HPAC – Business Disruptors

Ted Fox, owner of Fox Plumbing Heating Cooling Electrical in Vernon, B.C., started in business with his father, Ted Sr., back in 1999. In 2012 Ted bought out his dad, and since then has developed the small local plumbing and heating operation into a full-blown business – that at times has grown to almost 100 employees and has expanded beyond the borders of Vernon into the surrounding communities. He has learned how to grow the business one step at time by taking chances and trying new things. He’s also an open book when sharing his thoughts on building a business in the trades.

Gary McCreadie has been the owner of McCreadie HVAC and Refrigeration Services in Shelburne, Ontario (northwest of Toronto) for only four years, but he’s been involved in the HVAC and refrigeration trades for over 25 years and is best known for his digital platform, HVAC Know It All where he has some 500,000 followers over various online channels. In this episode we learn about Gary’s start in the HVAC trades, the origin of HVAC Know It All, and how he’s managing both of these businesses and his plans for the future.

Dating back to 1922, Levine Brothers Plumbing has deep roots in Montreal has endured as an immigrant success storey. Ben Levine shares lessons he’s learned by looking back and how the combination of business and engineering minds has helped sustain the family business. He also talks about the operational changes he’s making today that instil more personal responsibility among the employees while maintaining the company’s core values around customer service.

In this episode we speak with James Blanchett, owner of Canuck Mechanical in Prince George, B.C. Started in 1983 by his dad, today James leads Canuck and takes pride in the company’s meticulous organization, professional branding and focus on quality craftsmanship. Blanchett himself has gained a large social media following featuring his impressive hydronics installations, and he leads his business by example.

This episode is sponsored by Wolseley Canada.

In this episode we speak with Nathan Horton, CEO of 1Click Energy Solutions, a digital-first company that started out as 1Click Heating and Cooling with the goal of simplifying the HVAC purchasing process for homeowners. With a strong focus on heat pumps as the entry point into the residential market, going forward 1Click's broader ambitions are targeting whole home electrification with the company growing as the market across Canada adapts.

We spoke with Nathan live at the CMPX Show in Toronto on March 27th, 2026.

This episode is sponsored by Wolseley Canada.

In this third episode of the Business Disruptors podcast, once again we speak with Jeff Schwartz, CEO of Go Lime, a Toronto-based company that has built an e-commerce-driven platform designed to disrupt the established water heater rental business in Ontario.

We spoke with Jeff live at the CMPX Show in Toronto on March 27th, 2026, and the conversation went so well we split it into two parts.

In Part 1 we spoke about the origins of Go Lime and how it’s approaching the market.

In Part 2 we touch on the company’s retail adventures, its growing product portfolio, its new owner (UK-based Basalt Infrastructure Partners) and Schwartz’s outlook for the next three years.

Listen to the conversation here, or you can subscribe and listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify, or watch on YouTube.

For episode two of the Business Disruptors podcast, we met up with Jeff Schwartz, CEO of Go Lime, at the CMPX Trade show in Toronto in late March, 2026. Our talk went so well, we’ve split the podcast into two parts. Go Lime developed an e-commerce-driven platform designed to disrupt the well-established water heater rental business in Ontario. With a background in the mobile phone industry – Schwartz shares some interesting similarities between cell phones and water heaters, and he believes Go Lime has a digital head start at bringing a new level of pricing transparency and payment options to consumers. In part one we speak with Jeff about the origins of Go Lime and how’s it’s approaching this market.

Our first guest on the Business Disruptors podcast is Stephen Lake, CEO of Jetson Home, a start-up based in North Vancouver that is designing, engineering, selling and installing ducted cold climate heat pump systems. Officially launching in 2024 with some seed funding, early in 2026 Jetson announced that it raised an additional $50 million to grow and expand its business. Join us to learn more about Jetson and its plans for the future.

Introducing HPAC - Business Disruptors