#NotableWomen in Tech: Eva Wong, Co-Founder and COO of Borrowell

Borrowell is a #fintech company that offers personal loans online and gives Canadians credit scores for free, without hurting your credit score. 

If you are a Canadian and have ever had to access your credit score to apply for credit — to apply for a loan, a credit card or for a mortgage, for example — you know that you’re only “allowed” to check access your score once per year. Each subsequent check hurts your credit score, which feels like a form of financial torture.

How are Canadians supposed to leverage their credit when taking steps to know our scores hurts our scores? Well, that’s where Borrowell and Eva Wong come into this story.

Wong felt that financial services for Canadians were not where they should be, especially when it came to accessing credit. Wong and her team at Borrowell are all about making financial services for Canadians fast, fair and friendly. 

We sat down with Eva at District28 in Toronto to talk about what it’s like to be a woman in tech, what it takes to be a leader, and what the future looks like for Borrwell.

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What does it feel like to be a woman in leadership? 

Being a woman in leadership is exciting but it can be scary at times. One of the things that I’m really grateful for is my community of great woman in leadership — it makes it more fun.

What does it feel like to be a women in leadership in tech? 

Honestly, being a woman in tech feels pretty lonely. Tech is still pretty male dominated, there just aren’t as many women in technology.  That being said, it’s a super welcoming community and I would encourage more women to get involved.

How did you learn how to be a woman in leadership?

I learned how to be a woman in leadership from watching other woman. Seeing women lead, hearing them speak and observing their behaviour in meetings was how I absorbed leadership skills — and I learned those things from men too. It’s entirely possible to learn from all genders but, what made my career goals feel most achievable was seeing other women lead.  

When you were younger, would you have been able to predict that you would be a leading Canadian woman eva 3in technology? 

I could have never predicted that I would have been a woman in tech, not even as recently as three years ago. This is my shout-out to other women as well — the field of technology may not be what you think it is. Technology is super exciting, there has been so much learning and as I’ve talked about it before there has been a great sense of community. So I really want to encourage other woman to think about what it would be like to be an entrepreneur to be in technology.

Do you know any organizations that are doing good work to encourage woman in tech? 

One in particular that comes to mind is AceTech and there is a woman named Jodi Kovitz, the CEO. AceTech holds incredible events for technology executives and one of her first campaigns for membership attracted 600 women. It’s super exciting to see that women have a health appetite for technology and leadership at an executive level.

What is your training ritual for maintaining energy and productivity at Borrowell?

Physical activity is super important for the success of Borrowell — I need to be in shape and healthy for the business to be healthy. I try to cycle to work as much as I can because I like to be an athlete in my everyday routine, when it isn’t something I have to schedule.