W I N N E R
Chris Guillemet + Davide Xausa + Boris Martin
C O - F O u N D E R a N D C E O + C O - F O u N D E R a N D p R E S I D E N T + C O - F O u N D E R
a N D v p O p E R a T I O N S , v E L O F I x G R O u p O F C O m p a N I E S
What did
your summer
jobs teach
you about
business?
That I am far better
with my brain than
my hands
Chris Guillemet and Davide
Xausa had a similar problem.
Both cyclists who had known
each other since their early
teens, the Metro Vancouver
natives felt that bricks-and-
mortar bike shops couldn't
cater to their needs. So the
pair set out to create a mobile
repair service. Guillemet
had management expertise
from helping run a couple of
Vancouver-based companies,
while Xausa had •nancial
expertise, thanks to his work
as an account manager with
the provincial government.
The problem? Guillemet
and Xausa didn't know how to
•x bikes. In 2012, they stum-
bled on Boris Martin, a young
mechanic who was, in Xausa's
words, "being harshly under-
utilized." The three developed
Velo•x, a ‡eet of mobile bike
repair shops, using a model
that sees franchisees pay a
fee to operate a truck with
rights over a certain territory
and hand over a percentage
of the proceeds. Launched in
Vancouver, the company now
has 140 franchises throughout
North America, from Victoria
to Jacksonville, Florida.
If there was any doubt about
whether the business could
be sustainable, the Velo•x
founders believe they crushed
it in the city where they began.
"The fact that we started in
Vancouver, which has more
bike shops per capita than
anywhere in North America,
proves that the model gives the
convenience factor that a bike
shop just can't," Guillemet says.
"I don't care if you have a great
mechanic. You still have to get
there, park, leave your bike for
a week and pick it up."
The plan doesn't stop
there. Velo•x launched its •rst
mobile ski repair shop in 2015
and is now in 25 communities.
"There's a million things we
can do," Xausa says. "Can we
move into more winter activi-
ties, like snowmobiling? Is
there any reason we can't hire
Red Seal—certi•ed mechan-
ics for that? There are a lot of
opportunities still; we're just
scratching the surface." —N.C.
(From left)
Davide xausa,
Boris martin and
Chris Guillemet
e n T r e P r e n e u r o F T H e Y e A r 2 0 1 8 / E M E R G I N G E N T R E P R E N E U R
bCbusinEss.Ca OCtObER 2018 BCBusiness 49
25th
a n n i v e r s a r y
