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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1471305
JULY/AUGUST 2022 BCBUSINESS 35 BCBUSINESS.CA Arjan Mundy and Nicola Carter A R J A N M U N D Y & N I C O L A C A R T E R AGES: 29 + 28 Co-founders, EveryDayDreamers LIFE STORY: When Arjan Mundy and Nicola Carter met at a frat party in 2014, they didn't think they would end up launching a digital marketing agency that generates $350,000 in yearly revenue. For one, Carter was working on a degree in early childhood education at Douglas College. And Mundy was charting his own path by studying communication, advertising and phi- losophy at SFU. But he says Carter's party trick was too fascinating for him to forget: "She's deaf, so she just takes off her ears." Originally from Chandigarh, India, Mundy used to sail around the world with his father, who was the captain of an oil tanker. When the family moved to Canada in 2003, he was an easy sell: "Our friend's house had an amazing trampoline. I was like, sign me up!" Carter—who claims to have been to Disneyland 13 times—grew up in White Rock. Her interest shifted from education to marketing and communications because funding always seemed to be an issue no matter what she wanted to do, and finding creative solutions to that seemed to be her forté. B E N S O N S U N G AGE: 29 Founder + CEO, D2C Design LIFE STORY: When Benson Sung was three years old, his mom brought him to Richmond from what was becoming an increasingly unstable situation in Taiwan. Starting from Grade 10, Sung picked up all kinds of jobs to support his mom, who worked at Langley Farm Market in Lansdowne. "Construction, barista, stock boy, warehouse, personal trainer at Gold's Gym, sales, all kinds of stuff," says Sung. He started doing agency services and copywriting for local mom and pop shops in Vancouver—gyms, restaurants, supermar- kets. "They'd pay me $500 a month for SEO rankings," he remem- bers. Then it started to grow—b2b commerce, direct-to-consumer brands. You know the story from there. Sung even- tually quit all the other side jobs and focused on D2C. When American tire giant SD Wheel came on, the business exploded. BOTTOM LINE: D2C now has some 30 employees and Sung has since overseen the creation of the company's own brands, including a design firm and a craft coffee operation. "For each of these brands we build a core team of three to five people and grow from there," Sung says. "We have shared services among brands and everything." Safe to say that those days spent as a barista are paying off. –N.C. After they met and before they became co-founders in 2020, the duo had a brief stint creating communica- tions plans for two UNESCO projects in Paris. When they got burned out with the 9-5 grind, they came back and set up their own shop in Vancou- ver: EveryDayDreamers. BOTTOM LINE : EveryDay- Dreamers began as a copywriting agency but quickly developed into a digital marketing firm that works with small-to-medium businesses. The co-founders say that the monthly retainer model works well for them, as they were able to scale from two to 11 core members, serve 100 clients and increase 2021 revenue by 228 percent. With services ranging from search engine optimization, pay-per-click and PR to social media authority building and social media outreach, their fundraising campaign for Richmond Hospital raised some $2 million. –R.R. Benson Sung