East alum Tyler Enders and his path to Made in KC

Out of the multitude of clubs and activities that then junior Tyler Enders saw offered at East, something was missing: a ping-pong club. So Enders and his friends started one. The club wasn’t very serious, and they didn’t want it to be — which was obvious based on the jokes they made all throughout the first intercom announcement they made to advertise it.

By Enders’ estimates, about 70 people crammed into a classroom for the first after-school meeting.

Enders has always loved bringing people together to accomplish a common goal — whether it was starting a ping-pong club or planning events during his two years on STUCO. Recently the entrepreneurship Enders’ used in his ping-pong club has evolved into something a little more large-scale — starting four different businesses with a total of 15 different locations, including the well-known Made in KC. They all began the same way: Enders saw room to improve, and his flair for actualizing an idea and creating a friendly environment did the rest.

Enders and his older-by-a-year friend, 2008 East graduate Thomas Mclntyre, used to end their school week at First Fridays in the West Bottoms. There they saw artists trying to sell their work out of their studios — the only problem was that the majority of people purchasing art weren’t strolling through the West Bottoms, they were in the suburbs.

Just like the ping-pong club missing from East, Enders saw a gap to fill. It wasn’t until 2015 that Enders had found his opportunity to do something about it, when a friend and jewelry artist came to Enders with a similar struggle.

“Great at making jewelry,” Enders said, “Not so great at running her business or selling her product.”

Ender’s didn’t know jewelry, but he did know business. 

When McIntyre suggested that this was an opportunity to solve the problem they saw as high schoolers, Enders saw a chance to help his friend, and do what he loved — taking ideas and putting them into action. So the two set up a new website, took updated product photos and got their friend’s jewelry into stores and upcoming shows.

She wasn’t the only local artist too focused on their craft to be able to concentrate on the business side of their work. Enders and McIntyre started collaborating with more local artists interested in their model and setting up pop up shops, and in the spring of 2015 they began their own company — Made in KC. 

The two agree that setting up the first Made in KC store in Prairiefire was a challenge. Without people like accountants, marketing managers or graphic designers working for them, the two filled several roles outside their comfort zone. But Enders says that the growing phase of a company might be his favorite.

“I would honestly be happy to build a small company that cleans dryer vents.” Enders said. “I really enjoy the process of bringing people together to work on something.”

Enders and McIntyre didn’t adopt the concept of business formalities in coworker relationships. They often interrupted each other at their desks, walked over when they had a thought instead of sending an email and made sure employees felt welcome to come up to them at any time. 

Enders attributes the laid-back mentality to the reason why he’s enjoyed the start-up of their businesses so much, and in turn why they’ve landed so much success.

“I don’t know if this is a faux pas or not, but I consider all of our core staff to be friends.” Enders said. “We spend a lot of time together, we have a lot of fun. We have a very laid back office, people come and go as they please.”

Faux pas or not, the business model was working.

As the business took off, Enders and McIntyre kept putting in the work — researching how much money to spend on shelves or the most strategic place to put the checkout queue. And if a pipe burst, or the Plaza flooded or the landlord decided that they weren’t going to pay for something they said they would, Enders and McIntyre tackled that as well.

They started a second store, this time in Briarcliff. Then came a third. With each new addition, the customers kept coming. Today Made in KC has six locations, but the mentality is the same as when they started.

“There’s a lot of laughing and joking that goes on.” Enders said. “There’s a lot of people sitting on couches for seemingly half the day, or who will go and take a really long lunch because everyone knows that they’re still expected to get their work done.”

Not five minutes after Enders said this, an employee came over, gave Enders a hug and walked away. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes [to the conference room] and knocks on the door and pokes their head in right now.” Enders said.

The most recent addition to Made in KC is their Front Range location in Corinth — and Enders and McIntyre don’t plan on stopping there. Wherever their next location is, it’s sure to have the same ping-pong-club-founding spirit that started it all.