18 BCBUSINESS MAY 2014
W
Y
B . C .' S N E W S A N D V I E W S
F R O M I N D U S T R Y S E C T O R S
05/14
2 1 F O R E S T R Y
Duncan Davies on how Interfor
turned the corner to pro tability
and what lies ahead.
front
lınes
P U B L I S H I N G
R
uss Mussio shouts across the room: "Someone stop
that Google machine." The co-founder and president
of Mussio Ventures Ltd., publisher of the Backroad
Mapbooks series of maps for o -the-beaten-track
adventurers, chuckles at his joke. Everyone at the
meeting, which has been called to discuss the progress
of the company's new smartphone app, knows all too
well how good Google Maps is at charting the world from
people's phones. Their goal is to do it better, at least for the
backwoods.
The expert in Canada's back roads has sold 1.5 million
copies of its 22 map books, an unrivalled compendium of
the country's dirt roads, hiking trails,
ATV tracks, paddling
routes, campsites and outdoor recreation activities. Now,
in its 21st year in business, the Coquitlam-based company
is venturing into new territory by taking its tried and true
map books into the world of iPhone apps with Backroad
Navigator, a smartphone app that will launch this summer,
in time to catch the summertime weekend warriors as
well as the shers and hunters who venture out in fall
(Mussio refers to the latter as "the hardcore users").
O the Grid
From his Coquitlam o ce, Russ
Mussio believes he can show Google
a thing or two about mapmaking—at
least for Canada's vast uncharted
backcountry
by Anne Casselman
CHRISTOPHER KIMMEL/GETTY IMAGES
p18-24-Frontlines_may.indd 18 2014-04-15 12:37 PM
