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What does it really take to build and scale a Canadian business — especially when you're competing with established brands, navigating retail distribution, and growing without a big investment behind you?

For more than a decade, Kristin Zerbin and Liam Moore have been building Hoochy ’Booch, a Vancouver-based kombucha company that started with home brewing, farmers' markets, and a strong connection to its community.

In this episode of Canada Now, Ashley Smith sits down with the husband-and-wife founders to explore what they've learned about building a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand, surviving setbacks, growing through relationships, and preparing for the next stage of business.

From the early days of bootstrapping to finding the right distribution partner, they share the practical challenges of scaling a physical product business in Canada — including navigating provincial regulations, securing production space, and balancing entrepreneurship with family life.

Plus, an October 2026 update: Seven months after the original recording, Ashley reconnects with Kristin as Hoochy ’Booch prepares to launch in Whole Foods stores in British Columbia. They explore the realities of expanding into larger grocery stores, why growth can create serious cash-flow pressure, and why Kristin is returning to the grassroots community-building that helped launch the company.

In this conversation...

• Building a Canadian business without major outside investment
• How Hoochy ’Booch grew through community and word of mouth
• Surviving COVID and finding the right retail distribution partner
• Competing through product quality rather than chasing trends
• The practical challenges of manufacturing and expanding across Canada
• Building a business with your spouse while raising a family
• Why growth requires more than increasing sales
• The hidden financial pressures of supplying major grocery retailers
• Redefining success and what comes next for the founders

About Hoochy ’Booch:

Website: https://hoochybooch.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/hoochybooch
Where to buy the kombucha: https://hoochybooch.com/pages/locations

Episode Deep Dive & Extra Resources:
https://canadanow.beehiiv.com (subscribe for an update!)

The original conversation was recorded in March 2026, with a follow-up recorded in October 2026.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 Surviving vs. Scaling a Business
00:47 Building a Canadian Business: Beyond Startup Hype
03:31 How Hoochy ’Booch Got Started
05:37 Bootstrapping a Business Together
07:28 From Local Cafés to Grocery Stores
08:30 Surviving COVID and Building Through Community
10:34 Scaling Production from the Ground Up
12:39 Craft vs. Hype: Building a Consumer Brand
14:00 The Struggle to Secure Retail Distribution
17:09 What Makes Traditionally Brewed Kombucha Different?
19:11 Community, Marketing and Customer Relationships
23:33 The Challenges of Expanding Across Canada
27:17 Running a Business as a Couple
30:33 Moving Beyond Survival Mode
35:52 Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
38:39 Permits, Red Tape and the Cost of Doing Business
43:21 Growth, Family and the Buy Canadian Movement
48:25 October Update: Seven Months Later
50:37 Whole Foods, Retail Expansion and Cash Flow
53:47 Redefining the Role of Founder

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Canada needs more housing. So why is it so difficult to get new homes built — even when the need is clear?

In this episode of Canada Now, Ashley Smith sits down with Cynthia Jagger, Executive Vice President of Capital Markets with CBRE’s National Investment Team in Vancouver. Cynthia has spent more than two decades working in commercial real estate, with particular expertise in multifamily housing and development sites. She also serves on the executive committee of the Urban Development Institute’s board and as vice chair of its Rental Housing Issues Committee.

Together, they look inside the decisions that shape housing in BC: what makes a rental project financially feasible, how changing rents and costs affect plans for future construction, and why long approval timelines change the picture. They also discuss the people who own Vancouver’s existing rental buildings, tenant protections, the movement of investment capital, and what it might take to keep building homes that work for the people who need them.

IN THIS CONVERSATION

• Why the housing we see today reflects decisions made years earlier
• How land prices, financing, development charges and operating costs affect a project
• Who owns Vancouver’s older rental buildings — and what shapes decisions to sell or redevelop
• How uncertainty influences where large-scale commercial investors put their money
• The potential role of federal funding, partnerships, and factory-built housing
• Cynthia’s hopes for housing, jobs, and family life in B.C. over the next decade

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA JAGGER

Website: https://cynthiajagger.com
National Investment Team (NIT) Vancouver: https://nitvancouver.com
Cynthia’s CBRE profile: https://cbre.ca/people/cynthia-jagger
Find Cynthia on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-jagger-0979178

LEARN MORE

Urban Development Institute: https://udi.bc.ca

⏰ EPISODE CHAPTERS

0:00 Why housing decisions take years to show results
0:13 Episode intro and meet Cynthia Jagger
2:22 What makes building more housing difficult?
3:27 Investment decisions and the changing rental market
5:58 Why lower rents are welcome—and what happens next
7:48 Development costs, incentives and project feasibility
10:03 Who owns Vancouver’s existing rental buildings?
14:08 How the real estate market has changed
18:30 The role of retail, office and industrial space in communities
21:41 Could Build Canada Homes help move projects forward?
23:28 Factory-built housing and differing building codes
24:42 Why certainty matters to housing investment
27:20 Finding common ground on getting homes built
29:00 Building homes that fit people’s needs
31:11 Cynthia’s hopes for Vancouver and B.C.

CANADA NOW 🍁

For episode deep dives, articles, resources and updates, subscribe to the Canada Now newsletter: https://canadanow.beehiiv.com

If this conversation helped you see a part of the housing system differently, share it with someone who cares about what gets built next. Subscribe to Canada Now for more grounded conversations about Canada’s future.

#CanadaNow #HousingCanada #RentalHousing

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Send a text to Canada Now! 💬

What makes a technology ecosystem stronger over time?

It isn’t one company, one funding announcement, or one breakthrough. Ecosystems compound as people gain experience, talent moves between companies, founders reinvest their capital and knowledge, and organizations take chances on the builders around them.

Dennis Pilarinos has experienced that process from almost every angle.

After studying computer science and business at Simon Fraser University, Dennis held senior roles at Microsoft and Amazon — becoming the first AWS employee in Vancouver and helping establish what would grow into a major local technology centre. He later founded Vancouver-based Buddybuild, which was acquired by Apple in 2018. Today, he is the founder and CEO of Unblocked, helping engineering teams and AI agents access the organizational context behind their code.

In this conversation, Dennis and Ashley explore how Vancouver’s technology ecosystem has evolved, why the arrival of major global companies can strengthen a local startup community, and what happens when experienced builders choose to stay, reinvest and build again.

IN THIS CONVERSATION:

• Why Canadian founders may need to think bigger
• How attitudes toward failure affect the next generation of builders
• The role of founder networks, global capital and experienced talent
• Why Canadian organizations need to take more chances on Canadian technology
• Whether Canada is moving quickly enough to adopt new tools
• How AI is lowering the barrier to creating software — without removing the harder work of building a durable business
• What Canada can do to retain more talent, experience and intellectual property

It’s a conversation about how technology ecosystems become more than the sum of their parts — and what lessons Vancouver may offer other emerging technology hubs.

Learn more about Dennis Pilarinos:
https://linkedin.com/in/dennispi

Explore Unblocked:
https://getunblocked.com

CANADA NOW
Canada Now companion article and show notes with full episode resources (coming soon): 🍁 https://canadanow.beehiiv.com

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Why AWS strengthens Vancouver’s tech ecosystem
00:25 Dennis Pilarinos and Vancouver’s technology story
02:10 From Simon Fraser University to Microsoft
04:17 Building Microsoft’s Vancouver development centre
06:28 Why Buddybuild was built in Vancouver
08:26 Canadian startups and global venture capital
09:43 Buddybuild’s Apple acquisition and local reinvestment
12:43 Canadian founders, ambition and global scale
15:01 Canadian and U.S. attitudes toward founder failure
16:51 Vancouver’s startup community and founder networks
19:31 How AWS and big tech develop local talent
22:02 Unblocked: Organizational context for AI agents
24:05 Navigating the early stages of AI adoption
26:59 AI adoption in Canada versus global technology hubs
29:33 Trust, visibility and choosing Canadian technology
32:35 How AI is changing software development
35:12 Evaluating AI tools by business outcomes
37:15 The future of Canada’s AI talent and technology ecosystem

#CanadaNow #CanadianTech #VancouverTech

Love the show? Help it grow!
→ Subscribe, Review, and Share 🍁

Follow Canada Now for bold ideas and real conversations shaping what’s next in Canada. 🇨🇦
→ All Links (including socials)
→ YouTube
→ Canada Now Newsletter (subscriber perks coming soon!)

Meet the host, Ashley Smith! 🙋‍♀️
→ Ashley's links (social, website, + more)