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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1508543
D elaram Hajipour's day job is no laughing matter. As the CEO of Vancouver- based NephroCan, she works to help patients and practitioners access kidney dialysis treat- ment. But when the sun sets and the curtain closes on that, she steps on stage to deliver punchlines. Performing improv, she says, provides a sense of "pure joy and excitement." It all goes back to the first time she saw a show in high school. "I ab- solutely fell in love," she says. "I had a bit of a High School Musical moment: I was on the basketball team and I was also on the improv team, and I had to make some decisions." Hajipour joined the junior (and then senior) improv team, took courses at local improv companies like Instant Theatre to learn and grow as a per- former, and from there went on to play with UBC's improv team for five years while studying business at Sauder. Originally from Tehran, Hajipour moved to North Van- couver when she was eight. Her parents are both doctors, so she thought she would be a doctor, too. But the entrepre- neurial bug bit her early: by the time she founded NephroCan in 2016, she had already sold intellectual property to an in- ternational company, worked on a few startups and served as assistant director of a local medical-distribution firm. For the last seven years, she has developed NephroCan into a one-stop-shop for hemodialysis treatment. "A lot of health-care providers were trying to meet this niche," says Hajipour, "but they had to source from here and there. We decided that we wanted to provide a full solution to help ease that pain." To that end, W E E K E N D WA R R IOR WARRIOR SPOTLIGHT NephroCan specializes in hemodialysis, a blood filtration treatment that becomes necessary when someone's kidneys stop functioning properly. The company provides tech- nologies and services for in-house design, manufac- turing, post-sales support and more. "I was with the company when it was taking its first baby steps," says CEO Delaram Hajipour, who joined in 2016. She grew NephroCan to 400 employees and helped establish locations in Germany, Turkey and Italy. "I've seen this little baby grow up and it's been a fun journey." BEHIND THE SCENES When Vancouver's Instant Theatre shut down in 2020, improv lovers Delaram Hajipour and Jullian Kolstee decided the show must go on—differently Funny Business Delaram Hajipour keeps on improvising through a delicate work-life balance by Rushmila Rahman O FF T H E C LO C K ( quality time ) KYOKO FIERRO OCTOBER 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 71