28 | BC B U S I N E SS NOVEM B ER/ D ECEM B ER 2025
THE KICKOFF:
By 2020, Sim Desai had built a career in brokerage but
was finding the space frustratingly opaque and anti-
quated—without online platforms, clients had to call a
broker just to understand the market. Desai was ready
to go all-in on supporting his wife Sarah Huggins's
restaurant—until COVID forced a change of plans.
Setting the restaurant business aside, the husband-
and-wife duo decided to disrupt the brokerage indus-
try from home with a new idea: a transparent, online
marketplace for trading pre-IPO stock.
They "bootstrapped" Hiive with $3 million—all the
while raising three kids at home. Leveraging Desai and
CRO Prab Rattan's reputations in the industry, the
group demoed the platform to their personal con-
nections and let word of mouth do the rest. By 2024,
Hiive was named the number four startup in Canada
by LinkedIn, behind software developers Cohere and
PostGrid, and financial firm Float.
"I realized that if we could centralize the market
somehow, that would be a major source of value cre-
ation," says Desai. "Before platforms like Hiive, buyers
and sellers had no real way to answer the most basic
question: what is my [pre-IPO] stock worth?"
ACTION PLAN:
Desai envisioned Hiive as more than just a market-
place—he saw it as the future of investment banking:
modern, tech-driven and transparent. Built to give
real-time pricing based on verified user orders, plus
streamline and automate transactions, Hiive does
away with gatekeeping by providing a transparent
order book. The results speak for themselves: over $2
billion in transactions brokered at the time of writing.
Huggins, chief operating officer, explains that pre-
IPO trading has traditionally been conducted over
phone or emails. "You were basically operating on blind
faith," she says. "Now, we're putting raw data directly
into the hands of users so they can make informed
decisions. That's the future."
CLOSING STATEMENT:
It's no secret that many B.C. developers and tech
entrepreneurs end up in Silicon Valley, but Hiive is
working to reverse that "brain drain"—recruiting top
Vancouver talent and even relocating global hires.
The company, now equipped with more than 150
employees, has an in-person-first policy, which means
regularly catered lunches, employee workout classes
and volunteer initiatives like soup kitchens and blood
drives. Ultimately, Desai's long-term goal is to build
Hiive into a global tech brand, keeping Vancouver as
its anchor.–K.A.
ENTREPRENEUR
OF
THE
YEAR
Sim Desai C EO; Sarah Huggins C OO & G C;
Prab Rattan C R O; Stuart Eccles C PTO, H I I V E
PACIFIC REGIONAL WINNER
How do you celebrate
your achievements?
With our team. We love
what we do and we have fun
doing it, so our celebrations
are high-energy. There is
no shortage of emojis on
Slack, weekday gatherings
with curated local snacks
and drinks and a contagious
enthusiasm that makes
everyone feel a part of
Hiive's success.
RAPID
FIRE
