BCBusiness

46 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2017 L I F E S T O RY: In 2013, Saschie MacLean's 17-year-old sister, Chantal, was killed in a car accident. The loss uprootedMacLean's life: "It was, and still is, devastating," she says. Clips of dance routines on Instagram were an escape from her grief. Once a competitive cheer- leader at her high school in Richmond, MacLean, who earned a bachelor of business administration at SFU and a public relations diploma from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, also began dancing again. In early 2015, she decided to hold a Vancouver class. "I thought I was going to draw five or six girlfriends, but when I put it up on social media it was all strangers who signed up," recalls the Tourism Vancouver communications specialist. The formula for what became RSVP 33 was simple: basic hip hop and contempo- rary dance routines set to pop hits, with a focus on exercise for women of all fitness levels. Thanks to word of mouth and savvy marketing—MacLean's fiancé, videogra- pher Roman Magbanua, helped produce clips for Facebook and Instagram— attendance multiplied. Last year, after MacLean started fielding inquiries from would-be dancers elsewhere in the coun- try, RSVP 33 hired instructors and opened Calgary and Toronto workshops. T H E B O T T O M L I N E : RSVP 33 now runs classes for 1,300 clients per term at four locations. The company, whose team includes four staff on the operations side and a dozen dance instructors, posted more than $150,000 in revenue last year. —J.P. S A S C H I E M a c L E A N Co-founder RSVP 33 A G E : 2 8 J O H N M E R K L E Y Founder CASCADIA PARTNERS A G E : 2 9 L I F E S T O RY: While completing a dual mas- ter's degree in international business and eco- nomics from Queen's University and Maastricht University in the Netherlands, John Merkley co-founded a company that transformed waste plastic at facilities in Holland and Berlin into reusable industrial wax. "I was 21, and I got to run an enterprise and realize how hard it is," he says. "It was truly trial by fire." Merkley, who attended high school in Cape Breton, moved to Vancouver in 2011 to work for management consulting firm Secor Inc. and then KPMG LLP after it acquired the smaller company. In February 2015, desiring more control over his work, he founded Cascadia Partners, a strategy consulting firm whose clients include BC Investment Management Corp., the Port of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, TransLink and several private-sector businesses. Merkley's work focuses on policy relating to economics, public finance and major capital investments, and he enjoys it because of the potential for positive change. He also provides pro bono consulting to Metro Vancouver to tackle homelessness and the housing crisis within the region. T H E B O T T O M L I N E : Cascadia, which now counts five partners with expertise in different areas, has grown its business fourfold in the past year. —M.G.

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