In our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, recorded in person at Thin Air Labs in Calgary, we sat down with Sebastien Hiscock, Co-Founder of Purelend, to discuss how his company is using AI to fully automate the manual checks and underwriting that have plagued the mortgage industry for decades, and why the best AI solutions empower humans rather than replace them.
Sebastien's path to founding Purelend is a masterclass in experiential learning. He started as a software developer at WestJet, got his first "fake startup experience" building the Swoop subsidiary, then joined Neo Financial at an incredibly early stage as one of the first 10 employees in mid-2019.
At Neo, he found his people, and his problem to solve.
"I worked on ledger systems, rewards systems, fraud detection for transactions. That's where I cut my teeth in fintech and learned a lot about what it takes to start a company and the dedication that's required to do that."
More importantly, that's where he met his co-founders: Lucas Scheer and Wayne Kainu, who had built Neo's mortgage arm and created a national brokerage that eventually became a lender.
Wayne and Lucas saw the core problem firsthand: the mortgage industry is drowning in manual document review.
The Problem: Manual Work Happening Four Times Over
Sebastien explained the cascading inefficiency:
"There are so many document intensive processes that are manual. People are spending hours or days poring over income statements and bank statements, tracking down deposits, verifying income."
But that's just the beginning.
"If you're a mortgage broker doing that manual work, you're going to package the deal and send it to a lender. The lender then does all the same manual checks that the broker just went through. If that lender works with investors to back those loans, the investor has audit access to perform all the same checks again."
The result: Manual review of the exact same documents occurring at every single stage in the mortgage life cycle; broker, lender, investor, repeating the same work over and over.
"That was really what drove us to create something to solve the problem. We all really like working together as well, so it was a natural fit."
From Prototype to Product-Market Fit in One Week
Purelend's early traction was remarkable. Last summer, Lucas built a functioning prototype, and within a week, they were talking to customers.
Thanks to Wayne's deep connections in the Canadian mortgage industry, they got prototypes in the right hands quickly.
The response was immediate: "We would demo the prototype and the customer would say, 'Okay, I'll take it. Can I have this?' We had that reaction so much that we did actually just start letting people use the prototype."
The signal was clear: They were onto something.
Those early adopters stayed loyal and became advocates. Growth has been largely word of mouth, and as early customers expanded their usage, referrals poured in.
"It's pretty amazing that those early customers have gone on to become advocates for us. The industry is tight-knit and word travels fast."
The AI Philosophy: Amplify Humans, Don't Replace Them
What's particularly important about Purelend's approach is their philosophy on what AI should do: Not replace broker-borrower relationships, but enable them.
"The brokers that have been most successful with the tool have understood that this isn't just a piece of software that you plug into your existing workflow. We're asking brokers to change the way they approach their workflow entirely."
Why that matters: "When you look at where technology and AI is going, the brokers that are going to be successful are the ones that are able to spend more time with their borrowers. Building those human connections and relationships, offering premium, white glove service that's very high touch. If you're spending most of your time on backend processes like sorting through documents, you're not going to continue to be successful."
The philosophy: Let machines do what machines are good at, and let humans build relationships.
"There is a lot of tech for customer-facing interactions, like replacing human interaction with chatbots or AI over voice. Those tools are great, but when I think about the type of interactions I personally want to have… I don't want a phone call with a bot when I'm about to make the scariest purchase of my life. That's where brokers provide value. The more we can enable them to focus on that, and we take care of the rest, the more successful they'll continue to be."
Creating a Single Source of Truth Across the Mortgage Lifecycle
Purelend's longer-term vision is even more ambitious, aiming to eliminate the redundancy across the mortgage lifecycle entirely.
"The redundancy of the broker doing all the same checks that the lender does, that the investor does—how do we close that gap?"
The goal: A lender receiving a deal from a broker using Purelend feels confident that the documents are verified, haven't been tampered with, and are exactly as they were when the broker initially loaded them into Purelend.
"We can reduce the need for the lender to re-run the same checks at all."
The bigger picture: "What we're trying to do is bring that vertical integration—what big banks have been able to do with their integrated brokerages and lending desks—to the rest of the industry so that you can all take advantage of the efficiency gains."
One source of truth: No duplication, faster process and better outcomes.
The Product Roadmap: Ambitious Plans for the Next Six Months
Sebastien emphasized they have "pretty ambitious roadmap for the next six months or so—probably the furthest we've ever planned."
Usually they're "hand-to-mouth with customer feedback," but they have "larger scale product initiatives" in the works.
The longer-term vision is bridging the gap between brokers and lenders, creating immutable verification that documents haven't been tampered with, and enabling that vertical integration that big banks have enjoyed for years.
The Calgary Ecosystem: More Than Just Office Space
When we asked about working in the Calgary tech community at Thin Air Labs, Sebastien's enthusiasm was genuine:
"When I first got here, coming into the space and seeing all of these small companies just got me so excited. Right away it felt like this is the place that I need to be."
"It's been really awesome sharing a space with Bidaya and with Tech Thursday and being able to work closely with companies that are at a similar stage. It makes it feel like your resource pool is a lot bigger, we can swap stories and help each other solve problems."
The collaborative energy: "You can feel the energy. It's an exciting place to be."
Key Takeaways
Nonlinear paths lead to great companies – WestJet ? Swoop ? Neo ? Purelend. Each step taught Sebastien something critical.
The best problems come from lived experience – Wayne and Lucas built Neo's mortgage arm. They saw the inefficiency firsthand.
Word of mouth is the strongest signal – Early adopters saying "Can I use this?" before it was even done.
AI should amplify humans, not replace them – Brokers need time for relationships. Let machines handle documents.
Document review duplication is a billion-dollar problem – Brokers, lenders, and insurers all reviewing the same documents.
Single source of truth eliminates waste – Immutable verification removes the need for redundant review.
Customer success is product development – Listen to customers, evolve the roadmap.
Small teams can build in collaborative spaces – Thin Air Labs, Tech Thursday, shared resources amplify impact.
Listen to the Full Episode
Want to hear Sebastien's full story about WestJet to Neo to Purelend, how the mortgage industry became an opportunity, and what makes Calgary's collaborative tech community special?
Listen to the full episode of What the Tech from Boast recorded live at Thin Air Labs in Calgary.
About What the Tech from Boast
What the Tech features conversations with brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives. Hosted by Paul Davenport, Boast.AI's Head of Content.
Learn More About Purelend
If you're a mortgage broker or lender looking to eliminate manual document review and spend more time on what matters—relationships and outcomes—visit purelend.ai.
Learn More About R&D Tax Credits
If you're building innovative AI solutions in fintech, automation, or any industry and want to access R&D tax credits to fuel your growth, Boast.AI can help—just like Purelend is helping brokers focus on their core expertise instead of busywork.
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