The companies rebuilding Canadian finance didn't start when the policy was ready. Most of them started years before anyone in Ottawa had drafted a framework.
That matters right now. The federal government has announced the Canada Strong Fund — $25 billion directed at building Canada from within. The Consumer-Driven Banking Act received Royal Assent in March 2026. There is real political momentum behind the idea that Canada should invest in itself. I'm genuinely optimistic about where this is heading.
In April, I spent two days in Calgary sitting across from Jeff Adamson at Neo Financial and Tate Hackert at ZayZoon. Both had been building long before the policy caught up. Neo Financial was already rebuilding how Canadians spend and save. ZayZoon was already getting workers access to wages they'd already earned, before anyone had drafted a framework that made it easier. They built because the problem was real, not because the policy was ready.
That's what Built Here is documenting.
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The series is six conversations between me and the people building Canada's financial infrastructure: Jeff Adamson, Tate Hackert, Rob Khazzam at Float, and Saud Aziz at Venn, Malik Yacoubi at Nesto, and more guests still to be announced. No product demos. No growth metrics. Just the decisions they made, the systems they built, and what it actually took to build them here.
I've spent years working closely with the fintechs and financial institutions building this ecosystem. What struck me while filming these conversations was the energy in the room. It’s the kind that comes from people who saw a problem and started building before the conditions were perfect. That stays with you.
The first episode is out. If you work in Canadian fintech or financial services, or you just care about what gets built in this country, it's worth your time.
Watch it at flinks.com/built-here.
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