BCBusiness

September/October 2022 - ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

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.

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SOURCES: CANADIAN COUNCIL FOR ABORIGINAL BUSINESSES, CANADIAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE, STATISTICS CANADA, IPSOS/ CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE, INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON PUBLIC POLICY G O F I G U R E 40% of all research in B.C. can be attributed to the province's universities UVic has produced 580+ patents to date In the 2020/21 year alone, UBC research led to 353 patent applications, 99 patents filed and 151 invention disclosures SFU's rankings on the 2022 World Universities with Real Impact list: #18 INNOVATION #24 INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION 6/10 INDIGENOUS- OWNED BUSINESSES IN CANADA USE CULTURAL IP LIKE TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OR CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS IN THEIR OPERATIONS $1 Amount the Okanagan Nation Alliance paid the city of Vernon last year for all copyright and trademarks related to the name of the lake creature Ogopogo The Canadian Security Intelligence Service lists 11 potential threats against B.C.'s knowledge economy, including sabotage, reverse engineering, hostile investment and elicitation through flattery 6 Number of clothing- related patents that Vancouver-based Lululemon accused fitness company Peloton of infringing on in a complaint filed in the California district court last November Wheel Deal Vancouver-based Eevee's is bringing personal electric vehicles to the road By Nathan Caddell MOB I L I T Y A couple of years ago, Bradley Spence and Lukas Tanasiuk were laughed out of their local bank branch. The pair of long-time friends had embarked on a venture selling personal electric vehicles like scooters, electric unicycles ( EUCs) and onewheels. They had garnered some private investment dollars but were after a $40,000 line of credit to put the finishing touches on their Downtown Eastside store. Spence, who had been selling the vehicles out of his Kitsilano apartment, knew that there was a market for the product. But the financial institution was unconvinced. "I showed the bank employee a thick business plan, with all the numbers and cash flow projec- tions. We had low-end realistic and hyper-optimistic projec- tions," recalls Spence. "And he kind of laughed me out of the door. He's like, You're pulling these numbers out of your ass." The pair remained confi- dent. After spending well over six figures renovating their retail space and buying prod- uct, they were ready to hit the market and incorporated in Oc- tober of 2020. Two weeks later, they called back their investors. "We were like, It's sold—all the inventory is gone. They went, Wait, what?" says Spence. Eevee's now has 15 employ- ees and has plans to open a service centre in Burnaby by October in which they'll be able to work on scooters and EUCs that weren't purchased at their store. The founders also hope to be stateside by early 2023. It's a long way in just a couple of years, and Spence and Tanasiuk believe that the growth is a product of a grass- roots movement they've been supporting. "It's such a nascent industry, scooters only became legal in May last year," says Ta- nasiuk. "It's about as young as an industry can get." The pair have been doing their best to educate custom- ers as much as possible, hold- ing classes during shop hours and hosting ride-alongs. They estimate they see a couple of hundred visitors to the store on a busy day, and that number is growing as people become more comfortable with person- al electric vehicles ( PEVs). "People think that maybe you can't stop or that [electric unicycles] are unsafe or un- stable, but it's quite the con- trary," says Spence. "The wheel becomes an extension of your body. It's super natural to be able to turn and move. If some- one cuts you off or opens their car door in front of you, you can easily pivot out of the way." Tanasiuk adds to that line of thought: "I feel safer than in a car. You can get into the tiniest little spots. And the easiest thing is they have these little trolley wheels that pop up on them, so you can get to the grocery store, restaurant or your house, hang with friends, and just wheel it in. Never once been bothered about that and never have to worry about it being stolen." Making believers out of skeptics has come with the territory for the pair. Spence sent that bank advisor their financial statements about six months after launching, show- ing him that the company had outperformed even their opti- mistic projections. "Now they want to give us a ton of money, but we don't need it." £ TOP: JULIAN FOK; OGOPOGO: TOURISMKELOWNA.COM/MICHELLE APPLETON SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 BCBUSINESS 13 REV ROOM Tanasiuk and Spence have come a long way from selling EVs out of an apartment

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