Invested in Our New Reality Season 14: Downtown: Evolved.
Episode 4:
In this engaging episode of Invested in Our New Reality, founder of Knyota Drinks Benson Mutalemwa shares what inspired him to establish a place dedicated to anyone looking for alternative options to alcohol and talks about the support he’s experienced from the Ottawa community in making it happen.
Below, you’ll get a full guide to Episode 4 of Season 14: Downtown: Evolved, including a full transcript and a snapshot of the themes covered in the conversation led by our Season 14 guest host Sam Laprade.
In this episode:
- Benson shares the idea and the motivation behind his business Knyota Drinks.
- He talks about the support his business had and continues to have in being part of the Ottawa community.
- He speaks about what an increase in traffic downtown means to small business owners, and how encouraging and supporting small businesses can help give Ottawa’s downtown a unique and memorable identity.
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About the podcast:
Invested in Our New Reality is a dynamic podcast where business leaders offer honest observations about navigating our ever-evolving reality. Each episode provides a space for entrepreneurs to speak candidly about the challenges and opportunities they’ve faced, arming listeners with practical advice on how to thrive in the future.
Season 14 – Downtown: Evolved
Ottawa is a globally recognized, innovative, and future-ready city and the best place to learn, work, live, and play.
A vibrant city can provide access to a diverse and highly educated pool of tech talent, world-class R&D, low business costs, innovation ecosystems, larger markets, and an exceptional quality of life, all of which significantly impact the success and growth of loyal entrepreneurs and companies.
Season 14 of Invested in Our New Reality Downtown: Evolved celebrates the companies that make their home in Ottawa’s downtown and those working to transform and revive the city’s centre.
Episode Highlights:
- 1:20 – Benson talks about the idea behind Knyota Drinks and why his motivation for starting the business.
- 4:20 – Discover what products are available at Knyota Drinks, and Benson’s approach to providing people looking for non-alcoholic drinks the customer experience they deserve.
- 8:33 – Why Benson felt the business he initially created virtually needed a physical location in Ottawa to be truly successful.
- 11:20 – Exploring the idea of expanding beyond Ottawa.
- 12:40 – Access to invaluable programs and tools to help the business start and grow in Ottawa through Invest Ottawa.
- 14:19 – Support from the Ottawa business ecosystem that helped Benson to navigate his incredible entrepreneurial journey.
- 17:15 – The impact of increased foot traffic downtown on his business, and businesses in general.
- 19:10 – What could be actioned in Ottawa’s downtown core that could take Ottawa to the next level?
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Simplecast
Full Episode Four Transcript:
Host: Sam Laprade: Hi, I’m Sam Laprade and I’m so glad you’re joining us for Invested in Our New Reality, Invest Ottawa’s podcast for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Cities have seen a lot of change in the past five years, and Ottawa is certainly no different. That’s why the 14th season of this podcast is called Downtown: Evolved.
Because we’re looking at the evolution of Ottawa’s downtown core, we’re chatting with leaders that call the downtown their home base, as well as the people helping to transform and revive the city centre – a network of engaged stakeholders, helping Ottawa maintain and grow its reputation as a vibrant exciting place to live, work, play and visit.
And someone who is helping our city achieve that positive reputation is Benson Mutalemwa, founder of Knyota Drinks, a website and downtown storefront offering a wide selection of adult-appropriate, non-alcoholic beverages.
Benson is here to tell us all about his growing business and Benson, I am thrilled you’re here. Welcome to the podcast.
Guest, Benson Mutalemwa: Thank you so much for having me.
Sam: I’m so excited. So tell us all about Knyota Drinks. Why did you decide to start this? And what’s behind the company name?
Benson: So that’s a great question and I never get tired of getting this one just because it’s such a great place to start in terms of just setting up why and kind of what we’re trying to do for the community.
So I came at this as a customer first, there was a point in my life where I wanted to change my relationship with alcohol, look for alternatives and so on. And what I noticed was it was really hard to find that really good alternatives.
So at the time when I was starting this business, you know, we’re talking over two years ago closer to three when I opened the shop, you know when you would go to stores there would be a small selection in the back corner. Nobody could tell you anything about the products. Sometimes there are stocks, sometimes it was not. So the shopping experience was really poor and I thought people who were choosing a different relationship deserved the better shopping experience.
So. I went out to basically curate the better options because when you would look online you would see all kinds of great options, but you couldn’t find them locally. So that is really what I wanted to solve.
And in terms of the name. So Knyota is actually a Swahili word. That means little star. So going back to that motivation of why non alcoholic drinks, what I find is that little star in this case just means that we individually all have our North star, some vision of ourselves, some aspirational sort of how we want to be, how we want to meet the world, what we value. And so on and so forth.
And part of that, especially for me, my relationship with alcohol was kind of holding me back from how I wanted to meet the world. So when I went to open the business, I said, thought, OK, what could be a simple word to capture that essence if you will. And so to me that little star is a representation of all the people that walk through our doors for different reasons, whether it’s, I have an addiction, I live with alcoholism, I’ve gotten to a point where I can have, you know, a non alcoholic beer and not trigger a need to continue to drink, but I still want to explore kind of the favours, to hey, I want to take some breaks here and there, or when I do drink, I want to moderate my drinking.
All of those are valid because at the end of the day, it’s about the personal choices and where you are. And so little star, in this case just captures that – hey, we all have our personal North star individual reasons for coming at this and they’re all valid and our job as a shop is to provide you options when you’re ready to look for options.
Sam: Amazing. Amazing. I love it. Tell us a little bit more about the kind of drinks you’re offering. Are they meant to taste like regular alcoholic drinks or something else entirely?
Benson: So, we range from stuff that imitates alcoholic beverages to stuff that, it’s just different, interesting, complex, elevated and sort of fit that adult beverage description if you will. So there are a lot of people coming to our shop and hey, I’m a big fan of wine, but I’m noticing that when I have a glass or two I don’t sleep as well, but I want to be able to still pair my meal with a glass of wine, so what do you have for me?
And so we’ll point them to the stuff that can imitate wine. Or they’re people coming to our shop and it’s, hey, look, it’s not really about imitating alcohol, it’s really about that glass at the end of the day, kind of the separation between I’m done with work, but I haven’t started my chores and I’m just taking time for myself. And I usually do that by having something in my glass and so it’s not really about imitation, it’s just about can I get something that I can savour? Can I get something that I can just kind of appreciate for what it is? So for that person? We’ll point them to stuff that doesn’t imitate.
So really we cover the whole range and it comes down to what are the individual choices and what are you looking to sort of replace or what use are you trying to kind of fulfill and we match you to the products that fit that.
Sam: It is so brilliant. And I’ll tell you, right from when I was young. I just didn’t like alcohol and so I feel in many ways when I’m out with gal pals or I’m at a party that I feel a bit left out. And so this is really inspiring to me. I think it’s great. I think there’s a wonderful market for this and obviously you’ve got lots of customers, you’ve taken this innovative idea and created this product. Which is disrupting traditional drinks.
What kind of reaction are you getting? The kind of reaction that I’m giving you, which is amazing.
Benson: Yeah. I mean, the reactions range as well. We absolutely get what you’re describing and you know, early on, even when I would hire sales associates and sort of try to explain what the business was, they wouldn’t fully appreciate what the store was about until they got a chance to meet one of our customers.
And every so often as a customer finishes shopping and they grab what they needed on their way out. They would say something like we’re so happy this exists. Or they will. Say something like I never thought there would be a day when I took walked into a shop and be able to find the stuff that I’m looking for so easily and so our customers kind of validate us and motivate us at the same time, which is a really nice relationship to have.
But don’t get me wrong. There’s also people who walk by or shop and are completely confused by the concept, right? Like why would you have a non-alcoholic bottle shop and all of these are valid, right? Because if you’re not searching for non-alcoholic drinks a non alcoholic bottle shop seems like a ridiculous idea right? But if you have been in situations where you felt excluded or you’ve been in situations where you’ve had to pretend like you also have a drink that fits the moment, you know, you’re putting colours and then juices in a glass so that when people are drinking cocktails, you also look like you’re drinking a cocktail. If you felt that level of exclusion, and then finally there’s a place that you can go and get something that tastes interesting, that is complex, it’s elevated. It fits the moment it pairs with your food. It makes you feel like when you’re hanging with other people, you’re not this kind of person stuck in an island looking into, you know, the people on the fun boat – and you, you can’t join, right?
So we’re not here to convince anybody of anything, but for the people who get what the shop is about, we get so many amazing comments that just fuel us every day, right? So.
Sam: I love it. I love it. You started out as an online retail site. Then you took a risk when you decided in the middle of a pandemic, I might add, to open up a storefront in downtown Ottawa. Why did you feel that opening a physical location was the right approach?
Benson: There are so many different ways that you answer this question, right? Because, what service do we want to provide people right? If you go on a website, then there’s a bunch of options and nobody can give you any background about the products that doesn’t really solve the shopping experience, at least from my perspective. Whereas if you walk into a physical store and there are people there who know what is on the shelf, then they can walk you through. And help you make your selection, and you can come back and sort of give feedback and say, hey, I didn’t really enjoy this, but this was great. Do you have anything that’s more like this? And we can sort of say, OK, now that we know you appreciated this, maybe try this next.
We have a place where we can develop a bit of a relationship with the customer. They can keep coming back and we can keep exploring the options together. We can take their feedback and hopefully use that to provide a better service. That to me, I think just solved the shopping experience so much better. Just because yeah, we have a place where we can meet and sort of discover these drinks together, right?
But the other thing is if you kind of take a step back and what I was describing in terms of like, having real options are intended for people who are choosing a different relationship with alcohol. Well, there are no non alcoholic bottle shops in Ottawa before I opened mine, right? And so in a city, like Ottawa, over a million people, why shouldn’t there be a place that says hey, I’m going to worry about the people who are looking for non alcoholic options, right? If you drink alcohol, they’re a multitude of places where you can go and shop and get all kinds of background and you know, be assisted in your shopping from the LCBO to the craft breweries to the just so many people who provide exceptional service for people who drink alcohol. But no place will be people who don’t drink alcohol, right?
So that in itself kind of drives us in terms of like, yeah, we have to be mindful and we do have to carve out space for people who are choosing a different relationship from alcohol.
And so if we look at Ottawa and we look at what our city is about. I kind of feel like it’s nice that Ottawa has this spot that thinks about the people who choose a different relationship from alcohol.
Sam: And I have to ask, are you thinking about expanding is this, is this going to other cities? Or are you? You sort of focusing here in the capital.
Benson: So a lot of our efforts have really been in Ottawa. You know we kind of feel like we haven’t quite gotten Ottawa done properly, which is pretty crazy to think that we’re over 2 1/2 years old, and we still feel like we’re we’re trying to get our feet under us – but it takes that long, right?
Small business, small marketing budget, hard to get through to people. To this day, we still get people coming to our shop and say I had no idea you existed, right? So I could only imagine if we try to boil the ocean and go to all kinds of places at the same time. When we can’t even reach everybody in Ottawa and people are so surprised that we exist in Ottawa.
So really our focus right now is to really make sure that we get Ottawa right. We get a lot of people who come in and say I am never in downtown, but if you are a shop in the Glebe. Or I am never in downtown. But if you had a shop in Westborough or I live in Barrhaven, so this is really far from me. So there are. Just so many other places that you could even go within Ottawa before you start to think about going beyond Ottawa.
Sam: Brilliant. Benson, you took part in the 2023 cohort of Starter Company Plus, which is a provincial government program delivered by Invest Ottawa, which aims to help you take your business to the next level.
What kind of tools did the program give you to help accelerate your growth?
Benson: The biggest thing from that program was the training, right? Really getting a chance to sit there and get training from people from various disciplines. Hey, let’s think about your marketing plan. Let’s think about how you do social ads. If you’re going to do your books, let’s think about how you’re going to do your books. How are you going to manage your books? Here are some tips and tricks, best practices.
For a first-time business owner that is invaluable, right? Just right away, getting a chance to say, here’s how you should think about structuring your business. And then we had a mentor who was able to kind of walk us through. OK. You’re going to create a cash flow plan, here are the aspects that you need to think about when you’re creating that cash flow plan. And then obviously the Starter Company Plus had a grant associated with it as well.
And so, then after getting a chance to learn about how you should set up your business, getting some mentorship and then here’s some money to help you put in place some of those things that you’ve just learned. So, I mean, for the stage of the company that I was at, I couldn’t think of everything that would have been more impactful.
Sam: Amazing. I love hearing that. What kind of support has the Ottawa business ecosystem given you as you’ve navigated this incredible journey, very inspiring, Benson.
Benson: Thank you. So I mean, I would actually just say Ottawa overall, you know, starting a non alcoholic bottle shop, kind of a niche idea, some would even describe as fringe. So the way that Ottawa has accepted my business.
And if you go on Reddit, if you go on Google review, if you go to all these places, the things that people are saying about my business, right, you know, you talk to a lot of business owners, you talk to a lot of business operators, businesses is hard.
So having people receive my business the way they have? You know, it really gets you through some of those moments where you’re kind of like, ‘why am I doing this again? And then you go and you read some reviews or you read Reddit and you say yeah, yeah, This is why I’m doing this.
But then you have Invest Ottawa that has all these programs you know and every time I go there, I find my people right? Like other people who are building businesses that understand how hard it is and can kind of talk, hey, OK, I’m dealing with this challenge. What do you think? You know you can bounce ideas off of other people and then you have the Invest Ottawa staff that are right there and will introduce you to any advisor that you need at any given point. Right?
So having Invest Ottawa behind me to sort of say if I ever run into anything that I’m totally lost on, I can tap into Invest Ottawa and I’ll get guidance on who I need to talk to. That’s been invaluable.
And then the media community in Ottawa has been so kind to my business. The OBJ has written articles about my business, Ottawa Citizen. CBC has had me there talking about my mission and what I’m I’m trying to do. I’m obviously going to forget a few, but you know, edible Ottawa, Ottawa Magazine. I could name so many that have just taken their platform and said, hey, no, we we totally appreciate what you’re trying to do. We totally see the need to have a nonalcoholic bottle shop in Ottawa, and we’re going to use our platform to say something about your business so that you can reach people.
Maybe not a direct answer on like the business community, but just so many aspects of this city, Ottawa, have been so kind to my business and sort of as a small business, small marketing budget couldn’t have bought any of that right. So yeah, just kindness I think.
Sam: Honestly, I just wanna stand up and cheer. Like that, didn’t I? That’s exactly how how it should go, right? That you feel supported and and that you see, you know, yourself out there in the media and and and people get to know you in a new way. That’s that’s fantastic. I love hearing that.
We’re starting to see more people living and working in the downtown core. What kind of impact is that having on your business Benson
Benson: The biggest thing is discovery, so I was mentioning earlier that to this day, we still get people who say I had no idea you existed. And it’s the lunchtime walk and seeing our sign in front of our shop, it’s the going into the office and somebody has just returned from our shop and they ask, oh, where did you get those? And all of a sudden they get into a conversation. And the thing is, it’s not always about the person that discovers our shop. It’s about who else they can tell. It’s about who else they can think of, right? Oh yeah. No, I drink alcohol, but my mother-in-law has been into this you know, she’s thinking about her wine and, you know options, and also says, oh, you know, like my dad was just told that he should be drinking less. And then so all these just natural discovery in the shop, talking to others about it, and then all of a sudden people are able to think about, well, who else around me, if not me, then who in my circle could appreciate having a place like this? Who am I going to shop for at this store this Christmas? You know, who am I going to bring a bottle for at Thanksgiving from the shop, right? So I could not overstate the impact of people getting back downtown and discovering the shop that way.
I know that it’s kind of a tough topic and it comes with all kinds of challenging consideration. So as a business owner, you’re always kind of conscious to be overly excite talking about this but it helps.
Sam: I’m so sad. Benson, our conversation is coming to an end, but I want to know, what’s one thing you’d love to see in Ottawa’s downtown core that you think could take us to the next level as a global city?
Benson: I think some of this work is already happening in trying to think about Ottawa and how Ottawa shows up in the world. Things don’t happen by accident. I think we create spaces that say, hey, you know, it’s worthwhile to have a Main Street that has local shops, local brands, things that when people visit Ottawa, they can go back and say, oh yeah, when I went to Ottawa, I saw such and such business and it was so neat.
You don’t get that if all there is, is these chain stores and say oh you know I went to Ottawa and I went to this coffee shop that I can also visit two blocks from where I live, in whatever city that I came from. That doesn’t create an Ottawa that you know as a resident, you can be kind of proud of, and say, this is uniquely Ottawa.
It’s hard to put it on one thing, but I think spending the time and truly thinking about what does Ottawa need to be as a city so that it’s unique enough that when somebody visits here, they can go back and remember it for what it is. And it can actually carve out a space for itself. And when you think about, any other major city, what is uniquely Ottawa? What? What feeling do we deliver to people when they visit our city?
And I think you do that by having thought out plan for, hey, I think downtown needs to have a mix of entertainment, local shops. And I’m not saying that everything should be local and there’s a place for, chains and big businesses and so on, but we can’t forget that if that’s all we get. I can get that anywhere else, right? So I think doing the work and really thinking about what our city needs to become and then creating those spaces. Sort of actualizing something that is uniquely Ottawa would be really helpful.
Sam: Beautifully, said Benson. It’s been so much fun chatting with you today, and I cannot wait to try one of your drinks because they sound delicious, and it sounds exactly like what I need. So thank you so much and thank you for being on the podcast and a big thanks, of course, to all of our listeners. Until next time I’m Sam Laprade.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Invested in Our New Reality. We’re committed to bringing you dynamic conversations with business leaders who are transforming and reviving the National Capital Region. So, stay tuned to our next conversation about Downtown: Evolved. And be sure to reach out to us at investottawa.ca with your thoughts and comments. We’d love to hear from you. Until next time. I’m Sam Laprade and I’ll chat with you again soon.
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