On episode 2 of the Entrepreneurship@DU Podcast, we chat with Calli Garcia and Zak Mbereko, the co-founders of Kairos Customs. Kairos creates personalized artwork for shoes, enabling customers to wear their hearts on their "sole."
Transcript
Kevin Douglas (00:07):
Today on the entrepreneurship at DU podcast,
Zak Mbereko (00:11):
We were both pretty passionate about art and we are starting to really dive into an unbeaten path.
Kevin Douglas (00:17):
Some people say, we're your heart on your sleeve. At Cairo's customs, wear your heart on your soul.
Calli Garcia (00:24):
Me personally, as an artist, I understand the person more by seeing them talking to 'em than I can understand what they really want in the artwork itself,
Kevin Douglas (00:32):
Learn how two friends met, entered their shared love of art into a small business. I'm Kevin Douglas and this is the Entrepreneurship DU Podcast. Welcome to the Entrepreneurship at DU podcast. Here we have the co-founders of Cairos, a startup that does custom shoe paint services. Will you guys introduce yourselves?
Calli Garcia (01:03):
I'm Callie Garcia, I'm majoring in marketing and I'm a senior this year.
Zak Mbereko (01:07):
And I am Isaac Gza. Depending on if you've heard my name at Roll Caller or not. I am a business management major here and I'm a junior.
Kevin Douglas (01:15):
Awesome. So could you guys tell me a little bit about how you met, how you connected with each other and how that eventually turned into this startup?
Zak Mbereko (01:25):
Yeah, for sure. So we actually met courtesy of the entrepreneurship llc. We kind of got everything started because of the, what's it technically call? I guess it's like the Lean startup. It was where they give us $20 and you have 10 weeks to start a business and basically make as much money as you possibly can out of that $20. And she worked on a clothing brand of sorts and I worked on shoe restoration for my idea and at the end of it we kind of came together because we were both pretty passionate about art and found a pretty good way to integrate both of the businesses that we had started. And out of it came Kairos about a year and a half later.
Calli Garcia (02:07):
We were on separate groups actually for that project and he happened to be sitting in the common room with us and throwing out ideas for our group. And so we just was like, Hey, let's do this afterwards.
Kevin Douglas (02:18):
Yeah. Is this the first time you've tried starting your own business? Have you even done a lemonade stand as a kid or mowing lawns in the neighborhood?
Calli Garcia (02:29):
I sold snacks out of my locker in middle school I would bring in Reese Rice crispy bars and stuff because my grandpa had a Sam's Club card, so I would just go and buy those packs and stuff and just sell 'em out of my locker for fun. But for sure, this is the first big one I've done
Zak Mbereko (02:46):
For me. I had a pretty similar road. I used to actually make a bunch of rice crispy treats at home and I grew up in Aspen, so I was pretty close to a lot of people that were doing hiking and just a bunch of sports and being outside all the time. So I would go sit in front of the bus stop by my house and just sell as many as I could out to any of the hikers or anything like that. I would also non dis , probably under the radar, get a bunch of checks mix or what's the snack with the m and ms and the nuts Trail mix. Trail mix, that's it. And I would just repackage that and sell that out. trying to make a quick buck. I also used to do lacrosse stringing for people. I actually still do that a little bit here and there and duct tape wallets. That made me a pretty nice chunk of change when I was a little kid. Trying to think. I remember the first thing I ever did trying to make Bunny was I begged my parents to pay me for taking out the trash. Yeah, I mean, I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial mind,