StartWell sat down with Wayne Pommen, Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm, during Toronto Tech Week.
Most people have swiped a credit card without thinking twice about what's happening on the other side of that transaction. Wayne Pommen has spent the better part of a decade building an alternative — and the story of how he got there is anything but straightforward.
Wayne is the CRO of Affirm, North America's leading buy now pay later platform, serving 27 million active consumers and processing close to $50 billion in annual purchases. But before Affirm, he was the CEO of PayBright — Canada's first BNPL company — which he built from the ground up starting with a tiny healthcare financing business bolted onto the side of a weight loss chain.
What started as a niche point-of-sale financing tool for dental work and hearing aids became, within a few years, the dominant installment payment platform for Canadian e-commerce. By the time Affirm came calling in 2021, PayBright had grown from 6 employees to 200 and was processing transactions for merchants like Wayfair, Samsung, and The Hudson's Bay Company (RIP.)
The core insight driving their whole business is simple: the credit card industry is structurally misaligned with consumers. Great rewards, accepted everywhere — but carrying a balance means paying 20 to 30% interest, compounding monthly, with minimum payments so low they barely cover the accruing interest. Affirm's model flips that. Fixed terms, transparent rates, no hidden fees, no revolving debt trap.
Wayne's perspective on Canada's fintech landscape is equally clear-eyed. Canadians are among the most credit-card-penetrated populations in the world — around 90% of adults carry one — and the big six banks have historically left little room for innovation.
Affirm is available at over half a million merchants across North America including Amazon, Apple, Costco, and Shopify.
Quick Takes: Business advice from our conversation with Wayne
- When you see a market gap, go pre-sell it before you build — PayBright landed merchants before the e-commerce product was finished.
- Scaling a lending business fast is operationally brutal — you need capital, underwriting discipline, and tech infrastructure all moving at once.
- There's no shame in selling when the competitive landscape shifts and well-capitalized global players are heading for your market.
- Don't wait for the perfect moment to expand — PayBright moved into e-commerce because they spotted an opening, not because it was the plan.
- Transparency in financial products isn't just ethical, it's a competitive advantage — consumers are increasingly choosing it.
- The office isn't dead, but its purpose has changed — use it for energy, collaboration, and hackathons, not mandatory attendance.
- Canada has the talent and the education. The gap is capital formation and the ecosystem needed to keep founders building here.
