Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
In this Toronto Tech Week talk — powered by StartWell — Wayne Pommen, Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) and former President & CEO of PayBright, shares the real story behind building and scaling Canada’s first Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company.
Wayne walks through PayBright’s journey from a 5-person startup to nearly $1B in annual transaction volume, the chaos of rapid fintech growth, raising debt to fund a lending business, and what it took to successfully sell the company to Affirm. He also reflects on the transition from investor to operator, lessons from private equity, and why team, product, and capital strategy matter at scale.
This conversation covers:
• How PayBright scaled BNPL in Canada
• Building and leading high-performing fintech teams
• Managing risk, capital, and operations in lending
• Founder lessons from acquisition and hypergrowth
• Why Affirm’s consumer-first credit model is different
Off The Record features raw, behind-the-scenes founder stories — no pitches, no polish, just honest insights from builders who have scaled.
🎥 Built for founders, fintech operators, and startup leaders
📍 Recorded during Toronto Tech Week | Powered by StartWell
#WaynePommen #Affirm #PayBright #BNPL #Fintech #StartupScaling #FounderStories #TorontoTechWeek #StartWell #OffTheRecord Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
In this Toronto Tech Week talk — powered by StartWell — Wayne Pommen, Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) and former President & CEO of PayBright, shares the real story behind building and scaling Canada’s first Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company.
Wayne walks through PayBright’s journey from a 5-person startup to nearly $1B in annual transaction volume, the chaos of rapid fintech growth, raising debt to fund a lending business, and what it took to successfully sell the company to Affirm. He also reflects on the transition from investor to operator, lessons from private equity, and why team, product, and capital strategy matter at scale.
This conversation covers:
• How PayBright scaled BNPL in Canada
• Building and leading high-performing fintech teams
• Managing risk, capital, and operations in lending
• Founder lessons from acquisition and hypergrowth
• Why Affirm’s consumer-first credit model is different
Off The Record features raw, behind-the-scenes founder stories — no pitches, no polish, just honest insights from builders who have scaled.
🎥 Built for founders, fintech operators, and startup leaders
📍 Recorded during Toronto Tech Week | Powered by StartWell
#WaynePommen #Affirm #PayBright #BNPL #Fintech #StartupScaling #FounderStories #TorontoTechWeek #StartWell #OffTheRecord Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
