Two best friends from Edmonton swore off VCs, found their first investor in a spam folder, and built a $5 billion company from Burnaby, BC. My conversation with @jack_newton and Rian Gauvreau, the founders of @goclio is live: 0:00 Intro 3:53 Would you build it here? 16:57 Capital will find you 20:50 Two idiots from Edmonton 32:02 Why doesn't Claude eat your lunch? 43:58 Four steps to the epiphany 49:37 Sell work, not software 55:09 The shoe company 1:03:18 The spam folder 1:10:44 From "f*** VCs" to $2 billion 1:17:05 The Sagrada Família 1:23:31 Prosperity is a choice Follow @TheTrueNorthPod for more untold Canadian founder stories.

Faire's first trade show (now a $5B business). A basement booth. The cheapest spot they could afford. Co-founder Marcelo Cortes (@mescortes) describes it as "probably one of my worst times at the company." A man points to a picture in their booth and asks what it is. Marcelo Cortes pitches it to him... He responds: "It's my brand. Why are you selling it?!" Marcelo: "Why don't you talk to my CEO? Max, come here." While Max kept him talking, Marcelo and Daniele swapped the picture out under the table. Four days, ten hours a day. Total sales: $3,500. Everyone celebrates the billion-dollar success. What people don't understand is that it takes a lot of 'disaster trade shows' to get there.

"Is AI going to kill engineering? Is the SaaS apocalypse real?" @mescortes: "That's BS." Marcelo is the co-founder and CTO of Faire, a $5.2B company he runs from Waterloo. Before that, he helped build Cash App for Jack Dorsey's Square. His full answer: "Claude is not going to kill engineering. It's changing engineering" "You're not the one writing the code anymore. That first 10% of the job? It becomes 90% of the job." "Engineers are going to keep being really important. If not more important than before." The full conversation covers how AI is reshaping his engineering teams — and how Faire went from $3,500 in sales to billions. Link in the comments. Follow @TheTrueNorthPod for more untold Canadian founder stories 🇨🇦

Silicon Valley asked Marcelo Cortes (@mescortes) to move. Over and over. He said no and built a $5.2 billion company from Waterloo instead. Most Canadians have never heard his name. That changes today. He co-founded @faire_wholesale with Max Rhodes (@MaxRhodesOK) and (@danieleperito). It's how hundreds of thousands of independent shops find the products on their shelves. Every Canadian should know Marcelo's story, so we're telling it. The full episode of @TheTrueNorthPod is LIVE. It's the whole story: how a kid from outside São Paulo got into Y Combinator and built a $5.2 billion company from Canada, and the exact playbook he used to do it. Here's what you'll learn: → How he built Cash App for Jack Dorsey at Square, then walked away from a fortune to start Faire → The word he banned from Faire, and why retailers wouldn't talk to them until it was gone → The one change that turned the entire business around → 200% growth month over month, and the returns that buried the office → Why he tells founders to raise the money: "You make very bad decisions if you are in a financially stressful situation" → Why his co-founder calls him the engineer who disappears for a weekend and comes back with an impossible problem solved → If he thinks AI will kill engineering → What his wife, Adrienne, said when he quit Google, and why he says he wouldn't be here without her Canada doesn't have an entrepreneur problem. It has a storytelling problem. Marcelo is $5.2 billion of proof. 🎙️ Follow @TheTrueNorthPod for more untold Canadian founder stories. 🇨🇦 Watch the full conversation — link in the first reply

Everyone says you can't build a real business in Canada. 12 founders are about to tell you why that's bulls***. "There's a new phase of Canadian entrepreneurship that is loud and proud and f***ing bold." - Harley Finkelstein, Shopify, Ottawa ($160B). "Young, innovative folks have to stop thinking they have to leave Canada to be successful. They don't." - Jeff Shiner, 1Password, Toronto ($6.8B). "We could change our tax jurisdiction in a heartbeat. We choose to stay here." - Mike Wessinger, PointClickCare, Mississauga ($5B). (96% of his revenue is in the US. He stayed anyway.) 8 Canadian companies will cross $1B in revenue this year. Most people can't name three. "What are you gonna do to make progress here?" "It's all a choice. Just go out and do it." Jack Newton, Clio, Burnaby ($5B). It's time to stop complaining, take the lead, and make Canada the best place in the world to build. 🎙️ Follow @TheTrueNorthPod for untold Canadian founder stories