BCBusiness

BCBUSINESS.CA APRIL 2019 BCBUSINESS 29 A L E X D E C H A N T Founder and CEO CELL CLINIC AGE: 29 LIFE STORY: You know how it goes. Guy meets girl while studying abroad, falls in love, follows her back to her hometown of London, England, and…well, that's where this takes a turn. Alex Dechant moved from Lethbridge, Alberta, to the U.K., and when he couldn't get a job on a two-year visa, he started a company called Apple Tree that fixed iPhones and other Apple products. Dechant left England when his visa ran out. He sold Apple Tree (which still offers smartphone repairs in Canterbury) in 2014 and brought a similar idea back to Western Canada. So Cell Clinic was born, grow- ing to two locations in Vancouver and one in Surrey, where the head office is located. The company's 22 employees fix cellphones of all kinds and sell used ones. Of course, success breeds imitation. "A lot of break-ins, lot of negative online review stuff," Dechant says of how competition has manifested itself in the business. "[The reviews are] mostly fake; we try to go, Oh, we're really sorry about this, but it does appear to be fake." BOTTOM LINE : Dechant's stores earned gross revenue of more than $1.5 million in 2018. He's in talks with a couple of major phone makers about partnerships in the used-device space, and is starting another com- pany that will put electronics recycling at the forefront of its mission. –N.C. R A C H E L C H A S E Co-founder and CEO ZENNEA TECHNOLOGIES AGE: 24 LIFE STORY: A childhood friend with a sleep disorder set Rachel Chase on the path to entrepreneur- ship. "He didn't find out until he was 25 that he had obstructive sleep apnea," says Chase, who grew up in South Surrey and earned a bachelor of business administration from SFU's Beedie School of Business, con- centrating in finance, management information systems, and innovation and entrepreneurship. "He was always told that he was a bit slow, when in fact he was just very tired," she explains, pointing out that sleep apnea in children is not only common but also difficult to diagnose because it doesn't involve snoring. After researching obstructive sleep apnea and chronic snoring, Chase and Zennea Technologies co-founders Nell Du and Oliver Luo developed a device to treat the conditions. It will be the first clinically proven medical device approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra- tion for use when a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine would not be prescribed. Zennea uses neuro-stimulation technology that externally activates cranial nerves to contract the main dilator muscles of the tongue and reduce upper airway restrictions. BOTTOM LINE : With its medical device navigating the FDA's clearance process, Zennea, which has one employee in addition to the three co-founders, is completing pre-clinical testing so it can begin a clinical trial this year with 30 to 40 people. The company plans to enter the U.S. market in two to three years, pending clearance from the FDA, and then turn its attention to China's and Japan's medical device markets. Zennea is funded through Creative Destruction Lab and San Francisco's SOSV Hax portfolios. –F.S. S T A C E Y W A L L I N Co-founder and COO NUMINUS AGE: 29 LIFE STORY: Health is a recurring theme in Stacey Wallin's career. In 2012 she co-founded LifeBooster, a tech company that helps employ- ers assess and address workplace injury risks. It evolved from SmartFit, an employee wellness solution that won Wallin's team a prize at SFU's Beedie School of Business, where she obtained a BBA with a concentration in innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2016, seriously ill herself, Wallin stepped down as LifeBooster CEO. The following year she joined the BC Tech Association, where she led the department that helped entrepreneurs increase revenue from $1 million to more than $50 million. "I wanted to use my entrepreneur- ship experience and my finance background to maximize the good that I could," she explains. Wallin was an investment adviser at several firms, most recently Mackie Research Capital, from 2009-16. Last summer, she and co-founder Payton Nyquvest, who also has a finance background, began a new venture. It formally launched in February as Numinus. The company's mission is to legalize pathways to alternative therapies using psyche- delic plant substances and neuro-tech to treat substance addiction and mental health issues. BOTTOM LINE : Numinus is acquiring a clinic in Vancouver and building a facility in Squamish, expected to be operational by mid-2019, with domestic expansion planned for 2020. Partners include the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Canada, Sal- vation Botanicals and the UBC depart- ment of medicine. Addiction expert Gabor Maté and ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna are advisers. –F.S. (From left) Alex Dechant, Rachel Chase and Stacey Wallin THIRTY UNDER THIRTY

• Cover