BCBusiness

BcBUsiness.ca april 2016 BCBusiness 53 THE STORY: At the age of 13, Braeden Caley spent evenings and weekends knocking on doors with Raymond Chan, the MP for his Richmond riding. Caley worked as Chan's assistant from 2005 to 2008 before moving next door to work for Ujjal Dosanjh, MP for Vancouver South. The day after the 2011 federal election, in which Dosanjh lost, Caley got a surprise call from Mayor Gregor Robertson's chief of staff, who wanted to enlist him as director of policy and communications. Caley, who had joined Vision Vancouver at its founding AGM and admired Robertson's bold goals and broad political tent, said yes. Throughout his time with the mayor's office, Caley remained intimately connected with federal politics—and in 2013, he was elected B.C. president of the Liberal Party of Canada. (In the same year, he finished his bachelor's degree in political science from UBC.) With just two seats then held by Liber- als in B.C., he began organizing for the pivotal 2015 election, which saw Justin Trudeau elected prime minister. In early 2016, Caley got another call, this one asking him to take charge of communications for the Liberal Party of Canada; this February, he moved to Ottawa. MARKERS OF SUCCESS: In 2008, Caley co-founded a group called Canadians for Obama and volun- teered in that year's U.S. presidential election in six different states. Seven years later, he used those strategies in B.C.: focusing on field operations, metrics and youth, he developed com- munity teams to engage with people. Everything, including conversations on the doorstep, was tracked and evalu- ated. In last October's election, the Liberals won their biggest victory ever in B.C.: 17 seats. –M.G. THE STORY:Matias Marquez landed on his big idea while walking around SFU's hilltop campus. He looked at the unused gift card in his wallet, observed everyone wandering around tapping on their smart- phones, and put one and two together.¥"A gift card is just a card number," he recalls think- ing. "Why does the physical card have to cross the country if someone can just use it on their phone?" That idea became Buyatab: a¥platform that allows consum- ers to purchase digital gift cards from a merchant's website or Best advice you've ever received? "'there is no such thing as a free lunch and make sure you don't take one.' this concept was first introduced to me by my first economics professor. i always try and repay those who do things for me, espe- cially if they don't expect anything in return" Best advice you've received? "To be relentlessly determined in any task you take on—and that advice was from my grandmother. She became the ‹rst woman in her family to earn a full university degree—attending six classes while married and raising three chil- dren—and worked in an oil company's o'ce and taught business and comput- ing at a time when few women were in any of those ‹elds" 30 under 30 Braeden caley senior director of communications, liberal party of canada age: 28 continued from page 51 matias marquez Founder and coo, Buyatab online inc. age: 28 Facebook page.¥In launching a digital platform, Buyatab is nd- ing success in a space once domi- nated by global companies such as Chase Paymentech, Moneris and Micros/Oracle:¥"We had the technolo±y that the merchants really wanted." For Marquez— the son of a Chilean immigrant father who launched his cleaning company with limited education and language skills—Buyatab was an opportunity that had to be seized. "If my dad can do this, with the challenges he had, what excuse do I have?" MARKERS OF SUCCESS: Buyatab, which is privately held, is cash ¤ow positive and has revenues¥"well into the eight gures"—with the majority of revenue and growth coming in the U.S.¥ The company has 40 employees in Vancouver and works with clients that include¥Whole Foods, Tim Hortons and Fairmont Hotels. —J.P. M a t i a s M a r q u e z

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