enough effort into their marketing.
One of the biggest challenges, she noted, for retail, is finding the right location. People say, oh it’s so hard to find a house in Toronto, but she noted that it’s probably 10X harder to find a retail space. You have to think whether it is a good proposition. She gave an example where Queen St might be amazing, but the rent is so high, so your break-even point is going to be high. That is why you see businesses go under on Queen and King St. They may be good, but they are not reaching the volume they need to. So it’s really, really hard to find places that actually work. They started looking all over the place. They looked at neighborhoods around Bay and Wellington, then places like Bayview and then other more up and coming like Queen and Dufferin. Then, at the time, they spoke to their mentor, Jean Blacklock, founder of Prairie Girl Bakery, who thankfully gave them really good guidance at a very critical time for them. She told them you want to be close to a lot of people and that is why they opened their first store on Duncan St.
Get to know Megan a bit better:
Motivation: She noted that she is pretty self-motivated to achieve their vision to make meat pies a staple among Canadians. Something she hopes will find its place along hot dogs, hamburgers and sandwiches at lunch. She said, it’s also seeing customers say things like “these are the best pies in the city.”
Food item: If she had to be a food item…she would be…a meat pie! They are so popular and delicious, although she notes, she’s never really thought of herself as a food item.
Favorite place travelled: Cappadocia, Turkey. Most recently, she travelled to Turkey and said it was beautiful, relaxing and different. She went on a sailing tour, had great food and went on a hot balloon ride over what looked like a moon scape because of the really cool hills.
Megan’s advice for any budding entrepreneurs: Ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas are worthless. Her phone is full of business ideas. An idea is nothing until you actually do something. Take any small action as long as you take an action to make your idea a reality. Day dreaming of 1000 different business ideas is not necessary or entirely useful; it’s the execution that is a hard, but exciting and an interesting journey. Go ahead and get started today. Make a small step towards your idea.
Thanks for reading my latest post! If you want more info about Kanga, check-out their website! If you have any feedback for me, please contact me here.
