IGOR TRNINIC

Co-founder and managing partner BREAKTHROUGH ACADEMY AGE: 28

LIFE STORY: During his summers while attending university, Igor Trninic led a College Pro painting franchise. Trninic learned the value of hard work early: his mother and father, an auditor and a lawyer, respectively, had to restart after the family fled approaching war in the former Yugoslavia for Vancouver in 1994. Although he holds a bachelor of business administration in accounting and human resource management from SFU, cubicle world wasn't for him. After graduation, Trninic managed a B.C. division of College Pro before becoming head of operations with Shack Shine, a provider of detailing services for residential and commercial buildings, when it opened in 2014. The company soon launched its first franchise partner, and 1-800-Got-junk founder Brian Scudamore's O2E Brands bought it the following year.

Those experiences showed Trninic that skilled tradespeople often lack business know-how. So, in mid-2015, he started Breakthrough Academy with fellow College Pro alumnus Danny Kerr. Through its online training and development programs—most pricing is monthly—the company helps trades and home services outfits with annual revenue of between $1 million and $5 million to grow. “We've hit the nail on the head in terms of the concept and market need,” Trninic says. “It's just been a matter of execution.”

THE BOTTOM LINE: Last year Breakthrough Academy hit $1.4 million in sales, for a net profit of some $330,000. The nine-member team has more than 100 companies as clients; their total 2016 revenue was about $120 million.