RAFIKI means "friend" in Swahili.

Rafiki Bio

Copyright © 2009   Rafiki Franchise Inc.   Boise, Idaho, USA   All Rights Reserved

Jambo Rafiki!

My name is Robere Kazadi and I am the co-founder of Rafiki-Where Friends Play. I

am very happy to introduce you to what I consider to be a fun and rewarding

business opportunity. We want to thank you for taking the time to learn more about

our franchise offering.

Let me give you some history on how Rafiki was conceived. Twelve year ago

Wendy, my wife and Rafiki co-founder, had our first child. We lived in the Los

Angeles beach area and Wendy would take our baby to an indoor play center and

meet up with her friends. She would tell me about how “fun” this place was. Every

time she went the place was packed. I went to check it out and sure enough, it was

packed. It was at that moment that Wendy and I looked at each other and said,

“We could do this”!

Over the course of the next 10 years, we developed a plan to open our own indoor

kid’s play facility. As the years past we moved to the Big Island of Hawaii. We were

going to open a facility there, but low and behold, someone else opened one before

we could. By this time, we had two kids. So we took them to the new indoor play

facility. It was nice. We watched as they out grew their space, in just a few months.

Wendy and I realized that the concept of indoor play is a solid one, and one that is

well received by the community it is in.

As fate would have it, we moved to Boise, Idaho. Boise is a fantastic place to live. We soon realized that there

were a lot of families and that they all have lots of kids! We believed that this would be the perfect place to open

our play center. So we did it!

At first we had a hard time thinking of the perfect name for the business, but then it came to me. When I was a kid

in Jr. High, I lived in Nairobi, Kenya. I remembered how everywhere I went I would hear people greet each other

with “Jambo Rafiki”! It was a very happy and magical time for me. Wendy and I knew Rafiki was the right name for

our facility because it embodied the spirit and feeling of what we had created. And it goes without saying, Rafiki is

a place where friends play, and meet new friends. This applies to adults also.

Rafiki is an exciting endeavor and we are so grateful for the acclaim and acceptance from the community. That is

why Wendy and I believe that communities all across the country will enjoy and frequent a Rafiki in their city.

Thank you for taking the time to read a little about our story. This is an exciting time for our company and we are

Robere Kazadi

Watch a Message from the President and Co-founder

RAFIKI FRANCHISES

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