Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Wilson.
Hi Luke, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started Canary about a year ago, after months of soul-searching and battling depression and frustrations in my career and employers. I have spent the past decade or more building my experience in brand-building and operations, specializing in demand planning, product category management, and omnichannel sales forecasting. I have worked for both very large brands as well as small to medium-sized brands. Earlier in my life and career, I spent the decade of my 20s working in finance and accounting, so I have that experience as well. 13 years ago, after earning my MBA, which focused on Sustainability and Entrepreneurship, I tried and failed at launching an eco-friendly baby clothing brand. At that time, I still had so much to learn. So, after these recent years of learning and growing, my heart was pushing me to try to start my own business again, and I wanted this business to have a strong focus on sustainability in order to try to make the world a better place for my kids, to be proud of what I did every day, and to establish a legacy where my kids would be proud of my efforts. I partnered up with a childhood friend and mentor, and we formed Canary, which is on a mission to purge the use of single-use plastic from the bathroom and around the home.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Regarding the launch and growth of Canary, it hasn’t been without its challenges. But we know that building a brand takes time and a lot of hard work. A lot! The biggest challenge has been general brand awareness. We are a brand-new emerging brand with zero brand recognition. And toothpaste tablets are a relatively new concept, and we’ve discovered it has been hard for people to either understand or get used to the sensation of chewing a tablet that then foams up before brushing. 99.9% of us have used traditional toothpaste all of our lives; it has been all we’ve ever known. But toothpaste generally comes in single-use plastic that will be in landfills for thousands of years. And billions of toothpaste tubes are thrown away every year in America alone. We have to make a better effort to prevent this pile of plastic trash from piling up and getting into our waterways. Our products at Canary are just one step and ultimately an easy step to take to improve our future.
Outside of our normal brand-awareness challenges, I will share that I’ve been lucky to have the support of my family, my business partner, and so many close friends. Even my employer has allowed me a long runway to exit my current role while I’m building this brand. But building a brand takes more than friends and family support, and will take some time and investment to reach the masses for the business to sustain itself. I am confident that we’ll get there and make this happen.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Canary is on a mission to provoke the purge of plastic from the bathroom and around the home with fun, accessible, and conscious plastic-free products that work and hopefully put a smile on your face. We make toothpaste tablets that come in an elevated glass jar, which is completely recyclable or ideally reusable. Our refill packs for these jars come in 100% compostable pouches. We also make a very tasty and all-natural concentrated mouthwash. One small 2oz bottle of our peppermint concentrate makes 16 ounces of refreshing mouthwash and reduces the amount of water weight and energy to ship around. Additionally, we make enticing bar soaps that smell great, last a long time, and are made with all-natural and mostly organic ingredients. In November, we are very excited to launch a highly concentrated hand soap product, also made with all-natural and mostly organic ingredients.
Our mission and brand is built upon some core tenets, which are: 1) We are focused on making the best products possible in these categories. We will iterate and constantly strive to improve. The consumer must love the product in order to adopt it become a fan. 2) In everything we do, we will aim to eliminate, or at least substantially mitigate the use of plastic, and especially single-use plastics. 3) We will be more accessible (i.e., more affordable) than other brands because real change and the reversal of climate change isn’t going to be possible if only the rich can afford to make a change. And finally, 4) we want to have fun doing this…provocative even. Most brands in this space are pretty boring, so we are leveraging our punk rock upbringing to provoke positive change.
So far, we’ve been most proud of the many kind reviews we’ve received, where people are loving the products, our values, and our mission. It feels amazing to be able to create something that is ideally improving the impact of humans on this planet and that also helps to improve lives, even if it is just the little things like brushing teeth or enabling confident smiles.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I believe that anything truly impactful in life starts with taking some risks. Any and all change has inherent risks, but it will take some real change to make an impact on climate change and turn around our trash-building habits. We can mitigate some risks by conducting the research and following the data. Agile learning and evolving help to mitigate some risks too. Let’s inch towards the deep end, learning the general landscape of the pool, before just jumping in head first.
Building this brand is a huge risk for me personally. I am about to leave a well-paying stable job in order to go in full bore with growing this business, as I have a family to support. But risk taking in business can lead to nice rewards at the end, even if it is just an improved work-life balance or achievement of that positive legacy of making an effort to improve the planet for my kids.
Pricing:
- Our Toothpaste Tablet Subscriptions are just $22 for a 4-month supply. That is just $5.50/month which isn’t much more than the classic tubes. We are much lower than other similar toothpaste tablet brands, and $5.50/month is a small effort to help rid the planet of excessive plastic waste.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.canarycleanco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canarycleanco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/canarycleanco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canarycleanco
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@canarycleanco
Image Credits
First photo of Luke Wilson + Canary vs Plastic by Ryan Field. Product shots + Model Shots by Josh Kimball at joshkimball.com
