Schulich Alumna Launches Sustainable and Ethical Startup Company
When Christine Trinh (MBA ’13) and her husband became parents, they were accepting hand-me-downs from friends and family. “We were taught values of practicality and responsibility long before vintage and sustainable fashion became cool,” shared the pair.
They soon realized that there were other parents who were in the same shoes as them searching for children’s pre-loved clothing. This inspired them to quit their full-time jobs to launch their company, Beeja May.
Beeja (bee-ja) means “the beginning” in Hindi and May is the birth month of their daughter. “Together the words represent both a second life for used clothing, and a new chapter for us as parents,” shared the co-founders, Christine and Simon.
Prior to launching the company, Christine pursued an MBA at Schulich, specializing in Real Estate and Infrastructure, with the plan to further her career in land development. She revealed that she didn’t take a single entrepreneurial class during her studies, since she had no intentions of becoming an entrepreneur.
Today, she believes that the program provided her with many skills that she was able to apply to her business. “Most notably, I took an ethics course, where the professor really opened my eyes to what it truly means to be a sustainable company,” she said. “A business that is able to integrate principles of giving back and sustainability into their core values is one that is truly sustainable. His lessons became the premise of our business model.”
Giving back has become one of the company’s main pillars. Beeja May has partnered with local charities, such as New Mom Project, Food Banks Canada (COVID-19 Response Fund), that focus on giving back to marginalized groups in the community they grew up in.