In this episode Al goes to Kitchener, Ontario to visit Ankush Raina, owner of Matriarch. Ankush moved to Canada from India in 2018. His ultimate goal was to start his own business, something he’s been dreaming about since he was a teenager. Everything he’s done since arriving in Canada was with that goal in mind. He turned that intense focus into Matriarch, an online activewear brand. The name is a tribute to his grandmother. But with limited experience in clothing manufacturing and an impending pandemic that would shut down all gyms for an indefinite period, would Ankush’s focus and work ethic be enough to pull Matriarch through? Listen to find out.
Matriarch
In this episode Al goes to Kitchener, Ontario to visit Ankush Raina, owner of Matriarch.
Ankush moved to Canada from India in 2018. His ultimate goal was to start his own business, something he’s been dreaming about since he was a teenager. Everything he’s done since arriving in Canada was with that goal in mind. He turned that intense focus into Matriarch, an online activewear brand. The name is a tribute to his grandmother.
But with limited experience in clothing manufacturing and an impending pandemic that would shut down all gyms for an indefinite period, would Ankush’s focus and work ethic be enough to pull Matriarch through?
Listen to find out.
You can learn more about Matriarch at thematriarch.ca.
Al Grego:
Hello everyone. I'm Al Grego and this is the Yes, We Are Open podcast. Kitchener Ontario, about a hundred kilometers west of Toronto off Highway 401. Kitchener is the largest of three cities that make up the regional municipality of Waterloo, also known as the Tri-Cities. The other two are Waterloo and Cambridge, although Kitchener-Waterloo are most often referred together as the Twin Cities. Confusing, I know. With a population of over 250,000. Kitchener alone is the 20th largest city in Canada, but as they're almost inseparable, Kitchener-Waterloo is considered Canada's 10th largest metropolitan area. Now for the fun stuff. Perhaps what Kitchener's most known for is their annual Oktoberfest celebration, a nine-day Bavarian Festival set to be the largest outside Germany, which culminates in the annual Canadian Thanksgiving Day Parade, the only major parade on Canadian Thanksgiving. It's televised nationally. The festival brings in an average of 700,000 people. Given this, it should come as no surprise that many of the early settlers of the area were Pennsylvania Dutch, and the city itself went by the name of Berlin. That is until 1916 referendum where the residents voted to change the name to Kitchener.
I wonder what was happening at that time that could have soured them on the name Berlin. Kitchener's economy is rooted in manufacturing, finance, and insurance, but in recent history it has diversified to include digital media and health science clusters. The latter, no doubt thanks to the University of Waterloo's downtown Health Sciences campus and McMaster University Satellite Campus for its Michael DeGroote School of Medicine. I'm driving along a main thoroughfare in the north end of the city, I pull into a driveway of a nondescript bungalow. As I pull in, a man steps out the front door with his dog. You wouldn't know it, but this is the headquarters of this week's merchant, Matriarch.
Ankush Raina:
Hi. How's it going?
Al Grego:
Not too bad, yourself? That's Ankush and a beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog named Bentley. Once I pass Bentley's sniff test, literally, Ankush welcomes me into the house and we settle into his office for his interview.
Ankush Raina:
Hi, my name is Ankush Raina and I'm founder of Matriarch, which is an active wear brand based in Waterloo, Canada.
Al Grego:
When did Matriarch Open?
Ankush Raina:
2019.
Al Grego:
2019, so not very long ago.
Ankush Raina:
Right. Just fourth year.
Al Grego:
But just before the pandemic?
Ankush Raina:
That is exactly right. I'm originally from India. I actually moved here in 2018, so my first job here was at Planet Fitness, which is a gym. My actually background is hospitality and I've done masters in business management as well. I chose gym because I saw the potential of number of people coming to the gym and how many connections I can build for future for my business, so that's exactly what happened. I started as a team member there and within a couple of months I was promoted two, three times. And within a year and a half I was the general manager of the location at Cambridge and we had a member base of 4,000 people there and I signed up almost 35 to 40% of them. And I knew so many people from so many different fields. That's exactly when this idea came to my head.
I already knew I want to start a business, but I wasn't sure which stream of business I want to go into. So me and one of my friends, Jake, we always used to talk about, "Okay, what are the potential businesses we could start in the current market?" And one day we were just talking and decided, came to my head. I was like, "I work here. I see so many people wearing active wear and then they feel really good about it when they buy new clothes and they go to gyms." When we used to sign up members, we would take them on a tour, we would talk, if they were a member before, their goals and all that stuff. A lot of people would say, "Okay, I signed up now. Now I need to go and buy some gym clothes." That's how it popped up in my head, it was like, "Okay, there is a potential and I know so many people here."
Al Grego:
Before you started this, did you have any background in clothing manufacturing?
Ankush Raina:
I did not have a background in clothing.
Al Grego:
I understand that you thought it was a great idea. How did you get started then, without a background, what did you do?
Ankush Raina:
It was one year research. I started 2019. So behind the scenes I started 2018, basically [inaudible 00:05:17]. A lot of research now everything is digital. We have so much data, so many resources online and you see active wear becoming a billion-dollar industry. It's booming. A lot of people are getting into fitness, got more gyms opening, that means more members going to gyms and then that means they need more active wear.
Obviously there are brands, big brands like Gym Shark, Alphalete, we have [inaudible 00:05:47] as well. But either the prices or they're based in UK or States, taxes, shipping, not everybody could afford that. My idea was to sell something which is really good in quality in terms of quality and sell them at affordable prices. That was the idea there. I tried finding manufacturers. I tried in Canada, the prices were way too high because the labor cost, how it works in Canada. And the second challenge in terms of manufacturing Canada was the fabrics. Most of these fabric like spandex, polyester and nylon, they are produced in Asia and Canadians also imported from them. And the cost was kind of over the board for them and they charge me a higher price. As a new business, as a startup, nobody's going to pay me a hundred dollars for a pair of leggins. Then I started looking manufacturers in Asia. I do have my manufacturers in Hong Kong where most of these brands get their stuff manufactured.
What I did was I started ordering samples. Then what I would do since I was working in the gym, I know so many people who are working out every single day. I would give them the samples. I would tell them to try it out, give me feedback. We did that for a couple of months. So many different people, different shapes, different size, they would give me feedback and then we finalized two or three manufacturers. The quality was good. They were delivering what they promised online and then we started working with them.
Al Grego:
You have a partner, Rishabh. How do you guys work together?
Ankush Raina:
Like I said, my background is hospitality. We trained back home 12 years ago in a hotel and then we became good friends and then-
Al Grego:
Back in India?
Ankush Raina:
Back in India, that's right. And then he was already here. Then I moved, we started staying together. He is my best friend here.
Rishabh Dhamija:
Hi, my name's Rishabh Dhamijia. I'm the co-owner at the Matriarch brand here.
Al Grego:
What was your first thought when Ankush came to you with the idea?
Rishabh Dhamija:
He didn't come to me ever with the idea. It was more so he was doing his thing and I was kind of always involved. As he said, we've always lived together. I was kind of always involved in, I always knew what was going on. He didn't never have to come up to me, "Hey, do you want to invest in this kind of thing?" It was always I knew what was happening in the background and to be honest, I was scared at first, because I think it's a very competitive space that we're in. But what I truly saw in the brand was Ankush's vision. As he said from day one, he was so sure, it almost makes you like, "Am I missing something? Why are you so sure?" And I've always believed in him as a person.
I handle most of the finances for the most part. And then as Ankush said, he utilizes me wherever he needs me. He's a creative guy on the team so I can let him do his thing. I know [inaudible 00:08:38] but where I think is necessary, he's the face of the company. I just try to keep a low profile and help out with finances, inventory and backend kind of stuff. And if there's let's say, popup shops and stuff, I'll go run those every now and then. That's more so my role.
Ankush Raina:
I get it manufactured in Hong Kong and we have designers that design and we take inputs from our manufacturers as well. We take feedback from our customers or influencers or athletes we work with. We take their feedback. We basically talk to our designers then. And then we get the tech packs to our manufacturer and they manufacture. We get it here in Canada. We sell it all across Canada.
Al Grego:
So it's your brand then. You're not reselling another brand?
Ankush Raina:
No. That is correct.
Al Grego:
Your designs?
Ankush Raina:
Right. I think it's very important to tell you the reason behind Matriarch. And I'm sure you've seen the logo, which is an elephant. There are two parts to it. When I was thinking of the name, my grandmother passed away actually. While I was in the process of getting started, she was a leader of my family. And matriarch, it actually meaning is female elephant, which leads the whole pack and she takes the decisions, she takes care of the family. It was basically dedicated to my grandmother and all the women out there because most of the active wear brand... now it's changing obviously, but I would say 3, 4, 5 years ago, the lead faces in any active wear brand were men. My idea was to have the lead faces as women. We do have men too, but I would say 70% of the stuff we sell is women.
And the second part is the logo is elephant. It's because I am inspired from the personality traits of an elephant, which is strength, patience, intelligence, honor, pride. I did not just want something catchy. It actually has some meaning. I do have this tattoo on my arm too. It's something really close to my heart. It means something to me. And I feel most of the people have these qualities in them. We just discover them when we get stuck at different stages in life. The whole idea is to make people feel good and live good, so mentally, physically, both ways.
Al Grego:
Very good. I'm looking at the logo, and it is a great brand. It's a strong looking brand.
Ankush Raina:
Thank you. I'm still working. The reason is obviously the company is growing and I don't want to take a big paycheck and stop the growth of the company. We still pump money in it. For example, last year we started working with Winners.
Al Grego:
That's a big deal.
Ankush Raina:
Yes. We are consistently taking orders from them and then the orders are getting bigger and bigger. That's a lot of volume there we have to sell.
Al Grego:
At what point did you maybe think, "Oh, this is a viable business. This will work."
Ankush Raina:
Since day one.
Al Grego:
Since day one? You were that confident?
Ankush Raina:
I never was unsure of it. I knew it's going to take time. I knew there will be challenges, but there was never a day where I was not motivated about it. Quality was there since day one. Initially it was word of mouth. Now we have that presence where people buy online because it's been three years now. We have done our fair share of marketing now.
Al Grego:
Up next, Ankush and Rishabh have started a business in a highly competitive industry of active wear with the daunting task of creating a name for themselves amidst some pretty large players. They've created a great brand. Will that be enough to cut through the noise? Will they be able to weather the pandemic that's about to hit? Stay tuned to find out.
You're listening to Yes, We Are Open. Ankush Raina moved to Canada from India with the dream of starting his own business. He didn't know what that business was going to be at the time, but when he finally saw the opportunity for an affordable active wear alternative, he jumped at the chance to create matriarch. Now he and his business partner, Rishabh, are running this young active wear brand from their home while still working their day jobs. Matriarch is beginning to show its promise landing a big deal with Winners. But things are about to take a turn with COVID. Gyms are about to shut down and their pop-up stores are about to take a forced break. With few options to market their new brand locally, how will Ankush and Rishabh's business survive? Let's listen to find out.
If I were to ask you Ankush about any time in the last three years that something happened that maybe threatened to shut Matriarch down, what would that be?
Ankush Raina:
Yes. When COVID happened, obviously we were pumping more and getting in probably less than 50, 60%. That's when Rishabh and I had a discussion which was like, "How do we move forward? What can we do better?" It was never that, "Shall we shut it down? We are not making money." We never had that conversation. Obviously, he's more into finance and he would look at the numbers like, "Hey, I should spend this much on marketing. We have this much inventory and we are not moving a lot." He would give me his input. He comes from a finance background.
Al Grego:
Maybe I should ask him?
Ankush Raina:
Yeah. Go ahead.
Rishabh Dhamija:
To tie into Ankush's story, I guess the kind of service and the kind of dream he has we never wanted to compromise on that and there's costs associated with that dream. So when COVID happened, that was a very tough time when people who we were connecting with on a very local level, there was not much other than that, it was very tough to get out there. People were scared and rightfully so at that point. The business really took a dive at that point. But it was always how do we get ahead and if we... sure, let's say we were bleeding money, we never were like, "Okay, let's shut it down." We were always like, "Okay, how much do we got to put in to keep it alive?" And at the same time, it was like a child to us at the end of the day and we just stayed through the process and believed in what we were doing. And we came out doing okay from there.
But COVID I'd say really did us in and we didn't have a lot of support. And because we were new business, so we didn't have a lot of support from the government either because they had some criteria as to "No, you got to do this and this to be able to qualify for this grant that we're giving you." But there was none of that for us because we were on the newer end of things. There was not revenue to show from previous years that would qualify us. Even if we were doing revenue now, that wouldn't qualify us.
Al Grego:
So how did you finance it? Did you have savings, second mortgage, credit cards? What did you do?
Rishabh Dhamija:
Lines of credit, man, and savings at the same time. I think we do okay both of us saving for a rainy day. We basically dumped everything into it we had, and then at the same time, if you had to borrow, we had to borrow and we don't take a salary out of the business just yet just to keep it healthy and keep it growing. All we did was we would take off whatever interest was accrued on that business will pay all those expenses and whatever's left was back in the business.
Al Grego:
COVID hits and I mean for a certain amount of time at least there was lockdowns and stuff. Popups couldn't happen. What did you guys do to keep the word out there?
Ankush Raina:
That's when we started running ads, Facebook, Instagram. I started doing online courses in how to do that. Basically there are campaigns you could do just to gain traffic where people just look at your website, maybe a hundred thousand people look and a thousand people would add to cart and maybe 20 people would buy. I started running those ads and then we started getting more traction again. Then we started getting orders.
We never had that conversation. The reason was whenever we had a challenge and we realized that we are not getting enough sales, it was always about introspection. What are we doing wrong? Every time we would have that conversation, we'll come up with a mistake we were making. For example, initially our size shot wasn't correct, fix that. Our catalog photos were not the best. And then product descriptions were not the greatest. Payment gateway, website speed. It's just like any sure startup, you make mistakes. We kept learning all those things throughout the cycle. Every time we felt like we are not getting enough sales, we always looked in the mirror like, "I don't think we deserve it yet. We need to fix these things so that people, when they look at our website, people better know us. They need to look at the reviews. They need to look at the effort we have put into making this website catalog descriptions." If they don't see that, why would they buy it? Why would I buy it from a random online shop?
First thing is aesthetics. If it doesn't look very nice, I'm sure you're not going to browse it, not for more than 10 seconds. And then second thing is price and reviews. The times have changed. Now people do the research and then buy. They have so many options, especially when it comes to online shopping. We always tried looking in the mirror and saw, "Okay, realize this is a mistake we're making and we fix this, then we can expect more." We're never like, "Just because we are putting money, it's been a year or two, why are we not getting millions of dollars of sales?" It was never like that. We were always doing a reality check every couple of months like, "This is something we need to get better at." We started doing that and we started seeing the results. Hudson Bay, they approved us two meetings and then by looking at our website. If it was the same website we used in the first year, it was a rejection within less than five seconds
Before we had the terminal from [inaudible 00:19:07]. And then it was just... everything was normal. We were going to popups, were getting decent sales and we would pay for the fee and who would have the terminal sitting at home and we obviously don't want to pay. Just one call and they're like, "Don't worry, we are freezing your account. You don't have to pay anything. Just update us when you start using the terminal." That was a really good experience because I tried calling my car insurance and my bank like, "Can you do this?" They're like, "No. For insurance company, you have to pay full." And when we called Moneris, it felt really good. They're understanding the situation even though I'm in a contract. They're like, "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of it."
Al Grego:
Coming up after the break, we find out what the future holds for Matriarch.
Mat Belanger:
At Moneris, we empower merchants to keep doing business their way while we handle the payment processing our way. What way would that be? The safe way, the always connected way, the awesome integrated tools to help you make more money way. We know your business never stops, so you deserve products that never stop working. That's why we are committed to providing our merchants with a payment partner that works just as hard as they do to make every sale. Moneris, proud partner of small Canadian business.
Al Grego:
Welcome back to Yes, We Are Open. Matriarch has successfully navigated their way through the pandemic, thanks to a lot of hard work introspection and the never-say-die attitude of their co-founder Ankush. They've closed a couple of pretty big deals with Winners in the Hudson's Bay Company with a few more on the way. The future looks bright for Ankush and Rishabh's business. How bright, let's find out. What does the future of matriarch look like?
Ankush Raina:
Well, last year we started working with Winners, so that was a really good add on. That was a big deal for sure. They're giving us a good amount of volume. And then Hudson, we happened just last week.
Al Grego:
[inaudible 00:21:07] bigger deal.
Ankush Raina:
I think it's one of the biggest deals because they have approximately 25 million visitors every single month on their website. It's the sixth-largest retailer website and it's one of the most searched website in Canada in terms of retail. That's a big deal to be on that platform because right now it's... for active wear, they have Nike, Puma, and Under Armour and Adidas and fifth would be our brand.
Al Grego:
Really? That's it. So you'd be up with the big boys then?
Rishabh Dhamija:
Exactly. And we for sure know our quality's really, really good. It's competitive and prices are way better, so I'm sure we'll get a lot of traction and sales from that platform. And then once we do well online, they have already approved us for the stores as well. If we do well online, we should be in the stores very, very soon. Other thing was something we are already working on, a move towards a sustainable direction in terms of fabrics. Right now what we have is 70% like recycled polyester, spandex material. But at the end of the day, chemicals are still being used, water is still being used. We are in next couple of months, we will be moving in that direction. We want to fully convert all the products into sustainable ones.
In terms of future as well, so the two ideas. We are inspired by the nature side of it, elephant, and then there is a vision of helping people physically and mentally too. That's the whole idea of the company. Getting sustainable, it was already on the books for us, so we are working on it. Next couple of months we will be there. And the second part of that is there is a wildlife trust. It's 45 years old, it's called Sheldrick, it's based in Kenya. They have their office in US and UK too. We recently partnered up with them. That was more tougher than getting in Hudson Bay and-
Al Grego:
Really?
Ankush Raina:
Yes, because they mean business. They don't just partner up with any business just because you're going to give them a donation from your sales, because a lot of people actually do that to get social proofing and get respect in people's eye, but they actually don't care.
Al Grego:
So they're very protective of who they partner with?
Ankush Raina:
Exactly. It was our vision, it was our idea. They realized that we actually cared about it. We actually want to do this, and then they accepted us. We haven't made the announcement yet, but we will be donating 5% of our sales to the trust on every single sale we make. Primarily they protect elephants, but they have other animals as well. They take care of them. They have a team of professionals. They have saved I think more than 200 elephants so far. And then there are other animals as well, they take care of it. We will be doing our contribution there. That's towards nature and saving planet Earth. And on the other hand, business side of things, we definitely want to make it a global brand.
Rishabh Dhamija:
I'd say we've done really well in our last few years in terms of from where we started to where we are today. COVID happened and sometimes just things have a way of working out and that kind of slowed us down a little bit. Some things just happen when they're supposed to happen. Seeing things are happening now. And I think trust and believe is a big part of the key... the key here I'd say is just believing, and as I said from day one, just believe, believe, believe and you'll make it happen. And I think that's the biggest thing I take from our brand.
Al Grego:
You formed this company and then you named it Matriarch and part it was to honor your grandmother. If she was still around, what do you think she would think of this right now?
Ankush Raina:
I think she would be really proud of me and actually him too. He is kind of similar to my grandmother in some ways. But I think the way we started, we both are immigrants in this country. We came with no connections. We came with no million dollar investment or money in our account. First thing is the connections we have made, we are really proud of that. They're actually good connections. The people we sit with, people we hang out with, they're all kind of hustling to move their way up and we support each other. Taking a risk like that, you don't have background but you're doing your research, you are willing to make mistakes. You're actually willing to fail and learn and then move forward. We come from a country, it's almost 1.4 billion people, it's cutthroat competition there. Forget about being successful in the business, even getting into a nice school is a challenge, you don't get unless you have 95%. Getting into a college, getting a nice job, which is going to pay you well is a challenge. That's the kind of country we come from.
So when we came here, we worked really, really hard and we knew this is the only way and you work hard here, you move forward in life. Lower population, there are more opportunities and then we were just willing to take the risk. A lot of people don't do that. They have dreams, they have vision, but they don't execute. I think we executed. If my grandmother was alive, she would be really proud of me and him seeing what we did here.
Al Grego:
But not surprised, probably?
Ankush Raina:
Not surprised, a hundred percent.
Al Grego:
Thank you very much.
That's the story of Matriarch. Now I need to apologize for something I said earlier in this episode when I said Ankush had a dream to start his own business. We usually love to hear the stories of people's dreams coming true, but in this case, the word dream diminishes this story's outcome. It makes it sound like it wasn't a foregone conclusion. To Ankush, it was. His wasn't a dream, it was a plan. And from the day he set foot in Canada, he began executing on that plan. Instead of getting a job in hospitality or business, which was his background, he got a job at a gym because he knew he needed to make many genuine connections and quickly. Everything he did, he did it with this ultimate goal in mind. Fast-forward to later when Matriarch was up and running. When Ankush and Rishabh faced the challenge of the pandemic, it could have easily been excused for giving up and blaming the overwhelming and real obstacles in front of them. But instead of pointing fingers outward and casting blame, they looked inward and got to work on getting better.
If things weren't going their way, it was because they didn't think they deserved it yet. Now that was a particularly poignant moment in this story. They didn't deserve it, not yet. In a time when we often look for instant gratification or success. In this case, against mounting odds, they didn't deserve to succeed yet. That was their self-evaluation. Think about that for a minute, and then you'll understand that this isn't a story of a dream come true, this is a story of a well-executed plan still in progress. All evidence suggests the plan is working. Matriarch has a bright future ahead of them, and Ankush's grandmother would've had plenty to be proud of, but she wouldn't have been surprised.
Yes, We Are Open is a Moneris podcast production. I'd like to thank Ankush, Rishabh and Bentley for taking the time to share their story. You can learn more about Matriarch at thematriarch.ca. You can also follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube @thematriarchinyou. For more information about this podcast, visit our site yesweareopenpodcast.com. If you'd like to support us, rate us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a Canadian small business owner or know of one with an interesting story of perseverance to tell, I'd love to help tell it. You can contact me at podcast@moneris.com. Tune in next week for another story of small business struggle and survival on the Yes, We Are Open podcast. I'm Al Grego. Thank you for listening.