BCBusiness

25 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 : If there's a type of insurance that doesn't exist yet, Jeff McCann is probably busy creating it. After graduating from SFU and serving as the president of its student society, McCann thought maybe he'd go to law school or get a job with a big corporation. Instead, he got a gig driving around to different Western Canadian ski resorts and trying to sell them insurance. "It was the coolest job ever," he says. Within a couple of years, he had learned enough about the industry—"you wouldn't believe how complicated drone insurance is"—to start his own company: one that would bring insurance online and into the 21st century. A C T I O N P L A N : McCann and co- founder David Dyck started Apollo with about five people in an office in Vancouver's Gastown. There's been some trial and error since—"we launched logging truck insurance; that wasn't my best product," says F I N A L I S T Jeff McCann C O - F O U N D E R A N D C E O , A P O L L O I N S U R A N C E McCann with a self-deprecating smile. The company ballooned to well over 100 people after COVID-19 lockdowns lent more urgency to bringing things online but later had to consolidate; in 2022, Apollo focused its efforts on tenant insurance. Now the company is designing more insurance products for the renter. "We can sell you pet insur- ance, help you with moving, add cleaning services," he says. "Let's do a good job at making it easier for renters in Canada—building an ecosystem around that customer is going to set us apart." C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Apollo, which was founded in Vancouver but is now a remote-first company, has some 50 employees and will serve some 135,000 customers in 2024. "No kid says, 'When I grow up I'm going to be the largest insurance provider to dogwalkers,' but you learn and you find a way to do a great job for the customer and build a great product," says McCann.–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 ? Calm waters. Somebody's upset with you, calm. The deal's going great, calm. Q+A T H E K I C K O F F : While completing an MBA at the University of Calgary, Annie Korver was also working at Calgary Economic Development, learn- ing about the intersection between energy development and the rights and titles of Indigenous Peoples. "I knew about my own Indigenous ancestry, but I'd never explored it from an economics perspective," says Korver, who is a citizen of the Métis Nation within Alberta. She dug into the research, and when she presented her final project, a lawyer from the Trans Mountain Expansion Project said, "This is amazing, Annie. Could you apply it on a project? Can we bring you on as a part-time consultant?" "And I just emailed it to him," Korver says with a laugh. "I was like, 'Here you go! You use it...' And really, that was the spark." A C T I O N P L A N : In 2013, Korver launched Rise Consulting to advance the principles of truth and reconciliation in Canada. Rise supports economic reconciliation by helping businesses build and nurture relationships with Indigenous communities. It steps in to help decolonize policies, for instance, or to assist an organization in creating a truth and reconciliation action plan. Calgary-based Imperial Oil was one of Rise's earliest clients. Korver remembers meeting an executive from the company at a community in Maskwacis, about two hours away from the company's base. At the time, Imperial Oil was moving through the Canadian Coun- cil for Indigenous Business's Partnership Accreditation in Indigenous Relations program. "Once he got onto the land and had conversations with the elected chief and council, with citizens of the Nation, he saw it," says Korver. "His eyes welled up, and he just embraced me, and he's like, 'I under- stand now. I didn't get it, you know?'" "And it's not wrong for somebody to show up in a business suit and tie in corporate Calgary and Imperial Oil and drive a Porsche—no shade. But when you're in that community and you see the houses, the infrastructure, the water, or the lack of water, you realize, 'I could share something. I could make space. I could do something about this, because the organization I'm working with is benefiting from the land.' In the case of an oil company, yes, but all companies are the same." C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Fernie-based Rise Consulting is a B-Corp certified organization that donates one-third of its annual profits to Indigenous Peoples, organizations and communities. It has donated over $380,000 in the past three years and has supported more than 80 clients since 2016.–R.R. n F I N A L I S T Annie Korver F O U N D E R A N D P R I N C I P A L , R I S E C O N S U L T I N G DE S CR IBE Y OUR DR E A M E MP L O Y E E IN T HR E E W OR D S : Kind, honest, courageous. W H AT ' S Y OUR MO S T-U S E D A P P ? Trailforks. Q+A A d a m B l a s b e r g ; B r i t t a K o k e m o r

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