HOW THEY DID IT INNOVATE
BUSINESS IMPACT
Paul Nault (seen here with family dog Rupert) has raised $310,000 on FrontFundr, an online investment platform, for PetVibe.
WHAT BUSINESS NEEDS TO KNOW
JO-ANN LORO/DOUGLAS MAGAZINE
1
A new year means new payroll tax hikes. On January 1, Canada Pension Plan premiums jumped from 4.95% of employee earnings to 5.1%. Earning limits went from $55,900 to $57,400. Further jumps are expected in 2025.
THIS BUSINESS IS GOING TO THE DOGS, and cats and birds and ... BY BELLE WHITE
CHALLENGE From dog-walking services to cat clinics to pet spas, the amount of information and services related to pets has rocketed in the last decade. But there’s been no single platform to coordinate the pet ‘parent’ community with essential information, and business and non-profit services.
SOLUTION Enter Victoria-based entrepreneur and lifelong pet parent Paul Nault. Inspired by platforms like Uber and Tinder for their ability to reinvent the travel and dating scene, Nault created PetVibe in 2017 as a single platform designed to connect pet owners with everything from local events and meetups to educational content and business services. PetVibe is also a centralized source of local deals and coupons. The app caught on quickly. “There are downloads in every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada,” says Nault, who has a history in business startups. “The number-one revenue model for the app is as a platform for pet businesses to advertise to a local audience,” says Nault, adding that PetVibe has an early adopter program for businesses to try the app out, with unlimited access. Nault has also established the PetVibe Foundation as an easy way for pet lovers to donate to causes that matter to them. When users shop through the app, a portion of the sales revenue is donated to the charity of their choice. “Pet businesses and owners are getting lost in the larger communities of Facebook, etc,” he says. “PetVibe is designed to bring everyone together onto a neighborhood pet app.”
2
BC Ferries CEO Mark Collins will talk about BC Ferries’ plans to evolve the coast ferry system and the future of Swartz Bay terminal at the Victoria Chamber Business Leaders Luncheon, March 6. victoriachamber.ca
3
Say goodbye to single-use plastic bags in Saanich as of June 2020. The move follows a bag ban by Victoria in 2018, challenged in court by the Canadian Plastic Bag Association. The B.C. Supreme Court dismissed that challenge.
THE FAIREST KIND OF TRADE LOCAL COMPANY HELPS WOMEN ESCAPE SLAVE LABOUR IN INDIA.
If changing the way you bought promotional products for your company could help change someone’s life, would you do it? Victoria entrepreneur Ali Rushton bet on it a decade ago when she launched Kindred Apparel. Her socially conscious company sells large-order, customprinted products, from bags to T-shirts and hats that are all organic, fair trade and made in a factory run by former victims of a red-light district in Kolkata, India. The workshop is overseen by Freeset, a New Zealand-based World Fair Trade Organization business that employs women who were forced into slave labour and have few commercial skills. “They teach and educate the women, give them jobs, health care, child care, literacy classes, pensions, vacation pay — everything we expect from a job in North America,” says Rushton. Kindred’s clients include Whole Foods, Lush, the Salvation Army and Meinhardt Fine Foods. Being able to make a living while enhancing life for a vulnerable population is paramount to her mindset. “What drew me to working with [Freeset],” she says, “is that I have an entrepreneurial spirit and a humanitarian spirit — and social enterprise married the two together nicely.”
#BCTECHSUMMIT PRIMER
MARCH 11 TO 13, VANCOUVER, B.C.BCTECHSUMMIT.CA
■ The summit’s 2019 theme, Reality Revolution, explores how we can use emerging tech, from AI to robotics, to solve the biggest challenges facing B.C. and the world. ■ Check out global and local speakers, from Duncan Wardle, Walt Disney’s former head of innovation & creativity, to Victoria’s Charles Lavigne, CEO of LlamaZoo, a Douglas 10 to Watch winner. ■ New this year is the Innovation Challenges Track, a platform for major B.C. organizations to pitch their challenges to solution providers, and don’t miss the Investment Showcase, which connects B.C.’s promising startups with leading investors.
DOUGLAS 11