Hustle & Flow Event | TRUTH MEDIA | Vancouver Creative Agency

Larissa is the Business Development Associate for Virogin Biotech Ltd, an oncolytic biotech company based in Vancouver and Shenzhen. She is also the co-founder of Böues, a personal care company dedicated to natural products, and Board member for Bridge for Health, an international public health cooperative. She has completed her Bachelor of Sciences in Population & Quantitative Health, with interests in gerontology, strategic marketing and social entrepreneurship. A recent RADIUS Fellow, Larissa is also named Surrey’s Top 25 Under 25.

Favorite quote: "Resilience is your greatest muscle – train it and you will find great awareness, humility and transformation in yourself. In doing so, you will discover your true passions, values, identity, and most importantly, your impact within community and systems change.

After completing her bachelor’s degree, she felt like just another grad – it was hard to figure out what she wanted to do. Having made few connections at school, the freedom to pursue anything she wanted was daunting – and where to start? After working in admin, retail and volunteering at arts festivals, she began to build confidence and understanding her abilities better. In 2012, she organized a shared economy event with several friends, called Living the New Economy. Following that, an opportunity to organize a three-day youth festival came up, and then she joined TEDXVancouver, organizing the afterparty series for guests. With more confidence, she decided to join a friend in launching a social media agency, Tangoo. Her main interests in entrepreneurship are connecting people, developing friendships, showcasing art and creativity, and making Vancouver a more vibrant place to be. Today, she runs Nero with Georgiy. This is her first time developing and launching a product line from scratch. It took a while for her to understand she had the ability to be entrepreneurial, and the road was filled with many lessons. She hopes to share them with other youth facing similar circumstances. Learning about who you are, how you think, your work-style and the types of people you need to surround yourself with takes time and can make all the difference in your success.