BCBusiness

36 B C B U S I N E S S . C A M A R C H 2 0 2 5 opportunities and then also sourcing opportunities and finding new invest- ments," he says. In 2021, Behncke joined Young Mining Professionals Vancouver and is currently a director of the association. "The biggest critique in the mining industry is that there's not enough young people and that there's no young talent—all the CEOs are white guys who are getting paid too much," says Behncke. "But with YMP, we've brought out that younger community in the mining industry and showed that there are some really impressive young executives in Vancouver changing that notion of what the industry is and what we're trying to do." B O T T O M L I N E >> Gold Royalty Corp. has a dozen employees and hit around $14 million in revenue in 2024. The company is aiming to hit in the range of $50 million by 2029.—N.C. ANDY NGUYEN + JESSICA NGUYEN Age: 22 and 27 Co-founders, Bak'd Cookies T H E J O U R N E Y >> When the world shut down in 2020, brother-sister duo Andy and Jessica Nguyen chan- nelled their sadness into what would eventually become Bak'd Cookies. At the time, Andy was 17 years old and in the midst of graduating high school and Jessica was completing her final courses at Simon Fraser Uni- versity's Beedie School of Business. Sensing his sister's disappointment in losing what would have been her first job out of school due to COVID shutdowns (and after losing his own job as a part-time baker at a local pie shop), Andy started experimenting with a recipe meant to replicate Jessica's favourite New York City- style cookies. "We started recipe developing so that we could make our best version of a chocolate chip cookie and that's where we fell in love with our OG flavour that we still sell today," Andy says. At first, their recipe develop- ment took place at home, but within a month (and after selling out at their very first farmers market appear- ance) they moved to a commissary kitchen. It was out of that kitchen that they started developing their more creative cookie recipes, like s'mores and matcha latte flavours. B O T T O M L I N E >> Bak'd opened a brick-and-mortar location in July 2024 in New Westminster, but the Nguyens continue to sell at farmers markets and pop-ups because customer retention through face- to-face interactions is what initially helped increase the company's brand visibility and community profile. One year after launch, Andy and Jessica doubled revenues at Bak'd to over $200,000 with only three employees. In 2024, they grew to 36 full-time employees with revenue projections reaching over $1.25 million by year end.—D.W. ANDREW WARBURTON Age: 22 Founder, Peak Beverage Co. T H E J O U R N E Y >> At just five years of age, Andrew Warburton was setting up lemonade stands in his hometown of Prince George. Seventeen years later, he's more or less doing the same thing. After graduating from high school in 2020, Warburton moved to Summerland with his parents, where he quickly noticed the ample wineries, cideries and breweries. But, he was underage and couldn't try any of their offerings—which gave him the idea to create a craft-style, alcohol-free beverage. "There was nothing that matched the same quality and the same dedication that all those craft beers have. I saw a gap in the market," Warburton explains. All of the beverages that Warbur- ton has formulated for Peak Beverage Co. are fruit-based sodas that rely on strategic partnerships with local Okanagan farms for produce. Early on, he zeroed in on haskap berries, a native fruit that thrives in cold weather. When frost hit the Okana- gan in 2023, the decision proved to be a great move. For the first three years of production, Warburton was operating out of his parents' one-car garage (he converted it to a commercial kitchen himself) and manufactured Peak while simultaneously working as a bartender. By summer 2024, he had the capital necessary and had found a co-packer that could meet his standards: namely, pasteurization. "That was the big bottleneck," says Warburton. "I knew I wanted to keep it natural, and I didn't want to have it refrigerated." B O T T O M L I N E >> Since moving to a new co-packer, Warburton has scaled up production five times to meet demands. With the uptick in revenue and sales, he is looking to expand Peak's offerings into flavoured sparkling waters and unsweetened versions of his flavours that omit the small amount of added cane sugar.—D.W. CHLOË SWAIN Age: 18 Founder and CEO, FutureTwin AI T H E J O U R N E Y >> As a high school student, Chloë Swain barely got any time with her guidance counsellor. "They were like, 'Maybe you should go check out this website.' And that was about it," she says. In 2021, Swain started working on an AI-driven career exploration app that helps people plan their future at any stage in life. The app onboards users with a series of questions and makes recommendations using ChatGPT, Perplexity and life advice from mentors that Swain is recruiting. "You can communicate with a future version of yourself, so if you were to go through this education or career path, what that might look like for you," she explains. Swain teamed up with David Griffith, CTO of local digital agency Hello Cool World Media, to develop the technology. Her father offered to help fund the project. Now, FutureTwin is wrapping up beta testing and preparing to launch in 2025. A family friend who tested the app switched from psychology to criminology based on its insights. "And she's loving it," Swain says. B O T T O M L I N E >> As of January, over 100 people have agreed to mentor on FutureTwin and around 300 have tested the app. "A big goal for me is levelling that playing field and mak- ing it so that everyone can find that path that suits them," says Swain. The app will run on a freemium mod- el, she adds, that will have additional paid features that allow users more depth in specific areas.—R.R. ANEESH VARSHNEY Age: 22 Co-founder, Holdr T H E J O U R N E Y >> Aneesh Varshney always wanted to be in business growing up. Which makes sense when your father is renowned Van- couver investor Praveen Varshney and instead of going to playgrounds and arcades with your dad you were going to pitch competitions.

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