BCBusiness

43 B C B U S I N E S S . C A N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 24 T H E K I C K O F F : Cyrus Symoom and Jake Dancyger became friends while studying at Queen's University, and bonded further during an exchange trip in Singapore. They went their separate ways after school, with Symoom going into finance and Dancyger getting exposure in the tech startup world. But the desire to bring their talents together in a joint venture never subsided. "Through our network, we got introduced to the idea of, rather than building something from the ground up, buying a product you really believe in and scaling it," says Symoom. "That resonated with us because there are so many businesses out there that haven't figured out how to bring a product to market." A C T I O N P L A N : The pair, who are both from Ontario originally, searched across North America looking for businesses that fit their bill. Eventually, they found BasicGov, a small B.C. company that was digitizing government permitting processes like driver's licence renewals. "It was a good team with a great product, but the investors weren't super supportive, and they didn't have the growth capital or a vision for where they wanted the product to go," says Symoom. "For Jake and I, we just thought, 'Oh my god, if we can change the way citizens are working with governments and we can automate one of the most painful processes to deal with, that seems impactful.'" They raised money from a group of investors, bought the company in 2020 and renamed it Clariti. C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Clariti, a remote-first company that calls Vancouver home, had about 20 employees and US$4 million in annual revenue when Symoom and Dancyger pur- chased it. Today, the company has some 120 staff and works with around 200 governments across North America, including the City of Phoenix and the City of Los Angeles. Clariti will end 2024 at close to US$18 million in revenue.–N.C. n W H AT ' S T HE BE S T L E A DE R S HIP A D V ICE Y OU ' V E E V E R R E CE I V E D ? JD: Do hard things with people you love and that will get you through anything. CS: Take calculated risks. Q+A F I N A L I S T S Cyrus Symoom and Jake Dancyger C O - F O U N D E R S A N D C O - C E O S , C L A R I T I A d a m B l a s b e r g A C T I O N P L A N : While the funding process wasn't perfect (they sold doughnuts at a Skytrain station "which, in hindsight, is apparently ille- gal," Moussavi says with a laugh), the workshop was a success, and soon grew into the C.O.D.E. Initiative. Many of the nonprofit's online workshops, day-long events and summer camps are tailored specifically for neurodi- verse students. "I'm neurodivergent, and going through the education sys- tem was hard," Moussavi explains. "If you don't fit within the mould, you get really discouraged." C.O.D.E. partners with local businesses in the tech sec- tor (like Vancouver engineering con- sultant RAM) to put on its educational programming, keeping registration costs low and ambition high. C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Since its founding in 2017, C.O.D.E has impacted over 2,000 participants and built a team of six employees and 50-plus dedicated volunteers. In 2023 alone, the organization hosted 190 online workshops and distributed $60,000 in scholarships to students in need. It's not exactly the kind of work Moussavi thought she'd be devoting her career in tech to—it's better. "I've never looked back, honestly," she says.–A.H. n

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