BCBusiness

20 B C B U S I N E S S . C A A P R I L 2 0 24 CARISSA KONESKY Age: 28 E-learning coordinator, ShEvalesco L I F E S T O R Y : You could say that participating in Girl Guides sparked something in Carissa Konesky ("sparks" is the title given to Girl Guides of Canada's youngest participants). When she made the transition from guide to leader, Konesky knew how much of an impact her actions would have on her group. "The media led me to have such a negative body image, espe- cially when I was a pre-teen, and when I started working with youth, I really didn't want that for them," she remembers. Konesky started working with ShEvalesco in 2018, and found that the organization's values—teach- ing young girls self-confidence and critical life skills—aligned with her own. After receiving a grant through the Duke of Edinburgh Award, she partnered with ShEvalesco to develop her own youth workshop, called "I Am Tenacious" (and ran the four- week program via Zoom during the pandemic). Konesky was an outreach mastermind: through her connections with Girl Guides—she worked her way up to the position of B.C. program advisor—she was able to grow and expand her project. She leads acces- sible, on-demand, interactive "I Care for Me" workshops on subjects like assertive communication, boundary setting and self-care. B O T T O M L I N E : Since Konesky started her programming at ShEv- alesco, participant numbers have increased from a few hundred to a few thousand. Beyond her online sessions, she's run workshops in the Surrey school district and as far north as Kitimat. In April 2023, Konesky became part of the first cohort for Sprout Fellowship, an initiative that helps microgrant recipients produce and scale com- munity service projects. The growth is great, but Konesky is most proud of how many returning participants the program has. "It's really reward- ing seeing youth sign up for the workshops over and over again," she shares. –A.H. GABRIELLE MUSTAPICH Age: 28 Co-founder, Pilothouse Brands L I F E S T O R Y : The last time BCBusiness talked to Gabrielle Mustapich was in 2021, when she was preparing to move to the U.S. Mustapich and Sheereen Price had founded Pilothouse Brands and its flagship product, Hardpops, an alcoholic freezie. But B.C. liquor laws meant the product couldn't be sold in the province. So, the pair of North Vancouverites raised a pre-seed round of US$800,000 and headed south. "It's been pretty rewarding to watch it unfold," says Mustapich. "We learned a lot more in the last two years than we probably would have if everything had worked out in B.C. from the beginning." In addition to landing in a number of independent stores, hotels and the chain retailer Total Wine, Hardpops became the official boozy ice pop of the Florida Panthers NHL team. That deal came with a branded Hardpops bar at the arena. "Because it's a Florida stadium, it's the only arena in the NHL that has an outdoor section as part of the indoor concourse. Once you're in and admitted, you can go back outside and be under the palm trees having a Hardpop," says Mustapich. And while the company's U.S. presence will continue to grow, Mustapich and Price have come back home and are set to launch a new product called 1983, a creamy, ready-to-drink espresso martini. The cocktail will launch in the U.S. this spring and the founders are confident it will be in Canada soon after that. "There are a couple of other canned espresso martinis," says Mustapich, "but they're not to the standard that we would like. Really, they're just cold brew and vodka disguised as an espresso martini." B O T T O M L I N E : Hardpops is in over 140 retail locations in North America. At press time, Pilothouse had an open seed round that valued it at over eight figures. –N.C. SOFIIA SALIMOVA Age: 29 Founder and CEO, In Her Wallet L I F E S T O R Y : Sofiia Salimova's financial literacy journey started early—that's what happens when you make a solo move from Russia to Canada at 17 years old. Budgeting her own savings and expenses was made a little easier thanks to her education (she studied finance and economics at UBC) and post-grad job (she worked in wealth management at Canaccord Genuity Corp.), but she recognized that most women aren't so well-prepared. "I realized that if you don't have a background in finance, you're left on your own," says Salimova. She set out to create an accessible educational resource for young women—something between the credible-but-boring articles and cool-but-questionable TikTok content out there. She launched In Her Wallet, a weekly finance podcast geared toward women ages 25 to 32, in 2022. Besides the standard TFSA talk, In Her Wallet tackles topics like burnout, pre-nuptial agreements and how the mental load of household chores can affect finances. The pod- cast gives voice to the gender gap and offers solutions for modern problems. "For me, financial education is the cornerstone of building a success- ful life," says Salimova. "It's the foun dation of everything else—your health, the time you have to spend with your family, any dreams you are fulfilling... that often comes down to your financial abilities." B O T T O M L I N E : In Her Wallet kicked off its third season in February. In addition to producing the podcast as a free resource, Salimova—an accredited invest- ment representative—is launching a self-paced learning platform and offers one-on-one money coaching sessions for clients. "I'm providing a non-judgmental space that will empower women to take stock in the next phase of their financial journey," says Salimova. Oh, and she can do so in three languages: she's fluent in Russian, English and Mandarin. –A.H. UNDER UNDER

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