The Turf Team Story:
The idea to launch Turf Team came in the summer of 2017 when two high-school friends discovered their shared passion for landscaping and business. With their life savings of $5K and nothing to lose, they purchased a beat-up old work truck and set out on their entrepreneurial journey (in the middle of their university degrees). Years later, Turf Team has blossomed into the most reputable landscape construction brand in Vancouver, and we’re only getting started! Read the full story below…
After creating and analyzing an extensive list of potential names, Turf Team was the one that stood out. We embrace the “Team” element, by operating as a cohesive unit, ready to take on any challenge together.
Our logo is simple, yet full of meaning to us, and we hope that one day it becomes a benchmark symbol in high-end landscaping and turf installation. The colours green and blue are inspired by our hometown hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks. The green square representing our love of nature and commitment to enhancing the environment, while the blue represents our passion for business and upholding the highest service standards in the industry.
how we got started
It all started back in the spring of 2017, while we were in our second year of university…
It was that time of year when all the university students are scrambling to snatch up summer jobs, but not us… Instead, we came up with the crazy idea to risk everything we had worked for to start up our business at the age of 19. We each had spent one summer working with different landscaping companies, but besides that we had zero credibility when it came to installing turf. What we did have, was an entrepreneurial spirit and just enough money to buy a cheap truck, some tools, and a website. We started off by mowing lawns for friends and saying yes to everyone, no matter what the work involved. Even if we had no clue how to do something, we would always figure it out through youtube videos, industry mentors and trial/error. Fast forward to today, we have carved out our niche and refined our services to artificial grass installation, synthetic golf greens, simulators, design and builds, and artificial turf cleaning.
As we started to gain traction in Vancouver, this put a tremendous amount of pressure on our studies as full-time students running a full-time business. I can remember stepping out of numerous lectures to take business calls and trying to coordinate landscaping projects around my course schedule. Looking back, I have no idea how we managed to pull it off, but I’m so glad that we did! Starting a company from nothing at such a young age has taught us more about people and business than university ever could!
From concept to corporation, we have never lost the passion for transforming people’s yards, bringing joy to their lives and providing a world-class experience. By instilling this passion into every project, we have formed lasting relationships with our clients and built an incredibly talented team. The “Turf Team”
The Founders
Turf Team was founded by two local students representing UVic and UBC. Fuelled by their passions for business, golf and transforming landscapes, the two young owners decided to pool their resources, knowledge and experience to create a unique local brand.
JULIAN LI-BRUBACHER
Owner, Operations Manager
Julian is a long-time member of the Dunbar Community, and has his BCom degree, specializing in service management at The Gustavson School of Business. Julian is also a Point Grey Secondary graduate and honor roll recipient, who competed on the snowboard race team. Julian started his landscaping career at age 13. He started mowing lawns in his community by going around his neighborhood with a wagon and a manual push mower. From there, Julian went on to work for established landscaping companies where he gained his knowledge of the trade before starting Turf Team. “Going to work each day and seeing young hard workers brought together through Turf Team is an unbelievable feeling. As much as I love seeing the business grow, it’s a huge boost to see our employees develop by gaining responsibilities and life skills.”
JACKSON THORNLEY
Owner, Sales/Marketing Manager
Jackson grew up in the Dunbar Community of Vancouver, playing on countless sports teams, where he learned about the values of teamwork, leadership, and what it takes to perform at elite levels. Jackson went on to play for the Varsity Golf Team at UBC, where he graduated with a background in Psychology and Business. Driven by a passion for golf and landscape design, Jackson has now constructed over 150+ custom putting greens and installed over 1M square feet of artificial grass in every possible application. “Starting this company at such a young age has taught me more about life and business than university ever could. I am motivated by overcoming challenges, and had to learn many lessons the hard way (our own trial and error). I love being an entrepreneur and watching the business grow each year! I probably spend close to 10 hours/day working on the business or learning new skills, (when I’m not out golfing), but to me it doesn’t feel like work at all because its driven by passion…” Jackson recently authored a book called The Six Figure Student Playbook (available on Amazon) about his entrepreneurial experience and lessons learned while starting a scaling Turf Team during his university degree.
