We're back, eh?!

ZayZoon has been improving the financial well-being of Americans since 2017.?

But here’s a little secret—we actually started in Canada, long ago.?

After coming up with the half-baked idea for ZayZoon during University and some trial and error on Craigslist, I knew I was onto something but would need to get insanely curious and pull on many threads to find the true solution.

In the summer of 2013, I reached out to Casper Wong with a relatively simple message:

After a less than ideal introduction, Casper would introduce me to someone he knew in Calgary, and that person just so happened to be Darcy Tuer .?

The idea was there and the foundation had been laid, but there was still plenty of work to be done.?

And so we got to work.?

We did all the startup things, including ideating on a logo (Here’s a picture taken from my old Blackberry, circa 2014)

One of my fondest memories from the early days was driving around Calgary with Darcy dropping off ZayZoon Coffee care packages to our first dozen or so clients.?

This was an opportunity for us to learn first hand about how our service was being received. It’s also something we’ve kept up as we’ve grown (more about an RV Tour below ;) )

We started to get the sense that we might really be onto something.?

There was one little wrinkle: Our thesis was that we would go-to-market through payroll providers, having them help us push Earned Wage Access to their clients, who would then ultimately have their employees use our service. A bit confusing, right? For us, from a business and technical perspective, it mattered quite a bit. But all you really need to know is that this decision now means if you’re a small or mid-sized business in the US, chances are you can activate ZayZoon in literal minutes.

Oh, and ADP named us partner of the year and we've now partnered with more than 180 payroll companies. But, that's all in the US of A.

Long story short, we were stubborn with our thesis, and Canada only has a few payroll providers — most of which weren’t ready for EWA back in 2015.

When operating a startup, there are three things that matter:?

• Purpose
• Speed to market?
• and runway (how much money you have)

Although we had purpose and more than 1,000 Canadians using ZayZoon, the signals and pull we received from the US were much greater.?

We were able to go faster and make a bigger impact.

So, I went back to the phone and continued making more calls.?

Shifting focus to the US?

In 2017, I made contact with an old mentor of mine who was well versed in the US payroll landscape who helped get us up to speed, quickly. Towards the end of 2017, Darcy and I flew down to Portland for a trade show and walked away with 4 hand-shake deals with payroll providers collectively paying more than 100,000 Americans.

Armed with a 3rd in our co-founding journey, Jamie Ha , we were off to the races and went all in on the US in 2018.?

We've grown the team so much and developed tremendous relationships with so many great partners that help us offer the best possible product.?

We’ve hit milestones we never thought possible:

• Raised $49.5 million USD
• 6,000+ businesses using ZayZoon
• Partnered with ADP and Visa?
• We've saved employees millions upon millions of dollars

We toured across the country in an RV visiting partners and clients:

We’ve been the recipient of some pretty prestigious awards:

?

And we offer services through notable businesses and franchises like McDonald's, Subway, Hilton, Starbucks and Lids.

Our return to Canada

Now we're coming back home, and Shubh Sidhu is leading the charge as ZayZoon's GM of Canada.

You can check out the official press release here.

ZayZoon’s roots are here and although we've grown into a team of 130—most are still in Canada.?

A market that never stopped needing us—but now we're in a position to serve

Nearly 50% of Canadians live paycheck-to-paycheck and 90% of Canadians said payday lending was the fastest or most convenient option.?

Based on the most recent payday loan data from the Government of Alberta. In 2022, we estimated that ZayZoon could have saved Albertans alone almost $14 million dollars by helping them avoid fees on payday loans.?

What now?

If you’re a business big or small, interested in learning more, sharing with your employer or booking a demo, click the link below:

https://www.zayzoon.com/canada