For over three decades, Spirit of Math has carved out a unique niche in Canadian education. Based in Toronto, the company has become a national leader in after-school math enrichment for high-performing students, and now it’s gearing up for global expansion.
“We’ve been incorporated for 30 years, actually working for about 32 years,” said Kim Langen, CEO and founder of Spirit of Math. “It started as a system of after-school schools for high performing students in mathematics. Basically, we take kids from the top of the class to the top of the nation.”
Langen is clear that Spirit of Math isn’t a tutoring service. “We actually have classes that kids attend, so they come for an hour and a half class once a week, and we teach them mathematics at a higher level,” she said. “They do need to be highly motivated or high performing – not necessarily gifted. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, this is a gifted program.’ No, it’s not necessarily a gifted program. It is for kids who actually are looking for more.”
The program currently serves just under 12,000 students through 27 campuses – 26 brick-and-mortar locations and one virtual. “Our after-school classes are in campuses, so centres. We have 26 centres throughout Canada, and one virtual so 27 in total,” Langen explained. Spirit of Math also runs math contests across 15 countries and offers a drill app and technology stream.
The origin story of Spirit of Math traces back to Langen’s father. “He did this program, first of all, in the North York School Board,” she recalled. “His kids were scoring much higher on all the testing, in the school board and also in the contests and really, what they found was that when the kids left his program, they were thinking very differently than others, and they were far ahead.”
Recognizing the potential, Langen took the reins. “I was a high school teacher at this point and I thought this would be really fascinating to work as a business, and to start in the basement of my home, because we couldn’t let this idea disappear.”
From those humble beginnings with 35 students, Spirit of Math grew rapidly. “Grew it to over 80 in their first year,” she said. “The parents kept asking for it in different areas. So I said, ‘Okay, let’s franchise.’”
That franchising model has been in place now for two decades. “Right now we have 12 different franchise locations, the rest are corporately owned, to make it a total of 26,” Langen confirmed. With growth on the horizon, the company has now chosen to “start scaling the franchising, rather than corporate, as we go global.”
But franchising with Spirit of Math isn’t for everyone.
“We have very high skill set requirements just to even enter into this,” she said. “People have to have a degree to work with us. They have to have an understanding not just any teachers. A lot of our teachers just don’t even pass to get into our stream.”
Langen emphasized that growth must come with purpose. “To expand quickly isn’t necessarily what we would call success, each of our franchise centres is very successful in terms of the number of students and in terms of their profitability.”
Currently, many campuses are in the Greater Toronto Area, with others in Ottawa, Alberta, Winnipeg, and British Columbia. Expansion within Canada continues, but global efforts are ramping up, particularly through Spirit of Math’s international contest partners.
“We did have some campuses in Pakistan, but COVID kind of really squashed that,” said Langen. “We’re actually doing a new expansion model once we get to know (our global partners), then we’re going to be offering it globally.”
A key component to Spirit of Math’s franchise success has been its relationship with the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA).
“They provide the proper context on what franchising is to begin with, they give the expertise, and they have the people who can provide you with the expertise to know what to look for,” said Langen. “Franchising people don’t necessarily understand the implications. It’s not just the legal implications, but it’s even the operational implications and how to set up your business properly so that you can do an expansion properly.”
Langen said CFA membership is a signal to potential franchisees that “there’s a standard, and we’re not just out there, just doing anything we want.”
So, is franchising the best route for business growth?
“Yes, not always. It’s a great way,” she said. “It depends on your business but it’s very good for scale.”
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