GoodGood is a new, and better kind of local-first e-commerce company, aiming to deliver curated items, hard-to-find favourites, and specialty snacks through instant delivery and retail to Toronto’s food lovers. Founded by Robert Kim and Kris Linney, with an experienced team from Google, Ritual, and Shopify, they’ve begun to offer up a taste of what’s on their roster just in time for the holiday season. Aside, from their speedy delivery service, curious consumers are invited to check out some of the items in person currently at their pop-up cafe located in the King West neighbourhood (at 410 Adelaide Street West) with a few enticing promos including free delivery for the month and $1 hot drinks.
For the first time in Toronto, locally curated coffees, specialty beverages, one-of-a-kind healthy snacks (and some not-so-healthy snacks), plus everyday favourites will be offered via instant delivery (60 minutes or less) to neighbouring customers (note: same/next day delivery available throughout Toronto, with instant delivery range quickly expanding). Additionally, GoodGood products will be available in brick-and-mortar locations, with local cafés and wine bars carrying items specific to their neighbourhood, like kid-friendly snacks in family-centric communities, and imported specialities in pockets across the city. Canadian makers include City Seltzer, Honey’s Ice Cream, Mid-Day Squares, Heartbeat Hot Sauce, Smart Sweets, and hundreds more.
And by seeking out these unique and local goods makes GoodGood a stand out. Robert Kim tells us the team has been sourcing these amazing companies and their products by reaching out and fielding inbound requests from makers. “Each maker is “handpicked” in the sense we take the time to curate our selection by learning more about the maker’s product and mission. While there isn’t a set criteria, we are focused on craft makers that might not be found at your every day store,” says Kim.
An example is Barbet, a female founded beverage company born out of necessity due to their founders health is a great example of an early maker who GoodGood is working closely with to help launch their brand across Toronto. “Their take on bubbly water by adding unique ingredients such as jalapeno, juniper, and lavender is something really exciting to us,” says Kim.
He tells us that they are heavily focused on the food, beverage, and gifting categories. As they continue to grow the business they will work closely with the GoodGood community to better understand which categories they wish to access through their company.
What else is coming up? In early 2022, they are planning to announce the opening of a series of café and wine bars in various Toronto neighbourhoods. The current plan is to open 5-10 locations across the city with greater expansion across the GTA and Canada towards the end of 2022.
“I am still an active advisor and shareholder at Ritual,” said Kim. “I have been passionate about local for the past two decades and after seeing the impact the pandemic has had on small businesses, I knew that there was a timely problem I could help with. This is why we started GoodGood and why we had to jump on it right away.
With a recent announcement of funding raising $6.5 million CAD from Golden Ventures, BKCM, Tet Ventures, Maple VC, and Canadian angel investors including Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering at Shopify, and Chris Rickett, co-founder of Digital Main Street, GoodGood is well-positioned for growth in Toronto making shopping for treats and gift items accessible for neighbourhoods to support their favourite makers and artisans as well as popular snack brands while discovering new ones.
And they also believe in the good stuff. That is, buying local, supporting the community, fair wages, reconciliation, nice people, voting, equality, and always saying thank you!
Check out GoodGood here.
