Kale My Name, Kale My Name The CEO exclusive Interview
This week I sat down with the amazing entrepreneur and owner of Kale My Name. We got the exclusive rise on his growing fame, success, and rise to fortune. Here’s our interview with the CEO.
As a multi-entrepreneur what inspired you to develop your company?
Being vegan myself and working in the industry, it made perfect sense for me to open my own 100% plant based restaurant. I was born and raised in Montenegro and I also traveled around the world so I grew a love for many different types and styles of cuisines from all over. Overall, that was my ingenuity for a globally inspired menu.
How have your priorities changed from when you first started your journey into entrepreneurship?
My priorities never changed and I remained focused and consistent throughout my whole journey because I have one simple goal of changing the world. I want to bring forward more plant based options and to create a wonderful and fun experience for everybody. This is still, and will remain my #1 priority.
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?
I often think about this and think about how I would have done certain things differently but maybe I wouldn’t be where I am today if those things never happened. I am very happy with how Kale My Name developed and I believe that everything happens for a reason and that everything always times out perfectly. I’m really happy about how everything has been going and I would never go back and change a single thing.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your journey?
My number one challenge that I had to overcome without even knowing I was going to be faced with was the world pandemic while being in the restaurant industry. Preparing food while the pandemic was going on was definitely super tough and especially terrifying since we had just opened our doors. With many restaurants around us closing down I was constantly thinking if this was something that we were going to succeed in. We definitely overcame every obstacle that was thrown at us and we made it through the pandemic now busier than ever.
What is unique about your business versus any other platform?
I have been in the restaurant industry for quite some time now and I had an amazing opportunity to learn a lot about the operations of the business. I eventually learned to figure out what works and what doesn’t work but I feel Kale My Name is doing so well because we show the world how diverse and inclusive veganism is. I am a part of the vegan community and we do things very differently which is why we stand out so much. We try to be as positive and as judgment free as possible allowing non vegans and people just starting to get into this lifestyle to have a great and fun experience. Our social media platforms are also incredibly different from other businesses. We like to show real footage of the behind the scenes of the company and we love to include the staff and even the customers that support us each and everyday. There is always something interesting or fun happening at Kale My Name like our comedy shows and our karaoke nights.
What advice would you give to someone who is trying to become an entrepreneur or work in the industry?
First things first is you must love and be passionate about what you do. You have to remain focused and confident in what you are creating and even if you run into a rough patch or some obstacle, there are always ways to overcome anything. Give it your everything and positive results will come from it.
Entrepreneurship is never easy. A lot of people don’t have the capital to bring their business to light. How did you raise funding?
We started Kale My Name from scratch. We surprisingly started out extremely small but as business started to pick up it allowed us to grow a lot more and expand our team. We started with only take out and delivery and we didn’t even have a fryer and we had to use a pan with oil because of such low funds. Now we have all new equipment and 6 fryers including one especially for all our gluten free menu items. My advice would be to start really slow and as business and funds start growing, always make sure to invest it back into the business until it grows to the point where you start making profit for yourself. You can do anything, even with barely any funds as long as you have the drive and the determination to make your dream a reality.
What strategies did you first use to market your brand?
Social media is a FREE, very powerful tool to use to market yourself and your business especially if you don’t have the funds for a marketing team. I was spending a lot of time engaging with different people and pages and doing collaborations with different businesses. You need to just create a lot of original and creative content and stay consistent with it.
How do you define success?
Success to me is happiness
What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
When I think about what I enjoy the most about starting my own company is the people that I meet and the team I have. It is amazing that I get to work with so many wonderful human beings. Another thing that I love is the food and developing new recipes and dishes that we get to share with everyone. Seeing people rave about the food and having customers tag us on social media with photos and videos at Kale My Name is so amazing and motivating.
What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?
Qualities of a good entrepreneur are hard work, dedication, and passion.
What are you working on now?
We are currently taking the summer to have fun and enjoy the customers and the employees. We are also planning to show up to multiple festivals around the country to introduce our business to different cities. We love to do pop up festivals to see how people take to Kale My Name to try and get a feel for where we would maybe like to open up our future restaurants.