Mandy, Loop Financial’s HR Manager explains how a growing Canadian fintech works with VanHack.
Loop Financial is a Canadian fintech company building a cross-border banking platform for businesses. Based in Toronto, the company needed engineering talent to support a product where payment infrastructure is built in-house and customer experience depends on solving technical issues quickly.
For Mandy Ho, People and Business Operations Specialist at Loop Financial, recruiting is not one responsibility among many. She is the company’s sole recruiter and HR lead, responsible for keeping hiring moving while the business continues to build.
That is why the recruiting partnership had to work as more than a sourcing channel. It had to help the team find people who could step into a startup environment, understand the work, and take ownership without heavy oversight.
“We hired five engineers through VanHack. They’re amazing. I think one of the most important traits when we are looking for talent would be their soft skills. These skills are a little bit tricky because in a fintech startup, in an early-stage startup, you have the grit, thinking like an owner, and bringing in the positive energy. And so far, those five VanHackers, that’s how you would address that.”
Building payment infrastructure in-house
When the company first began working with VanHack, the need was clear: Loop needed engineering support at scale. The company was building its payment infrastructure internally, and the team did not yet have dedicated recruiting capacity in place.
Mandy was not part of the original decision to bring on a recruiting partner, but she now manages the relationship and works closely with the team supporting Loop’s hiring process.
The choice made sense for a business that needed more than resumes. The company needed software engineers who could contribute inside a fintech environment where reliability, speed, and product judgment matter every day.
Why soft skills mattered as much as technical skills
Mandy says Loop Financial has five software engineers on the team today who were hired through VanHack. All five are engineers, but the strongest pattern she highlights is not only technical ability.
Hard skills matter, especially in a company building fintech infrastructure. But in an early-stage startup environment, Mandy says the harder trait to find is the right mix of ownership, energy, and grit.
That distinction shaped how she described the hires. The value was not simply that they could write code. It was that they arrived with the mindset to build, take initiative, and care about the outcome.
For a lean team, that matters. Every engineer has to move work forward without waiting for constant direction. Mandy describes the VanHackers as people who do not just fill a role. They step into problems and help carry the product forward.
The impact shows up in fast ownership
When asked for a specific example of impact, Mandy pointed to the practical moments that shape customer experience.
If a customer in another time zone runs into friction or a bug, the team responds quickly. In those moments, she says one of the VanHackers will often take the initiative: someone steps in, looks at the issue, and helps solve the problem almost right away.
They solve problems almost right away. They are super helpful.
That is the kind of contribution that can be easy to miss in a simple hiring metric. It is not only about the number of people added to the team. It is about how those people behave when the product needs attention, when customers need support, and when the team needs someone to own the next step.
Mandy also notes that the longest-tenured VanHacker she discussed has been with the company for four years, a signal that this has been more than a short-term hiring experiment.
A recruiting partnership built on communication
The story is not only about who joined the engineering team. It is also about how the recruiting relationship works day to day.
Mandy describes the hiring support from Percy and the VanHack team as responsible, communicative, and receptive to feedback. That matters because she does not always have time to track every candidate in detail while also handling HR and recruiting across the business.
The value comes from proactive updates. If a candidate has been delayed, if someone has not responded, or if there is context behind a status change, the team keeps her informed without requiring constant follow-up.
Just as important, Mandy says feedback is acted on quickly. When Loop shares suggestions or changes direction, the recruiting team responds and adjusts.
That is what turns a vendor relationship into a partnership.
Advice for companies working with recruiting partners
Mandy’s advice to other companies is simple: treat external recruiting partners with respect and transparency.
Hiring needs change. Requirements shift. A company might pause hiring, adjust compensation, or rethink what it needs from a role. Her view is that those updates should be shared clearly, even when the information is uncomfortable.
That openness helps the recruiting partner do better work. It also keeps the relationship healthy when conditions change.
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VanHack is my partner. I work with them to hire the best talents for the company.
For Mandy, communication is not a soft extra. It is part of the system that helps the company find the right people.
Capable, persistent, and close to the work
When asked to describe the recruiting experience in one word, Mandy chose “capable.”
The reason was not only candidate volume. It was persistence. Some roles are hard to fill. Requirements can be specific. But Mandy says the team keeps going, keeps sending relevant profiles, and does not give up on finding good people.
For Loop Financial, that persistence has helped bring owner-minded engineers into a fintech team building complex infrastructure for business customers.
Their story reflects what the best recruiting partnerships can make possible: not just filling roles, but helping companies build teams with people who take initiative, solve problems, and grow with the work.
