PayrollHero Angel Investor And Venture Capitalist Comes To Whistler

It’s May, it’s 27°C outside and there’s wall-to-wall sunshine – we couldn’t have asked for a better week to welcome our good friend and angel investor, Nic Lim, to Whistler.

Weather in Whistler

To give you a little introduction, Nic is a venture capital investor from Malaysia, who was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur. In 1999, Nic and his partners started their first dot com international investment company, Catcha, whose long line of success is down to their simple and effective strategy “take proven new media ideas from Western markets and execute them in Asia”. Now, as a shareholder of Catcha, Nic and his business partner Brian Wee built a new venture capital investing company, 8Capita whose portfolio includes mobile customer loyalty app, Perx; mobile game studio, Frenzoo; and e27, a media company focused on growing Asia’s tech startup ecosystem.

Whistler Crash Course: Poutine, Ziptrek and Mountain Biking

“I’m in Whistler for work…but when you’re in somewhere so beautiful it’s not so hard to squeeze some fun in every now-and-then”. – Nic, Partner at 8Capita

This was Nic’s first time to Canada and he admits to being taken in by the spectacular beauty of Vancouver.  However, when asked what he thought of Whistler, before commenting on Whistler’s breathtaking mountain-scapes, the Sea-To-Sky Highway or even the wildlife, Nic said:

“I really like the food here in Canada!” and proudly followed up with “and I’ve even had poutine…but I had to get a doggy bag. I don’t understand how you eat all of it.” –  Nic

We agree that the food in Whistler is great, but felt we needed to show him more of the outdoor lifestyle and what better way than biking to the office through the rainforest. The next morning Nic joined Mike (PayrollHero CEO and President) and Adam (Product Development & Co-Founder) for the 9.9km cycle from Nesters to the Payroll Hero office in Function Junction. “Not only did I ride 10km to work this morning, I also had to walk the 2km to Mike’s house before we set off” said Nic.  But even after admitting that it had been over ten years since he had last pedalled a bicycle, Nic said:

“This is such beautiful place, why would anyone drive!”. – Nic

Like the rest of us here in Whistler, Nic is not stranger to adventure and loves nothing more than a burst of adrenaline in his veins. Nic is a seasoned bungee jumper and seeking a similar thrill he sought out the high speed, high-wire fun of ZipTrek. We offered the possibility of a company bungee jump, but in his words, “at 38 I need to slow down, I’ve had enough of vertical free-fall for now”. We didn’t mention that at in Whistler we regularly see downhill mountain bikers in their late 50’s.

Nic Lim Ziptrek

How did PayrollHero Meet Someone Like Nic?

Nic says his path first crossed with PayrollHero when he and Mike were sat next to each other at the Echelon awards in June 2012. “We got chatting and it turned out we had mutual friends” said Nic, “then I saw their their pitch, and it was their intensity and preparedness that really attracted me to Steve, Mike and PayrollHero”.

Now as angel investor in PayrollHero, Nic is an integral part of helping us achieve our goal of ‘Optimizing Work Productivity with Happiness’. After nine months with PayrollHero, Nic now calls himself the ‘Payroll Hero Cheerleader’ – interesting for a guy who thinks he’s now too old to bungee jump.

It has been exciting having Nic here in Whistler with us, he really is a good guy, a good laugh, a good friend and an excellent business man!

Whistler’s Vast, Untapped, Potential is…You

In this blog post we’re going to meet Vicky, who flocked to Whistler looking for a better work-life-balance and is now working with us here at PayrollHero. We’re going to share with you some of her tips and advice on moving to Canada and the truth about finding a career in a resort town – and hopefully inspire you to get in touch and make the move too.

* In a future post, coming soon, we’ll be chatting with local immigration lawyers to provide you with practical guide to the process of moving to British Columbia.

Meet Victoria, Curator of Digital Communities and Happiness

Name: Victoria Farrand

Age: 27

Home: Huddersfield, England

Previous Industry Job: Digital Content Manager and Creative Strategy at Brass Agency, UK

Reason for moving to Canada: I came for a career-break and never left, Whistler just pulled me in and I knew this was where I had to put my roots

How do people choose Whistler?

Ask most long-term locals how they ended up living in Whistler, and you’ll probably get the same answer over and over: “I came for a holiday and never left”. And like the thousands before her, Vicky didn’t plan on living in Whistler permanently either, it just happened.

“My partner, Tom, and I were setting off for a round-the-world trip… three years later, we never left Whistler and now we almost have permanent residency.” – Vicky

For every person who does stay, there are unfortunately many who don’t. Many who think that making a permanent life in a resort town is just too tough. So at PayrollHero we asked ‘what can we do to help more people realise their dream of living in Whistler?’

PayrollHero has a local immigration expert on our side

We have a great relationship with a local immigration lawyer here in Whistler. If we decide that you are the right blend of adventurous, dedicated and talented, and we offer you a position with us, they will guide you through the visa process for foreign workers.

We can help you live permanently in Canada

As well as finding talent from overseas, we also especially like to employ locals; and in a resort town ‘local’ can be someone who has been here 6 months or 6 years. We’re looking for the locals who are starting to think that they might have to move to Vancouver to get the job and they pay they want. Well don’t move, we want you! And if you’re not from Canada, Rudy will help you stay.

“We originally came to Canada on a working holiday visa, but a year later we decided we wanted to be permanent residents. Having lawyer took away all the stresses of this big life-decision. They helped us get Provincial Nomination with the BC Government, walked us through the implied status process and helped us get new working visas until or residency came through. This was very important to us because we were at the limit of how many visas we could get being from the UK. Now we’ve had our medicals and we’re just waiting for confirmation.” – Vicky

Move to Whistler for a career break…at first

As Vicky mentioned, you can come to Canada on working holiday visa. We recommend looking into it for your respective Country of origin, as each has different age restrictions and limits on the number of visas you can have.

Once you have been approved for a working holiday visa you can move to Whistler, British Columbia or anywhere else in Canada (but why would you want to go anywhere else).

“I moved from the UK to get away from the lifestyle associated with working for a big a marketing and advertising agency, I needed to escape the constant feeling that I was working working for the weekend and re-evaluate what It actually was that I loved about my job. As a result I’ve had many jobs in Whistler, I’ve been a snowboard instructor, a ski technician, a bootfitter and a zip-line guide to name a few, but doing these jobs has brought me full circle to realise that this is what I want to do, I just want to do it for the right company” – Vicky

Not everyone who comes to Whistler on a working holiday visa wants to only stay 6 months. A lot of people use it as a career break, a good way to escape the daily grind, and others use it as a way to bridge the gap while they apply for residency. But however you end up in Whistler one thing is sure, it’s hard to leave.

If you’ve ever been to ‘Super, Natural British Columbia you’ll understand why this west coast province continually attracts like-minded, creative people. Like like bees to honey, creatives flock from all over the world to find the right work-play balance. Each one bringing with them their culture, knowledge and skills; and here at PayrollHero we are very happy to welcome Whistler’s vast, mostly-untapped, potential – you.

Whistler sounding good to you? Drop us and email right here at support[at]payrollhero.com.