Entrepreneur of the Year 2024: Co-founders Barry Yates, Michael Carlson, Amielle Lake and Bill Schonbrun are wasting no time treating water at CarboNet

THE KICKOFF: Barry Yates and Amielle Lake were both seasoned entrepreneurs working at the entrepreneurship@UBC incubator when Michael Carlson, a UBC PhD student, walked through the door with an idea for treating wastewater. “He was watching the aftermath of the BP oil spill and how they were planning to treat it and saying it was never going to work,” says Yates of Carlson, who wasn’t available for an interview. “Mike said he was going to go to the lab at UBC and figure out how to treat wastewater.”

Yates, who had worked as an executive with Vancouver companies like Blast Radius and Monexa, and Lake, who founded customer data platform Tagga, were intrigued right away. “We decided that he was awesome and that we wanted to start this company with him,” says Yates with a smile.

ACTION PLAN: In 2019, Yates brought in his long-time business partner Bill Schonbrun and the foursome went about enabling customers to use CarboNet’s advanced chemistry to treat wastewater at a reduced cost and with 80 to 90 percent less chemicals than are typically used  in treatment.

“The industries we go after are very traditional and not innovative,” says Yates, explaining that CarboNet’s product has applications in sectors like construction, mining and food and beverage, along with a customer base that includes municipalities and pharma companies, among many other sectors.

“One of the things we’ve heard is that in water treatment there’s been no innovation in decades; it’s the same stuff that was used 40 years ago,” he says. “But there’s been a real change in accepting the increased importance on things that reduce emissions and are better for the planet. When we first started going to market, all they asked was if it was cheaper. And yes, it is. But over time, it’s become important that it’s also better for the planet.”

Lake describes CarboNet’s interactions with its competitors as a three-step process: “First, they ignore us, they don’t believe we’re real. Then they try to put us out of business, drop their costs to starve us out. Then, once we beat them, they want to partner.”

CLOSING STATEMENT: This year, East Vancouver-based CarboNet will generate around US$15 million in revenue, in its fourth year of being fully commercial. It projects some US$22 million in revenue next year. The company has around 50 employees. “When we started it, we got some pushback—‘Why do you need all four of you?’” says Yates. “But we really thought the four of us would help us get to market and commercialize a lot faster. The key is that we have the same values, but [we] all bring different things to the table. We have our fair share of bun-fights, but at the end of the day we’re all very collaborative and work really well together.”

Q+A

What’s an odd job you’ve had?

BY: I’m a former hockey referee and baseball umpire. I was selected to umpire the Little League World Series in South Carolina last year. I used to ref in the OHL. I remember watching Tie Domi and Eric Lindros be total beasts back then. 

AL: I used to be a popcorn girl at the movie theatre. There was a points system—you could get a jacket for 1,000 points. I had three points during my tenure. One was for scraping butter off the door, one was for cleaning up barf in a theatre stall and the other was for cleaning out a disgusting bathroom. I didn’t get the jacket.

BS: I used to be a standup comic for a few years in New York. I wasn’t very good, obviously. I had enough success that it was fun and I kept getting up there, but not enough that it was going to be a lifelong thing.