How do I even 2X what I did last time while maintaining the quality of the stick?

And, you know, it's speed on top of that.

It's like I get reports every week on social media, everything.

And it's like we see that maybe a couple months ago, five times a week worked really good.

Right.

Ten times a week or 50 times a week posted really, really worked really good.

So it's really trying to like you don't learn those things without volume.

And what exactly was that moment for you that had you not... taken that leap of faith or maybe prevented yourself from doing something you wouldn't be standing here in front of me after the dragons then the 30 under 30 like what was that one linchpin moment that sort of was the domino effect for all those things after

Because I think that's, that's going to be a good learning experience for people.

Yeah, I would say I have one of the weirdest entrepreneur journeys.

I would say it started all the way back when I was 13 years old.

That's where I felt like I really got into business.

I was selling bracelets, selling anything kind of out of my backpack at elementary school.

And that was kind of my first step into business in a sense.

My parents are both entrepreneurs.

So you've read all those books, but those that haven't read as many, what's the one, I mean, for me, there's two or three, but what's, what's, what's the two or three books that have shaped, shaped your entrepreneurial career?

What are some of the things that you're doing and that people can do to remove?

Yeah, what we're doing ultimately is we're trying to remove the financial barrier within the equipment aspect.

So making really high quality goods and affordable costs, I would say that would be the most important thing that we're trying to do there.

And overall, there's not much we can do about the sport cost, but we're doing a little bit of the side to make at least accessibility side and equipment where the hockey sticks are $400 or $500 nowadays.

So we're trying to do that difference.

What were some of the challenges or one of the challenges at a young age when you first started that you wish you would have known?

Yeah.

You know, all the challenges we had at the young age, we still have today.

Right

... kids on my team would break their stick, and, like, you could see, like, the parents in the crowd, like, almost crying.

Um, and that was kind of my start, where I kept seeing that same issue, and I didn't realize what the fix was.

Like, I didn't really understand it.

Like, I was always that kid where I worked at a sporting store, and I used to give my discount out to help some of these individuals with my 60% sporting goods discount to, like, help them buy sticks, help them buy equipment, and that was kind of my start into the game, um, in- into kinda giving back.

And during COVID, that was kind of my start into, like, you know what? There, there has to be a better solution for this.

Like, there has to be a better solution for this, 'cause I saw this throughout my whole, all of the levels I played at.

Right.

Right.

I think that's one of the most important aspects, is where we may hear from a customer, and everyone's so important to us.

Like, you're not just another number to us.

Every single one of our customers, like, we consider as family.

And if you guys say, "Oh, the stick may be a little bit too square," we're gonna round the stick on our next batch of sticks, and like, we're not gonna release a new stick.

All the other companies are releasing new sticks three, four, five times a year at this point, that it's almost the same exact stick.

When it comes to the manufacturing acce- aspect of it, exact same stick.

Can you talk to the kids for a couple minutes here about how there's multiple paths in the game? That while dreaming big is something we want you all to do, uh, and that you do have to put the work in with those dreams, there's a lot of ways to stay involved in hockey, uh, or be involved in hockey besides playing.

Obviously, you got to do like a ton of media and probably had some really cool connections and and just tell us all about that experience.

yeah you know what that was um that that was a life-changing experience for sure um and that was an award you know i'm gonna be transparent like i i really knew i was gonna win that award probably like i was still delusional still a little bit delusional but i was like you know what i'm gonna win that award one time um before i'm 30 and like that was that was always like the biggest thing for me to like have that award to be honest, because like, there's not, especially in hockey, like you win a championship every year.

Like you have that opportunity in business.

That's probably the only one, like there's maybe two or three real, real awards.

And that was one of the most important ones for me that like I really wanted.

And yeah, I guess, you know, it was, they didn't give you any warning.

Like when you got, you just get an email in the morning, like, oh, you're listed now.

What's the number one thing that you kind of follow?

You know, what was it that made you feel like you wanted to, to start this company up? So, um, first, just kind of in, in, in a few words, just talk about what Swyft Hockey is, and then I would love to know kind of like the, the origin story and the genesis of why you felt like you wanted to start this company at such a young age.

Yeah.

You know what? I guess I, I could start kind of with the story about how I got here.

Um, growing up in Oshawa, for anybody who knows Oshawa, there's a really new side and there's an old side right now, so the demographic on the type of money that's being made in Oshawa is completely split, ultimately, where we have a lot of rich people, and we have a lot of poor people, and everything I did was directly in the middle.

Um, my hockey was in the middle, and my school was in the middle, and I kept seeing so much stuff happen frequently.

Like, kids weren't able to bring, uh, lunches to school, and even on my hockey team, like, I kept seeing, like, the same problem happen.

Sticks just kept breaking, and like, I would look out in the crowd and see the parents, like, almost in tears, [chuckles] um, for, like, their, their $400 or $500 stick breaking, and that was such an eye-opening experience.

You talk about a mission for, for Swyft Hockey, like, what, what's the underlying kind of story? What's the underlying just really, really fire that burns inside of you to, to want to, to, to create this avenue where more people can get involved with the game and make it more affordable so we can keep growing?