Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Doan.
Chris, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Prior to starting Popfancy, I worked as an architect for a couple of years out of college. While I enjoyed the field of architecture, in practice I found that my creativity was always limited by my work environment so I started doing small business makeovers as freelance projects on the side. This is where I really fell in love with the idea of transforming someone’s amazing concept into a beautiful and functional business. After flipping so many businesses for others, I thought why not create something of my own. Looking around at the current offerings at our typical mall in Houston, there we’re plenty of “healthier food options”, but when it came to dessert, there was hardly any. This was when Popfancy came to life: to take the simple idea of a fresh fruit puree and freeze it into a delicious guilt free snack. I was definitely influenced by paletas (Mexican whole fruit popsicles) found in our local ma and pa shops, and wanted to transform this idea into a product that truly represented the diversity of our city. Why stop at Mangonada, when we can create Thai Tea, Vietnamese Coffee, or even Cereal Milk Pops! I got together with my 2 best friends Kelly Choi and Kat Guzman and we got to work. It took months of grueling planning and development but finally we launched our very first Popshop in Memorial City Mall in 2016. The Houston Galleria followed shortly after that as our second branch and then First Colony Mall in Sugar Land. At the start of 2018, we launched our very first local franchise branch of Popfancy in the Woodlands Mall. Outside of the popshops we’ve been actively participating in local city wide events like the Rodeo, Superbowl, PRIDE, and various cultural festivals to get involved with our community.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not a smooth road. Any entrepreneur will tell you this path is probably the roughest and most unstable one to take, but at the end of the day, it’s rewarding to see your local community embrace an idea that was literally created in your kitchen. Finance is always at the top of the list of struggles since this was a self-funded start-up from humble beginnings. Besides that, we struggled with a lot of things throughout the experience even until this day. But I treated every hurdle as a challenge and worked hard to cross those road blocks so we can continue to provide a quality product and experience for our customers.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Popfancy Pops – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Popfancy Pops are handcrafted daily using market fresh ingredients and organic sweeteners. Our incredible tasting ice pops are made using fresh produce hand-selected at the peak of season, so the flavor menu changes often to reflect our green-thumb approach to the art of pop making. We also believe equally as important as what we put in our pops is what we don’t put in, so best efforts go into “naked” recipes, steering clear from preservatives, fillers, dyes, and artificial sweeteners. Our flavors are what sets us apart from others. Our menu changes as often as we get inspiration for new flavors…which is often! Flavors from around the world, nostalgic childhood memories, health trends, and even customer feedback, we try to create flavors that represent the diversity of our city.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Right now we have plans to launch this concept outside of Houston, starting with a neighboring city. I definitely have big plans in 2018 and hope to see Popfancy grow nationwide one day. We’re still a young company but eager and ambitious to conquer the world!
Contact Info:
- Address: 303 Memorial City Way, ste 5570B
Houston, Tx 77024 - Website: http://www.popfancypops.com
- Phone: 8324832075
- Email: popfancypops@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/popfancypops
- Facebook: facebook.com/popfancypops
- Twitter: twitter.com/popfancypops
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/popfancy-pops-memorial-city-houston-4
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