Paty’s beautiful family painted by Kat Ebony.

Introducing our new Co-Founder, Paty Galán!

Not-so-ironically, the journey of Small Fires has been like a small fire. While it feels impossible to identify the original spark that set this organisation into being, it’s safe to say it has been a slow burn for a number of years.

Last year, that slow burn grew a little brighter as Lillian, Monica, Tess and myself (along with our wonderful readers and supporters) crossed the line in bringing our first book to life. Reaching that milestone was an important one — it signalled that we were doing work that mattered outside ourselves and that we were helping to fill an important need in the world.

But it also kicked off a whole new chapter in work for the organisation: we were no longer in product development or our launch phase, instead we were taking on a whole new journey of growth.

And while this was absolutely exciting — it was also absolutely overwhelming.

All the things we’d be doing to date weren’t going to stop, we were just going to have 1000 more things to do — in particular ones that we’d never done before. Yeeeesh.

As a solo founder, this journey has always had it moments of doubt and loneliness. Kind words, advice and time from friends, family and supporters have been some crucial lifelines in keeping momentum going. When the reality and immensity of the new chapter ahead dawned on me, I felt the slow burn flicker. I realised I couldn’t do this on my own — nor was it in the best interests of this little spark to have only one supply source.

So, you may have seen that a few months ago we put an official call out for a special someone to come on board as a Co-Founder in this journey.

Since then, there have been many deep and eye-opening conversations with some remarkable and wise people. All of which has led us to this very exciting point: where we’ve found just the right person to help take this small and fiery organisation to the next stage of its life — Paty Galán.

I am so thrilled to have a partner by my side, to think and act through our biggest challenges, to lean on when times are tough and to collaborate, learn and grow with over the years to come. The puzzles to solve (ahem: challenges) for any small business are immense, more so when you’re trying to fuse impact with profit. But I am so confident that with the wisdom, care and dedication that Paty brings to the team, we’ll be well poised to keep this fire burning bright.

We thought it’d be best for Paty to introduce herself to our community and tell her own story in her own words, so I’ll let her take it from here…

Why Small Fires?

I first met Grace and learned about Small Fires at a pitch competition during an online conference and got so inspired by its mission.

I owe my love for books to my mum. I grew in a middle class family in Mexico City. On the weekends we would go out and I would ask to get a balloon or ice cream and quite often I would get a no for answer, but if I asked for a book I would always get a yes. So we visited a lot of bookshops. Up to date my mum still buys me books!

I contacted Grace to learn about her experience launching a new social enterprise and as a lovely and kind soul she is, she shared everything she had learn with me. Not surprisingly, we made a connection, so when we had the chance we went for a coffee and met in person. It turned out to be perfect timing as she had just shared she was looking for a Co-Founder and that coffee turned to be a great explosion of ideas we both had for Small Fires.

Tell us a little about your professional journey so far.

Part of my scholarship in high school meant I had to do some work at school so I chose to work at the library and was so happy to be surrounded by books. It didn’t last long as apparently I was too “chatty”. I then decided to work with one of the maths teachers and I loved it (I have always love maths specially geometry and algebra).

As a child, I remember going to my dad’s office and being fascinated by all the drawings and samples of carpets, materials and colours. It didn’t take long for me to decide I wanted to be an architect like him.

At one of my work places as an architect I was introduced to landscape design and specifically design of parks. It started a sparkle in me and since then for the most part I have been designing parks. Since becoming a mum, learning more about play needs and how play helps with learning has been a big part of what keeps me busy now.

Tell us a little about what you’ve been doing recently?

Since I became a mum, I developed a curiosity of how children learn and have done some research, specially around multilingualism as in our family we have three main languages. Out of personal interest in enhancing my children’s experience with languages and general knowledge I started making learning materials and also using some of the Montessori materials I grew up with.

With COVID lockdowns in Melbourne all of these came out handy as the kids were home-learning. One day my kids mentioned it was easier when I explained things for them, so I came up with the idea of designing multilingual games that would help at home or school. From that idea, Kipepeo was born.

Tell us a little about the big forks in your life so far?

The biggest one was definitely coming to Australia to study for my masters degree. When I first came I had the idea to go back to Mexico after my studies and, more so, as Melbourne felt like a little town compare to Mexico City. The city used to get empty and everything would close early on the weekends, obviously now it is very different.

When I was about to finish my studies I met the love of my life and as cheesy as it sounds it was love at first sight at a library! For two bird lovers from different continents, Australia was middle ground so we decided to stay. I never imagined I would be living in a different country than Mexico but now I proudly call Australia home. It has challenged me in so many ways and the ride hasn’t been easy but here I am giving the best I can.

What are you most excited about, right now?

I’ll start with the little things that give me joy everyday: admiring the butterflies in the garden, swimming in the waterfalls or a waterhole after a hike on a hot day, a hug from my children at school pick up, going for a walk holding my love’s hand.

With Small Fires I am so excited to continue spreading empathy around, meet new change-makers, illustrators, create new play experiences and experience the joy of “being” a child again in the process of doing all that and growing Small Fires.

We’ll soon be sharing more about this exciting news and what the connection of two like-minded individuals and businesses (Small Fires and Kipepeo) will look like going forward.

For now, please welcome our brilliant new Co-Founder by reaching out to her at: paty@smallfires.co