SOCIAL CUES
WHAT'S BREWING?
Vancouver-based Cowdog Coffee's
Instagram feed showcases its growth
from a home café to an aesthetically
pleasing brick-and-mortar location with
daily around-the-corner lineups.
by Rebekah Ho
Slow Drip
It always helps to get a
head start on building a
following if the founder of
a company already has a
large audience, but not all
influencer-founded brands
are created equal. While
owners Joe Lee (98.3k
Instagram followers) and
Ryan Dean Dexton (30k
Instagram followers) are
popular content creators
in their own right, the
lineups at the café are still
there even when they're
not behind the bar.
18,669 likes
Spill the Beans
Transparency has always
been at the forefront of
Cowdog Coffee. On social
media, the owners share
why the café doesn't
accept tips and how they
pay a living wage. One of
the shop's most popular
video series outlines how
much the café makes.
They're an open (digital)
book.
3,383 likes
Behind the Brew
If you ever wonder how
much behind-the-scenes
content you should be
shooting, let this be your
inspiration to always be
filming. Cowdog Coffee's
"day in the life"-style
videos prove that vlog
content isn't dead.
3,069 likes
life, I think when you sort of
manifest an idea that you want
and then work really hard to-
ward something, opportunities
open up."
That same determination
is evident in Alden's business
endeavours. Her first self-fund-
ed and self-founded enterprise
was a fashion showroom called
Brunette Showroom that she
58 To p l e f t : N i c o l e R o b e r t s o n P h o t o
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 5
"
It's been
a lifelong
obsession that's
had a lot of
barriers, but I
just keep going.
Like lots of
things in life, I
think when you
sort of manifest
an idea that you
want and then
work really
hard toward
something,
opportunities
open up."
started in 2011. "I did it out of
the back of my car," she recalls.
"Hustling, selling things for
five years. And then I started
wanting to host media events
to promote our value system
of babes supporting babes. I al-
ways felt like brands come and
go, but how you make them
feel, and the communities you
base around them—people will
find you because of that."
And they did. Those media
events eventually turned into
merch, and that merch be-
came what is now Brunette the
Label, a clothing and lifestyle
company that runs the gamut
from loungewear to office-chic
apparel. "I always knew I
wanted to have my own brand,
but I never knew exactly what
it would be," she explains.
"People can give horse
girls a bad rap, but actually
we're pretty tough. You have
to have a lot of grit. You get
hurt. It's really hard. I don't
think I would have been able to
survive owning a business if I
hadn't spent all the years I did
with horses. Riding is still the
hardest thing I've ever done
and it comes with little reward,
lots of failure and blind faith.
So I think that led me toward
being able to be an entrepre-
neur. To show up every day, no
matter what."
