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40 BCBusiness April 2014 W hen BCBusiness reaches Milun Tesovic by phone, he's walking down a busy street in New York City, on his way to meet a partner at Mesa+, one of several venture funds Tesovic is involved in. The superstar entrepreneur is in such demand that he splits his time between Vancouver and New York, while at the same time maintaining close contacts in San Francisco, as an investor and adviser in Silicon Valley. But it's Vancouver that Tesovic, 28, calls home. He's best known as the founder of MetroLyrics, the song-lyrics website that was acquired by CBS Inter- active Music Group in 2011 for what Tesovic describes as "well into eight figures." At the time, it was the third- largest music site in the world, behind qq.com and Yahoo Music, with more than 45 million hits a month. However, MetroLyrics is just one of a dozen startups Tesovic has launched since his teens. Although not all were successful, two others—Echolima Hosting Solutions and Arcadebanners .com—were also acquired in smaller deals. Today Tesovic retains an unoffi- cial management role "across a couple of properties" at CBS, but spends the bulk of his time helping other startups. Each of the 30 entrepreneurs profiled in the pages that follow has accomplished more in less than 30 years than most of us will accomplish in our lifetimes. Humbling, yes. But more importantly, inspiring as hell. We gathered candidate names throughout the past year, consulted with a panel of industry experts, and then distilled the list to these 30 winners. And we've probably barely scratched the surface. If you know of a business superstar under the age of 30 who should be considered for our 2015 list, nominate them at bcbusiness.ca/30Under30. Milun Tesovic Co-founder, MetroLeap Media Inc. Age: 28 That commitment to the local startup scene includes investments through three venture funds, including Boris Wertz's Version One Ventures. He has also invested directly in a handful of local startups, including Recon Instru- ments and Food.ee, and is an adviser to several more. Like many startups, MetroLyrics began with a problem and a solution: as a teen Tesovic sought song lyrics online and was frustrated with the spotty results of his searches. What distinguished his solution from the hordes of hackers transcribing lyr- ics in their basements was a simple yet elegant vision: a reliable database would require the participation of the lyrics' owners. The result, MetroLyrics .com, would give millions of web users around the world accurate and reliable song lyrics, while at the same time pro- viding fair compensation to the owners of the intellectual property. Talking to those who work closely with Tesovic, it quickly becomes apparent that honesty and integrity remain key to the secret of his success. One of the startups Tesovic is currently advising is Quietly Media Inc., whose mobile app lets users share and com- ment on personal lists (favourites, les- sons learned, for example). Quietly's founder Dario Meli, also a co-founder of HootSuite Media Inc., has a lot of good things to say about Tesovic. He's smart, friendly, involved... but ulti- mately Meli runs out of adjectives: "He's a really good dude. "When I was starting my new com- pany, I assembled a pretty bad-ass team of advisers," Meli continues, "and I wanted Milun to be involved because he has this unique skill set." But whereas other advisers will contribute when called upon, "Milun really leans in. He is involved. He cares a lot about what we're doing and he wants to see us be very successful." That means Tesovic is as likely to pop by Quietly's studios on a moment's notice, take the latest beta version for a test spin and offer his advice. Tesovic is "definitely a contributor" to the local tech community, Meli con- cludes. "People trust him and he's a great example of what a lot of technol- ogy companies and a lot of entrepre- neurs in Vancouver should be aspiring to." Tesovic notes with pride that in the dozen or so years since he was getting MetroLyrics off the ground, a healthy startup community has taken root in Vancouver. As he describes it, 10 or 20 years ago, entrepreneurs were measured solely by their ability to ramp up revenue. "Today people are following their passion more and are less focused on money," he notes. And they are encouraged by a more supportive culture: "Failure is not frowned upon, but is seen as a learn- ing experience." Fostering tech startups is just one side of Tesovic's commitment to local 30 UNDER 30 p38-67_30Under30_april.indd 40 14-03-13 1:12 PM