BCBusiness

34 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2019 34 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2019 K I A R A L E B L A N C Chief product and creative officer SAJE NATURAL WELLNESS AGE: 29 LIFE STORY: Kiara LeBlanc has been unofficially working for Saje Natural Wellness since she would ride her tricycle to her parents' first store in Lonsdale Quay. Back then, her role mostly involved stocking shelves or wrapping holiday gifts at the essential oils and skin-care prod- ucts retailer. In 2010, after a stint in acting school at the University of Essex in England, LeBlanc convinced Saje co-founders Jean-Pierre and Kate Ross LeBlanc to let her run the company's social media. The trend of monetizing platforms like Facebook and Twitter was just taking off. "My mom said, 'A whole person just to run social media and com- merce? I don't have the budget for that,'" the younger LeBlanc recalls. "And I said, 'Well, I'm almost free, so I'll work for 12 bucks an hour, three days a week.' And I absolutely fell in love with the opportunity we had. We always had great products, but to be honest, the outside was a bit Gaia Garden, hippy-granola-looking." Saje is now one of the largest wellness brands in the country, and LeBlanc isn't stopping there. "There's endless room for growth," she says. "The natural wellness space is becoming bigger and bigger; the category in general has doubled year over year over year. We're only in North America right now; I absolutely see us as a global brand in the next five years, and I want to play a really big part in it." BOTTOM LINE : Saje has 52 stores in Canada and 19 in the U.S., more than 150 employees and gross annual sales of about $100 million. The company has seen a 1,547-percent growth rate in the past five years. –N.C. T A Y L O R R O S S Founder and CEO TDR ELECTRIC AGE: 29 LIFE STORY: Some people contemplate for years about what they'll do after high school. The day he graduated, Taylor Ross got a call from a family friend who owned an electrical company. He started work the following Monday. The Pember- ton native then spent some time in the North, plying his trade in places like Fort McMurray, Tumbler Ridge and Fort Nelson after completing an electrical apprenticeship at Thomp- son Rivers University. It wasn't long before he got the itch to launch his own business. "I just started building a website, kind of developing it, and when I came home I would work some smaller jobs out of the back of my truck," Ross recalls. "One day I just decided to go for it and quit." BOTTOM LINE : That was in August 2015. Since then, Vancouver- based TDR Electric has grown to 19 employees and five service vans that roam the Lower Mainland. The company did more than $2 million in sales last year and has made a dent in the electric vehicle market: it's one of Tesla's top partners in the region for charging station installations. –N.C. K A R E N L E E + T A N Y A L E E Co-founders LEZÉ THE LABEL AGES: 28 + 29 LIFE STORY: "Lezé is just like saying lazy but in a fancy way," says Karen Lee. She and Tanya, friends who share a last name as well as a business, co-founded Lezé the Label last year to produce comfortable women's clothing that can go from the office to the gym. "We're kind of in the workwear category but made with leisure characteristics," Tanya explains. The pair were introduced by a mutual friend because both wanted to host a charity event. After raising funds for the Salvation Army through a food-tasting charity called Operation: Full Kettle in 2016, they began producing compact wedding planning agendas. Karen immigrated to B.C. from Hong Kong when she was a year old and grew up in East Vancouver. Tanya moved here from Taiwan when she was nine. There her family still oper- ates Tobimax Textile, which oversees the production and export of Lezé garments. They were shipped from Hong Kong, but half the inventory recently started being dispatched from a warehouse in Richmond. Lezé clothing is made from a blend of recycled plastic and used coffee beans, and has moisture- wicking, anti-odour and anti-wrinkle capabilities. The company's goal is to recycle a million used water bottles in the next three years and eliminate all single-use plastics from its manufac- turing processes. BOTTOM LINE : Since launching in 2018, Karen and Tanya Lee have collectively raised US$365,000 through crowdfunding platforms. Within three months of opening (Clockwise from top left) Kiara LeBlanc, Taylor Ross, Tanya Lee, Karen Lee and Maxwell Webster THIRTY UNDER THIRTY

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