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/1388249
FROM TOP: BE ULTIMATE APPAREL; TRAVIS JEFFERS/POINT BLANK JULY/AUGUST 2021 BCBUSINESS 53 R U M I T E J P A R AGE: 29 Founder + CEO Be Ultimate Apparel LIFE STORY: A competitive squash player growing up in Vancou- ver, Rumi Tejpar turned his attention to Ultimate Frisbee when he left the city for McGill University. Tejpar, who would eventually represent Team Canada at the Ultimate world championships, was serving as president of McGill University's Ultimate team when he went to Singapore in 2012 for a co-op intern- ship with a sourcing company. "We weren't that busy, so my boss said, Rumi, if you have an idea, feel free to explore it," Tejpar recalls. "And I thought, OK, I'm having to buy jerseys for this team. Why don't I try and source a kit for them?" That spark of an idea led Tejpar to designing and sourcing jerseys, shorts and other paraphernalia (hats, socks, hoodies) for Ultimate teams around the world. "I realized that there wasn't really a company out there built for athletes in the Ultimate sphere," he says. "You go play football, there's Nike, Under Armour, Adidas; all these companies are athlete-focused. In Ultimate, we've never really had that." BOTTOM LINE : Be Ultimate Apparel is in 10 countries and sells some 30,000 garments a year. Tejpar estimates that the company, which has 10 staff, owns 7 to 8 percent of the global market for Ultimate Frisbee apparel. "There's still so much growth to come in Ultimate," he says. "Eventu- ally this will be an Olympic sport–in the next 10 years. And if we can play a part in building the legitimacy of the sport and then also be outfitting the teams that go there, that's an ultimate goal for us... And I did not mean to make that joke." –N.C. A L E X A N D R I A M A C F A R L A N E AGE: 28 Founder + CEO Truly Lifestyle Brand LIFE STORY: Even as a child in Abbotsford, Alexandria MacFarlane was highly entrepreneurial, selling old toys and Halloween candy to other kids. Having watched her mom and dad run businesses–a bridal store and a defence technology manufac- turer, respectively–she knew she'd start her own one day. But first, MacFarlane gravitated to social media and entertain- ment, spending several years as a TV producer and host with Shaw Communications and dabbling in the influencer world. She then became a social media manager at Prospera Credit Union, where her supervisor asked what she wanted to be doing in five years. "I was like, Honestly, I don't know. I don't want be here," MacFarlane recalls. "In that moment, a light bulb went on. I was like, But I love skincare." Launched in 2019, Truly Lifestyle Brand specializes in skin, hair and body products created with natural ingredients. MacFarlane started out making the original skincare line herself, but as the business expanded, she turned manufacturing of its smartly packaged offerings over to a local formulator. Asked how Truly stands out in a saturated market, she explains that she's built a community by treating customers like best friends. "I love talking to people," MacFarlane says. "What mostly sets us apart is our connection with everybody who uses Truly." BOTTOM LINE : Truly's revenue quadrupled during its second year in business, cracking seven figures. The company, which moved into a Surrey warehouse in late 2020, has three full-time and three part-time employees. The bulk of its business is domestic, but U.S. trade is picking up, MacFarlane says. Although most sales take place online, Truly is in 27 boutiques throughout B.C. and Alberta, and several big retailers have shown interest. –N.R. 3 0 U N D E R T H I R T Y Rumi Tejpar Alexandria MacFarlane