How do you build a $5.2 billion company from Waterloo, Ontario, when Silicon Valley keeps asking you to leave?
Marcelo Cortes, co-founder and CTO of Faire, said no every time. He landed in Canada from Brazil in 2001 with enough money for one month of English school, worked two full-time jobs while earning his degree at the University of Waterloo, and helped build Cash App at Jack Dorsey's Square—then walked away from the equity to start Faire.
When Square offered him the job and asked when he could move to San Francisco, he told them he was staying in Waterloo. Faire is now a $5.2 billion wholesale marketplace with hundreds of thousands of retailers, and its engineering team was built in Canada from day one.
This is the ultimate founder playbook for anyone trying to find product-market fit when customers hate what you're selling.
Marcelo Cortes is the co-founder and CTO of Faire. Before Faire, he was an engineer at Google and one of the small team at Square that built Cash App. He has lived in Waterloo, Ontario since 2005.
In this conversation, Marcelo breaks down:
■ The word he banned from Faire—and why retailers wouldn't even talk to them until it was gone
■ Four days at a New York trade show that produced $3,500 in sales
■ How Try Before You Buy unlocked 200% month-over-month growth
■ Why growing that fast almost killed the company
■ The board meeting they moved so investors wouldn't see the office
■ Why no Canadian investor would back Faire for years
■ What he actually thinks about the SaaS apocalypse
■ How an engineer's job changes when AI writes the code
■ Why he turned down Silicon Valley more than once
■ His answer to whether he'd still build it in Canada in 2026
Key Lessons from Marcelo:
- "Why would I compromise on that?" - He had the life he wanted in Canada. No job offer was worth trading it.
- "I am the curator of my store. No computer is going to tell me what my customers want." - The customer objection that rebuilt Faire's entire product.
- "As a founding team, you need complementary skills." - Two engineers is not a founding team.
- "You need to build something that people are telling other people about." - Press is not product-market fit.
- "Believe in yourself. Believe in the country." - His message to Canadian founders.
Topics:
00:00 Intro
03:18 The State of Canadian Entrepreneurship in 2026
05:26 Would You Build It in Canada or the US?
07:03 Growing Up Outside São Paulo: The Video Rental Store
08:47 The Intel 286 That Changed His Life
12:05 Landing in Canada With One Month of English School
13:39 Meeting Adrienne
20:01 Quitting Google Less Than Two Years In
21:27 Why His First Startup Failed
23:12 The Partner Who Made It Possible
24:59 Why He Took a Job at Square Instead
27:28 "When Can You Move to San Francisco?"
29:57 Building Cash App at Jack Dorsey's Square
33:51 The Venmo Problem and the 1% Fee That Fixed It
36:32 The WhatsApp Message That Became Faire
38:17 Applying to Y Combinator on the Last Day
44:19 Why He Built Faire's Engineering Team in Waterloo
45:47 996 and Worse: The Intensity It Took
47:26 Faire's First Trade Show: Four Days, $3,500
50:46 Try Before You Buy: The Full Playbook
56:43 Founder-Market Empathy Beats Data
58:13 Brute Force, Brand Backlash, and Doubt
1:01:06 Losing 50 Cents on Every Dollar
1:03:55 Is the SaaS Apocalypse Real?
1:05:55 How an Engineer's Job Changes When AI Writes the Code
1:09:07 What AI Actually Changes in Retail
1:10:58 Building for People Like His Parents
1:15:18 "Why Are You Leaving?" The Cost of Building
1:17:33 Do You Regret the Time You Missed?
1:20:05 Why No Canadian Investor Would Back Faire
1:21:32 His Message for Canadian Founders
This episode is part of The True North Podcast—telling the real stories of Canadian founders who are building world-class companies in Canada.
Raw, unfiltered, and real. We need more people building and fewer people complaining.
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