The StartWell Podcast

Matt Espinoza sold his first software company the same week he graduated university — then did it again, faster. Now, at 23, he runs Clover Labs (AI), a Toronto startup that grew to 65 employees in a year by building AI "growth agents" that mass-produce content, run outbound, and manage ad spend for other companies. In this episode of the StartWell Podcast, Matt breaks down the mechanics most growth operators won't say out loud on camera: how "volume negates luck," why the same clip re-edited and reposted 100 times isn't spam, how account networks get "warmed up" to avoid algorithmic penalties, and why he thinks most Canadian founders chronically under-shoot their growth targets compared to their US counterparts. If you run a B2B or SaaS company and think content marketing doesn't apply to you, this is the episode that will change your mind — or at least make you uncomfortable enough to try.

Stan has helped over 100,000 creators and entrepreneurs earn more than $600M online — and takes $0 in commission on any of it. Vitalii Dodonov, co-founder and CTO of Stan, explains why the team made that call on purpose, and what it's built on top of it since. Vitalii traces his path from arriving in Grand Prairie, Alberta not speaking English, to self-teaching his way into a software career at eBay, to co-founding Stan with John Hu after a chance customer introduction. We get into why Stan walked away from transaction fees, how founder-led content became their only real marketing channel, and the "Hacker House" method Stan uses to build entire products from zero in 14 days — including the honeymoon-prep trip to London that became the origin story for Stanley, Stan's AI content partner, which negotiates its own price with every user.

Shopify's VP & Head of Engineering Farhan Thawar joins StartWell to unpack Sidekick, why Shopify builds its own tools instead of buying them, and how a 7,000-person hackathon and 1,000 annual interns keep the culture moving.

Venn co-founder Saud Aziz on building Canada's business banking alternative — from a cold email to employee #5, Revolut's Canadian expansion, and raising a $21.5M Series A from a team of 10.

Affirm CRO Wayne Pommen on building and selling PayBright, why credit cards are broken, and what Canada's fintech scene needs to grow up.