What began as a spur-of-the-moment idea has become a growing success for Mike Karpishka and Gaby Saucedo, and now they’re ready to take a long-awaited next step with their company Palapa Tours.
Karpishka came up with the idea for the company in 2019 while scrolling through Facebook and seeing photos of Hawaiian-style tiki boats on Lake George in New York state. Within a few hours, he was on the road to see them for himself.
It took two years to bring the concept to Ottawa. Safety concerns about the American-manufactured boats prevented Karpishka and Saucedo from getting permission to sail on Canadian waters, and COVID restrictions caused further delays. But when the opportunity came to design and construct their own boats in Canada, they jumped on it.
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On Labour Day weekend in 2021, Palapa Tours’s floating tiki bar boats officially set sail along the Ottawa River. Since then, the company has continued to grow, and in some unexpected ways.
Last year, Karpishka and Saucedo acquired WaterTaxiEh?, which operates solar-electric aqua taxis that shuttle passengers between popular locations such as the Ottawa Locks, Canadian Museum of History and Richmond Landing. Karpishka said the company has also signed a contract with Casino Lac-Leamy to offer a scenic route to the property for its customers.
Between Palapa and WaterTaxiEh?, Karpishka said the operation has grown from 12 staff consisting mostly of friends and family to a workforce of 35.
“It was a learning curve for us in dealing with how you get that level of quality into the DNA of your staff,” he said. “It’s not an easy challenge. It’s constantly utilizing the tools and technologies that are out there so they’re on top of the pulse of what we’re doing. We love when we hear the guests talking about them and how attentive they are.”
Karpishka said the vision for the company isn’t limited to Ottawa. In fact, it was the first full summer of operation for Palapa Tours’s first licensee in Toronto, which Karpishka said has done better than expected.
“They’ve got over 800 five-star reviews, so they’re really clicking it out in Toronto,” he said. “In fact, I would say Toronto — and I’m glad to see it — is outperforming Ottawa, because the market’s five times bigger.”
It was the first step towards a much grander plan: to franchise the company and put 100 tiki boats in the water over the next decade.
“Having a licensee is great, but unlike a franchise, they have a little bit more autonomy in the way they operate. Their menu doesn’t have to look exactly like our menu,” said Karpishka. “They have a lot more flexibility, which for us was very important for data mining and figuring out some things that they’re doing that work better than what we’re doing in Ottawa. They’ve come up with some brilliant strategies.”
In 2022, Karpishka and Saucedo walked away from CBC’s Dragon’s Den without a deal after pitching the tiki boat idea to the panel of potential investors. In an article for OBJ at the time, he and Saucedo said that the “dragons” weren’t ready to put their money behind a business the size of Palapa, but instead were looking for franchises that would continue to expand.
Karpishka isn’t new to the franchising process. He was involved in franchising children’s gaming company Mad Science, bringing it first to Ottawa and then expanding to nine other locations across the country. With Palapa Tours, he said the time is right to do the same.
“I always knew I wanted to franchise it, but every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to go out and franchise nowadays and they don’t have the proven financials in the track record. We now have four years under our belt in Ottawa and Toronto became a pilot project, launching in August 2024 and now this year with a full season,” he said.
“We wanted to know if this business will operate without (co-owners) Mike and Gaby, or are we the magic? Can we grab someone who has a little bit of understanding of boats and waterways and make it work? Yes, we built the system with the magic there and Toronto did really, really well.”
In the coming months, Karpishka said he and Saucedo will be hitting the Canadian Franchise Association show in search of potential partners. But while the vision could take the company across all of Canada, Karpishka said he’s hoping to “keep it closer to home,” with franchises in nearby cities such as Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston and others along the St. Lawrence Seaway. He hopes the first franchise will be ready to operate by next summer.
In the meantime, new tiki boats are under construction to expand the fleet.
“There’s lots of opportunities,” he said. “The way we structure it, with one boat, you’re buying a hobby. Two boats, you’re buying a business. With three boats, you’re building an empire. It’s what’s in demand in the market. The franchise model is a little more expansive than the licensing model. I’m really betting on and making sure we get the right partners.”
