BCBusiness

g a B r i e L L e ( g a B y ) B a y o n a oWner and creatiVe direc - tor , truVelle Bridal ltd. age: 22 the story: Gaby Bayona started her first business at Carver Christian High School in Burnaby: a store connected to the school kitchen selling snacks to raise money so stu- dents wouldn't have to buy tickets to gradu- ation. (The grad store, providing everything from fruit and muffins to instant noodle cups, is still in operation.) After high school, Bayona began working in her mother's custom wedding dress business in New Westminster, becoming sole proprietor and helping her to set up a website, develop her own design and sewing skills, and grow annual revenues to six figures. Since the custom boutique could produce only a limited number of dresses each year, in 2013, at the age of 21, Bayona obtained a $15,000 bank loan and launched Truvelle to sell modern off-the-rack bridal gowns, each locally designed and produced. She started out marketing her gowns, priced at under $2,500, on Etsy.com, selling the first one to a Brooklyn bride who works at Marvel Comics. Today she also sells through a Gastown showroom and 18 retailers across Canada, the U.S., Australia and South Africa. Markers oF success: Truvelle has grown from a one-woman business to a six- person operation, with a quarter-million dollars in revenues since its launch in 2013. Bayona claims to have the highest interna- tional reach of any Western Canadian bridal designer. —F.S. M a n n y B a h i a co - Founder and chieF Business deVeloPMent oFFicer , Vancit y Buzz age: 29 the story: In 2008, Manny Bahia founded Vancity Buzz—a blog with news about the city and its suburbs—with childhood friend Karm Sumal while studying busi- ness administration at SFU. The pair—peeved at Vancouver's "No Fun City" reputation and dismayed by the sparse number of blogs dedicated to "positive news" about Vancouver—launched the site as a side project while Bahia pursued a career as a real estate agent and Sumal worked as a barista and then accountant at Blenz Coffee. Vancity Buzz's big break came during the 2010 Olympics: with no press passes, no special access and no training as journalists, the two principals hustled to copy and reformat information from the VANOC web- site onto their own while pump- ing out highlights over Facebook and Twitter. Last December, the site hit five million monthly page views (by comparison, the Vancou- ver Sun receives around 22.6 mil- lion views per month). Bahia and Sumal have since made Vancity Buzz their full-time gig, with Bahia taking on the sales and admin role—hiring staff, selling ads and marketing partnerships, and launching new products (includ- ing the recent restaurant guide). Markers oF success: Vancity Buzz keeps revenue figures close, but Bahia says they've increased threefold since August 2014 and are now in the six figures. ("Our revenues are in hockey stick mode right now," he says.) —J.P. B r y c e W i L L i a M s chieF, tsaW Wassen First nation age: 25 the story: Public service runs through Bryce Williams's blood. Follow- ing in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, each of whom served on Tsawwassen band council, Williams became involved in politics at an early age as a youth representative on council. He moved to Haida Gwaii after high school to apprentice under Haida artist Christian White and returned when he won a seat on band council at the age of 19. By 23, Williams had been elected chief of the 450-member First Nation— one of the youngest chiefs in the province's history—and has since overseen multiple business projects on Tsaw- wassen lands. Markers oF success: Two new shop- ping malls nearing comple- tion on Tsawwassen territory are poised to draw business to the area, provide jobs for Tsawwassen members and showcase Tsawwassen art and artisans. Meanwhile, several projects on Tsawwas- sen industrial lands close to Delta Port Way, including a container examination facility, will bring even more economic activity to the area. —Jessica Barrett My Biggest regret "Not pursuing my art career. I still am an artist, but I can't commit as much time as I would like" 32 BCBusiness april 2015

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