BCBusiness

business owners, and in 2012 she started Beehive Holdings—an angel fund with a particular focus on women and products that appeal to them. It was about providing funding, but also about offering the mentorship, network and connections to help entre- preneurs succeed. "Investing is a relationship, through good times and bad times," she says. "I always believed that if you put a little skin in the game, you're much more involved." Beehive has invested in more than 20 businesses and typically cuts cheques of between $25,000 and $1.5 million. De Gaspé Beau- bien-Mattrick lists the qualities she looks for in a successful pitch: the business is solving a pain point, it can scale up, its competi- tion is not overwhelming, and the financials make sense. "I see a lot of great ideas," she says, "but it's the people that make it happen." One company that met all of her criteria was Vancouver-based Allocadia, which offers cloud software to help marketers plan and manage their investments and returns. She met co-founders Katherine Berry and Kristine Steuart at a gathering of investors and startups, and was intrigued. She saw the strength in their team: the twins had worked together pre- viously and are complementary in their respective skill sets of mar- keting and technology. But most of all, they were eager to learn. "The whole age-old debate about entrepreneurship is: are you born an entrepreneur or are you learned? The research is now saying: learned. So I think when you see other women who have done it, you go, 'Hey, she did it, I'm going to try.' The more women that get involved, the more they will be successful and invest in others." W hile de Gaspé Beau- bien-Mattrick has a particular interest in funding fellow women entrepreneurs, she's not alone in her willingness to help out emerging companies. Fash- ion industry veteran Meredith Powell has also boosted startups through the Launch Academy and co-founded (with Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes) the Next Big Thing, a full-time residential program for young entrepreneurs. And with FrontFundr, Jill Earthy has created a unique crowd-funding model. Investors can register, view information about compa- nies that Earthy has screened, and choose to invest. RentMoola, an online payment network for ten- ants and condo owners, recently raised more than $2 million on FrontFundr. • ANNA ANAKA (JILL EARTHY) MARCH 2016 BCBUSINESS 47 Lara Dauphinee MANAGING DIRECTOR, FIORE GROUP OF COMPANIES WHY: If ever there was a B.C. woman who is the definitive fixer, it's Lara Dauphinee. The former right-hand woman to premier Gordon Camp- bell–as deputy chief of staff–is now the woman helping steer Frank Giustra's many-armed investment empire, Fiore, and spearheading many of his philanthropic initiatives through the Radcliffe Foundation. QUOTE: "She's basically doing the whole Syrian refugee thing. Frank says, 'Oh I've got this great idea'–and she executes it. She's building a major refugee camp in Greece, but she's super behind- the-scenes about it." Natalie Dakers CEO, ACCEL-RX HEALTH SCIENCES ACCELERATOR WHY: The former marine biologist has spent most of her working life in com- mercializing scientific discovery, but in 2014– after almost a decade working in life sciences– Dakers decided what Canada really needed was an accelerator for early-stage companies. Accel-RX helps biotech entrepreneurs access both the seed capital and the network of people required to suc- ceed on a national and international stage. FACTOID: On December 1, 2015, Dakers received the Startup Canada Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in Toronto. Susan Yurkovich PRESIDENT AND CEO, COUNCIL OF FOREST INDUSTRIES WHY: The woman who, until last year, steered BC Hydro's contentious Site C project is now playing a pivotal role in advancing the strategic interests of B.C.'s forest industry. It's a return to her roots: Yurkovich spent 10 years at lumber giant Canfor before join- ing Hydro. QUOTE: "We have a major renegotiation of softwood lumber happening–and she's not exactly a shrinking violet." –M.O'G. PATRONS OF THE PITCHES (From left) Meredith Powell (The Next Big Thing) and Jill Earthy (FrontFundr) support new entrepreneurs through their endeavours Disruptive Forces

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