Sam Chandola is the CentreBC candidate for Vancouver-Yaletown.
Sam’s story is a Canadian one. He arrived in 2012 as a scholarship student with an idea, a lot of grit, and not much else. Over a 15-year career in Vancouver, Sam founded several technology companies, generated $100M+ in export revenue for BC, sold 3 companies, and created hundreds of green, well-paying tech jobs here in BC.
Sam’s mobile apps have been downloaded more than 30 million times, and his software is used by governments and businesses. In 2020, he founded First Fund as his way to pay forward the opportunity Canada gave him. First Fund has gone on to become Canada’s largest pre-seed fund, having invested over $35 million in BC startups and backed more than 80 first-time founders. His goal is simple: keep BC’s best talent building here, instead of watching it leave for the United States.
His work has earned him BC Business’s Top 30 Under 30, the TMX Canada’s Next 150 Award, and a place on the Vancouver Economic Commission’s list of the Top 24 People of Asian Descent to Watch. Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philology from Germany on an Erasmus Mundus scholarship and speaks English, Hindi, and German.
Yaletown has been Sam’s home base for more than a decade. It’s where he has built his companies, and where he lives. Sam is running to help bring his experience to build a BC economy that is less dependent on the public sector, less dependent on the United States, and fosters private sector jobs.
Sam is socially liberal and fiscally responsible. He believes a strong economy and a fair society go hand in hand, that diversity is one of Canada’s greatest opportunities, and that governments should be judged by results, not ideology. Like many Yaletown voters, he has watched provincial politics force a choice between an NDP government that has let healthcare, housing and public safety slip, and a Conservative party consumed by culture wars and infighting. Sam is running with CentreBC to give those voters a home: a socially liberal, pro-growth, and fiscally responsible choice, focused on getting things done for Yaletown and for British Columbia.
