With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
BCBUSINESS.CA JUNE 2020 BCBUSINESS 27 an international organization, life became very different. "It totally changed my whole trajectory of what I was going to do," recalls Wysocka, who grew up in Canada, Poland and South Korea, where her mother taught math and English. In what turned out to be the spark for a business, she had trouble finding an explanation of her condition online. Wysocka, who had taught herself graphic design and animation while at university, worked as a designer after graduation so she could avoid being around people. Switching to web design and content creation, she moved to Victoria for a contract gig and began helping startups design their products. In 2017, under her company, Simply Rooted Media, Wysocka founded Rootd, a mobile app for anyone seeking relief from panic attacks and anxiety. "The idea is to get Rootd out to people so that they don't have this prolonged experi- ence that I had," she says. That same year, Wysocka began working with Alacrity Canada, where she became program director in 2019. At the nonprofit, which promotes tech entrepreneurship in B.C., she does investor relations and heads a provincewide digital market- ing bootcamp. BOTTOM LINE: Wysocka runs Victoria-based Rootd–whose freemium model offers core app services for free as well as monthly, annual and group subscriptions–with help from contractors. As of late May, Rootd had almost 305,000 downloads from 153 countries and ranked No. 1 for "anxiety and panic attack relief" on the App Store and Google Play. Wysocka, who plans to reach the 1-million user mark this year, has been offering free subscriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. –N.R. S A R A H S A N G H A AGE: 29 Founder + CEO, Vellum Wellness LIFE STORY: Sarah Sangha knew from an early age that she wanted to be a journalist, and after earning a degree in political science from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2012 and a diploma in broadcast jour- nalism from BCIT in 2014, she worked in corporate videography and took on a side hustle interviewing artists and creating videos for her Youtube channel. "I was working 70 to 80 hours a week, and my skin began to spiral out of control," Sangha says. "As soon as that happened, my self-esteem just plummeted." The link between mental and physical health was something she noticed in the artists she inter- viewed, too–rappers in particular. Sangha, who found that using lemon oil helped her feel more relaxed and in control, began studying aromachol- ogy ("the science between scent and emotion") in the hope of improving her own and others' mental health. She founded Vellum Wellness in 2017; her first set of products were custom-made for headliner Cam'ron and four other rap artists performing at a Vancouver concert. "They really loved it–and they were all men," says Sangha, who focuses on creating products that everyone can use. BOTTOM LINE: Vellum has seen 900-percent growth year-over-year, and in late 2019 its consumer base tipped to 55-percent male. Besides its own website, the company sells on Amazon.com and at Bed Bath & Beyond, Hudson's Bay and Walmart. COVID-19 has been a roller coaster for Vellum–sales dropped by 60 percent in the first half of March but shot back up by early April, as isolated people began to focus on wellness and skincare. The team of five plans to hire more staff in the coming months. –A.H. M A D I S O N G U Y AGE: 25 Founder + co-CEO, GrantMe Education Consulting LIFE STORY: As captain of the UBC women's soccer team, Madison Guy led the Thunderbirds to the 2015 national championship while laying the foundation for her business. She'd won a scholarship to play for the T-Birds, a prize that covered the tuition for her degree at Sauder School of Business. But the Langley native sought additional awards to cover the remainder of her education –housing, books, food. "I figured out there was a ton of funding avail- able," explains Guy, who ultimately earned an additional $50,000 in scholarships. Other student athletes took note, and she helped them apply to opportunities. Realizing that she had a business, Guy founded GrantMe Education Consulting in 2017, less than a month after she graduated. BOTTOM LINE : GrantMe works with students across Canada, helping them find suitable scholarships and increase their chances of winning. "We'll support you in standing out," says Guy, who is co- CEO with her partner, Jason Yee, also a UBC alum- nus, and leads a team of 10 full-time employees and 14 contractors. Based in Vancouver at the BC Tech Hub, GrantMe works with 500 students. So far, clients have won more than $4 million in scholarships. "We expect to triple in revenue this year," Guy says. –J.N.W. n Sarah Sangha Ania Wysocka Madison Guy