Pinnovate - Create Something Amazing

By Kiki Lally - Owner and Founder of Pinnovate

When the concept of Pinnovate began, we knew we were on to something special. What the last 16 months have shown us we could never have expected. Being Canada’s first DIY studio did not come without its challenges, the learning curve was, and still is, enormous. On top of that, being a first-time business owner is a whole other ball game! The truth of the matter is that you never know what to expect; creating business partnerships for us has been key to both personally and professionally. Having other business minds around us to bounce ideas off of, lean on, and ask for advice have helped us throughout our journey.

Meeting the Local Laundry family was been both educational and inspiring for myself and our team. All being local YYC kids, and trying to create a new business with impact was a key component of both of our business models. Becoming friends has been the cherry on top of it all.

Our motto to “Create something amazing”, came from a movement of combining charity, community and impact through business. A massive highlight for our team came last week when we were received the Parent’s Choice top Business in Calgary award for children with special needs. Both humbling and rewarding, it was truly the best award our small business could have received. You see, over the past year, we have created camps on our “closed” days for special needs organizations. We’ve hosted the Between Friends organization, The Society for the treatment of autism, as well as many other children with sensory and special needs. Being a team of mostly moms, and having a special needs nephew who works at Pinnovate as a summer job, our Pinnovate on the Go has allowed us to go to local area schools and reach out to create more special needs programs.

Now we are heading to “Create something amazing” on a personal level, a memory. Sameer and I have planned a once in a lifetime trip to head back to India with our family and both sets of grandparents to show our children what humble beginnings truly look like. As we venture into 2019, we did not anticipate that our business would blow up the way that it has or the magnitude of how busy February in our space would be compared to last year! There’s a remarkable dream team of ladies working behind us while we are away to make this happen for us and we are truly grateful. They will be busy preparing for us to be the featured exhibit at the Calgary Fall Home and Garden Show, February 28-March 3rd, organizing 2 more legacy projects with children at local schools, and hosting an array of corporate events and workshops while we are away!

For our part, we will be taking over Local Laundry’s Instagram feed on our trip as we take you on a tour of China and India and show you some tidbits of where the Pinnovate Journey REALLY began. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to watch the adventures of our family of 5, 2 nephews, and 4 grandparents as we journey across the other side of the Earth.

- Kiki

Check out more about Pinnovate here!