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/1471305
34 BCBUSINESS JULY/AUGUST 2022 P A U L D E J E R S E Y AGE: 29 CEO, Akuspike Products LIFE STORY: Sometimes one career has to end for the other to begin. Growing up on the North Shore, Paul de Jersey had forma- tive years were shaped by sports, particularly hockey. He led the BCHL in scoring while with Prince George and earned a scholarship to Provi- dence College. It was downhill after that, at least athletically. A couple of big injuries forced de Jersey out of the game and he left Providence with some prerequisites toward a bachelor of commerce instead of an NHL contract. While playing, he connected with strength and conditioning coach (and former Cirque du Soleil member) Andrey Nazarov. Having once tweaked his own back, Nazarov sug- gested de Jersey use an acupressure mat—a metal acupuncture mat that's a rehab staple in Eastern Europe. "I immediately loved it, it helped me right away." Years later, after de Jersey went back to Vancouver and was working in construction and other odd jobs, he had lost the mat and was unable to find another one online. "All there was were these cheap plastic mats that don't really do the job," he says. He hit up Naz- arov, who pointed him to a Ukrainian doctor who patented and created the mat 15 years ago. "I said, Well, I know at least 50 of my friends and former teammates who would want to buy this thing," recalls de Jersey. "We bought the exclusive rights in North America to sell the product. We had to rebrand it and change the design, size and the way the spikes are laid out." De Jersey and Nazarov called it Akuspike as an homage to Eastern Europe, where all the Cs are spelled with Ks. BOTTOM LINE : Akuspike has eight employees and has generated seven figures in revenue since being founded in 2018. The company, which also makes balls, rollers, rings and bracelets, was also able to score a deal on Dragons' Den, thanks in part to some of de Jersey's old hockey buddies—like Seattle Kraken forward Brandon Tanev—showing up to endorse the product. –N.C. K A Y L A G A B E L H O U S E AGE: 25 Founder + CEO, Lavender & Grace Jewelry LIFE STORY: Childhood bake sales and lemonade stands may have triggered her passion to be an entre- preneur, but Kayla Gabelhouse never imagined herself a jewelry baron. Growing up in Edmonton and Kelowna, she didn't know a ton about making jewelry to begin with. All she knew was that she struggled to find casual, affordable and long- lasting accessories. But the more she researched, the more frustrated she became as a consumer: "There was a lack of transparency with materials and education of jewelry care in the industry," she says. A full-time business student with a full-time retail job in Kelowna, Gabelhouse launched Lavender & Grace Jewelry in 2015. With manu- facturing partners in Los Angeles, Florida and Israel, the entrepreneur found herself applying classroom theories in real time: from marketing campaigns to business tactics, she was building a company through trial and error. When she graduated Okanagan College in 2020, she jumped head-first into the business. Educating people about jewelry care became a priority for Gabel- house and her three-person team. The Lavender & Grace website explains how metals should be handled and the company uses Insta- gram Reels and TikToks to communi- cate that message. In-person events where customers can see and feel the products are especially important to the CEO, who plans to host a pop- up every month in the Okanagan. BOTTOM LINE : Kelowna-based Lavender & Grace Jewelry makes simple, nickel-and-lead-free acces- sories. "Those are usually the two types of metals that react easily to our skin, oil, perfumes and lotions," says its founder (and designer). The company did well during the pandemic, with sales growing by 434 percent in 2020. The products are available for purchase on the company's website or through 20 outlets in Canada, including The Lat- est Scoop and Spruce Collective. –R.R. Kayla Gabelhouse Paul de Jersey