DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 BCBUSINESS 29 BCBUSINESS.CA
I
n 2014, Justin Goodhew
was working 60-hour
weeks in Silicon Valley
building his first busi-
ness, Blue Perch—a job-
seek ing app. About
three months into it,
the star t up f izzled,
and Goodhew returned to
Vancouver to consider his
options. The
UBC business
grad received several job
offers, including running
Edvisor—an education tech
company based in New York
City—but Goodhew didn't
want to return to a big, bus-
tling city. He wanted to buy a
home and to eventually start
a family with his then-girl-
friend, Alexandra Reid.
When Reid was offered
a job at
UBC Okanagan, the
couple decided to pack
up and move to Kelowna.
Goodhew had his doubts.
First, he didn't have a job to
go to. Second, he was wor-
ried that there wouldn't be
any like-minded tech entre-
preneurs there who wanted
to make a global impact. "I
came from Silicon Valley,
where there's crazy tech
people every where, and
Vancouver is a good bal-
ance," says Goodhew, now
26. "I was worried Kelowna
wouldn't have enough."
Soon, however, Goodhew
found his groove—launch-
ing 1 Space, a 12-person co-
working office designed for
entrepreneurs in their early
stages, in January 2016. It
was at 1 Space that he met
Ryan Campbell, 33, who
built software for Blackberry
and AT&T as a contractor
with digital agency Universal
Mind. By March, the pair had
launched Biznas Innovations
UNEMPLOY-
MENT RATE
(10%)
COMMUNITY
AVERAGE
HOUSEHOLD
INCOME
(15%)
AVERAGE
HOUSEHOLD
INCOME
UNDER 35 (10%)
AVERAGE HOUSE-
HOLD SPENDING
ON RECREATION
(10%)
AVERAGE
SHELTER
SPENDING
(15%)
FIVE-YEAR
POPULATION
GROWTH
(10%)
FIVE-YEAR
INCOME
GROWTH
(30%)
SURREY $101,850 $81,031 $5,674 $23,224 7.23% 14.50% 5.30%
COQUITLAM $100,809 $78,286 $5,354 $22,499 7.35% 14.55% 5.30%
PRINCE RUPERT $93,050 $70,882 $4,289 $13,540 -1.02% 23.86% 7.80%
VICTORIA $96,510 $70,470 $5,908 $21,033 3.48% 18.05% 5.40%
CRANBROOK $98,732 $67,242 $5,056 $18,221 4.15% 21.90% 8.50%
PRINCE GEORGE $99,015 $74,437 $5,753 $16,200 1.62% 18.89% 7.40%
ABBOTSFORD / MISSION $91,281 $70,721 $5,286 $20,780 5.71% 15.99% 5.30%
RICHMOND $93,144 $74,007 $4,869 $21,181 6.54% 14.40% 5.30%
COURTENAY $84,370 $68,566 $5,352 $18,094 2.59% 19.32% 5.40%
VERNON $88,736 $67,318 $6,439 $19,748 2.78% 20.12% 6.70%
CHILLIWACK $82,610 $71,037 $4,893 $18,739 6.26% 15.93% 5.30%
CAMPBELL RIVER $87,048 $73,556 $5,596 $19,065 1.84% 18.46% 5.40%
Kelowna
Rising
THE URBAN HEART OF THE OKANAGAN–
UP SEVEN PLACES ON THIS YEAR'S LIST TO
NO. 4—IS ATTRACTING DROVES OF YOUNG
WORKERS. THANK THE PULL OF A BURGEONING
TECH SECTOR AND THE PUSH OF VANCOUVER'S
AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
b y J E N N Y P E N G
p h o t o g r a p h b y D A R R E N H U L L
Category weights shown in brackets. Full methodology on page 27
