HANGRY
Mark Scattolon
Fabian Raso
Ryan Giles
Mark Scattolon, Fabian Raso and Ryan Giles were all born in Hamilton, where they became good friends in High School.
Mark currently resides in Hamilton, Fabian current resides in Toronto, and Ryan currently resides in Burlington, which is also Hangry’s Headquarters as the Halton region is central to the businesses’ campus accounts. Mark and Fabian have plans to move to Halton this summer as the business grows.
What was the inspiration behind your idea?
The idea was spawned during time in University. While on campus, we experienced the pain of having to wait in long lineups to order our usual morning coffee and breakfast in between our tightly compacted class schedule. We often had to either miss a meal in order to make class on time, or more commonly, showed up late to lecture. Some days we had 3 hour straight of class time with small breaks before and after — there never seemed to be enough time to eat in between, which made us very ‘hangry’. And that problem still exists for student’s today, a problem that has yet to be solved for decades on campus. That’s why we created Hangry — offering students the flexibility and convenience of ordering and paying for food in advance, so they can pick up their food & beverage without ever having to wait in a long lineup or miss a meal again!
What motivates you every day?
We’re extremely passionate about how technology continues to change and evolve the way we live, making our lives simpler and convenient. We motivated when we can find ways to give people back time in their day that’s wasted doing things we all hate, such as waiting in a long lineup at lunch. Life is short and time is limited – we want to make enrich our daily routines. That’s how we came up with our vision: We exist to save you time by giving you what you want, when you want it.
We’re also driven knowing we’re making a difference in people’s lives. We know we’re not savings lives here, but we love helping our users gain back time to better enjoy their lives. That idea and purpose really drives us. And we’ll continue to work towards unlocking new ways to eliminate the daily routines that we all hate, so you can do more of the things you love.
Who do you look up to and in what way?
All three of us share common role models: our parents. I know, we’re corny, but they instilled characteristics in us that helped get us to where we are today. Our parents weren’t given the same opportunities and easy lifestyle that we have been grateful to receive. They’re self-starters – had to work long and hard to build a life and family from having very little to start. Growing up, my father would work 12 hours shifts, straight days for weeks at a time. They taught us discipline and the value of being accountable, taking ownership, and pushing yourself to work harder when you feel like quitting. Look, it’s not easy nor glamorous being an entrepreneur, but because of our parents, we have the fundamental skills for this journey!
What have you learned from Pythons’ Pit?
Pythons’ Pit has been a valuable learning and growth experience for us. From the hands-on workshops & speakers, expertise of mentors and industry partners, the program fosters collaborative learning and development for entrepreneurs to grow personally and evolve their startup business.
The program really helped us drill down to better our understand our business and distil our true value. Python’s Pit is engineered to help refine the way you talk about your business through the power of storytelling. The workshops have been a great way for us to get feedback and perspective from industry professionals.
Pitching our entire business in 3 minutes has been a challenging and helpful exercise to help us be concise and simplify the way we pitch.
The mentor network provided our business with a diversity of resources that helped us fill expertise gaps within our business: from receiving advice and guidance, introductions to connections within our weak spots, and our mentor introduced us to his firm to help streamline our accounting.
MENTORS: RAJ AND JOTI VALLABH – Oakville, On
One line description of your current job
Partners at Positive Accounting who aside from the accounting aspect of life have the roles and responsibilities of introducing and integrating accounting technology into our practice allowing us to partner with global firms by means of paperless transmission.
Why did you choose to be a mentor?
When I was in High school they ran a mentorship program with global companies dedicating their time. My mentor was Larry Gerber , The CFO of Ghiradelli chocolate. The volume of learnership that I acquired in that program was phenomenal.
Attending board meeting and shadowing him was an amazing experience. It allowed me to understand the world I wanted to go into and had made a significant impact on the choice I made to becoming an Entrepreneur. If I could impact someone’s life positively that alone is reason enough to become a mentor.
What have you got out of mentoring?
Mentoring is also learning for us. It allows us to understand the visions of the younger generation. Where they want to go and what they want to achieve in business. It has given us the ability to keep our business young, ever-changing and dynamic like the new entrepreneurs that come out into the world today.