Cody Green is the CEO of Canada Drives, a FinTech company based in Vancouver that helps Canadians get car loans
Tell us about you and your company
Canadians come to us to get auto financing. We help them through our network of dealerships and lender relationships across Canada. Typically how a consumer bought cars in the past is they would go to a dealership and pick out a vehicle. Tt the end they would work out their finance options. This only works out well for a small set of people. Often, customers end up disappointed, not knowing what they were going to get approved for or what the interest rates and payments would be. Canada Drives enables customers to get financing before they walk into the dealership. They then have full visibility on what they can afford and what vehicles to shop for..
What was the company’s journey like to get to where it is now?
In 2010 we were just a small group of people and I don’t think we even realised the scope and where we could actually go with this sort of opportunity. It was just a handful of us, now there are 400 people and we are working across the country and dealing with over a million Canadians each year.
What is it about your company’s culture that drives success?
I think there are a couple of things about our culture that has allowed us to be successful. One thing that I think is really important is the feedback loop that every employee has with the customers’ experience. So, the things they are working on, they can really understand how it’s going to impact the customer using our services.
I think once you get to a certain size, almost subcultures emerge. Part of our team is a sales customer support team. That is high energy with a lot of music in the background. Everyone needs to be fired up to come into work each day. Then, you’ll have the technology side of our business. This team is solving technical problems and working in creative teams. Each team has built their own culture with the grander one.
How do you as a leader ensure that your culture, is a culture, that creates success?
In the early days, it became how much can I do during a day? When the company grows and you’ve got hundreds of staff, what you can do in a day doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s more about who can you influence and empower during the day to see the vision through.
When it comes to the environment, it’s not just the space that you’re working in, its really the people that fill that space. If you’re coming to work with people who actually care about the success of the company and the success of the people around them, that’s really going to influence the environment and the culture.
What’s Next for Canada Drives?
We are really excited for this year, over 1 million Canadians are going to apply with Canada Drives this year, which is an extremely exciting milestone to hit but what we’re finding it that there’s demand for our services outside of Canada. So, we’re going to be looking to expand in both the UK and the US.
Canada Drives
Canada Drives helps Canadians get car loans regardless of previous credit history. Canada-wide service for Bad Credit Car Loans or No Credit Car Loans.