From working behind the counter in his family’s retail business to overseeing finance, operations, product, and engineering at one of Canada’s most innovative fintech companies, Aly Khan Musani’s career path demonstrates how foundational business principles remain constant even as industries evolve.
As CFO and COO of Symend, Musani brings more than 20 years of leadership experience to bear on a deceptively complex problem: Helping major companies like TELUS communicate effectively with customers who’ve missed payments. On the latest What The Tech podcast, he shares insights on building behavioral science-driven solutions, navigating government funding programs, and why understanding cash flow gives you control over your destiny.
The Entrepreneurial Foundation
Musani’s introduction to entrepreneurship came early. His family moved to Alberta in the late 1980s after his father purchased a business, and young Aly found himself working customer-facing retail positions.
“It’s a very interesting perspective when you get to sit on the other side of the counter and try and solve somebody’s problem,” Musani reflects. “I think you still take that into every interaction and every experience that I have today.”
That problem-solving mindset followed him through his accounting education and into his career. After articling at an accounting firm, he took a controller position at a drilling company—one of his former clients—and spent his first 15 years in progressively senior finance roles within the oil and gas sector.
But it was his core philosophy about accounting that shaped his approach to business leadership: “Everything goes through the bank account. You ultimately can figure out what’s going on with the company through the inflows and outflows. If you have control over that, you have control over a lot of things.”
Reinventing Through Adversity
When Alberta’s oil and gas sector experienced a severe downturn in 2014-2015, Musani used it as an opportunity for reinvention. He joined an accounting firm as a partner and began taking on contract CFO roles, deliberately exposing himself to industries beyond energy services.
“I had extensive knowledge of that, but really hadn’t gone too far outside of that,” he explains. “The contract CFO thing was actually the window that got me into the full-time role ultimately.”
That contract position at Symend eventually became a full-time CFO role, which has since expanded to encompass operations, delivery, HR, corporate security, and even product and engineering—a wide-ranging mandate that reflects how modern finance leaders must understand the entire business ecosystem.
Solving Delinquency at Scale
Symend’s core challenge is both obvious and remarkably difficult: when major companies like TELUS or large banks have hundreds of thousands or millions of customers who go delinquent each month, how do you engage them effectively before accounts hit collections?
The solution isn’t about collecting debt; Symend doesn’t operate as a collection agency. Instead, they act as a white-labeled voice for their clients, reaching out to customers on the client’s behalf during that critical window between day 31 (when payment is late) and day 90 (when accounts typically go to collections).
“It’s about getting the right message to the right person at the right time, using the right channel,” Musani explains. “That’s a very tricky thing to do because each individual is their own person.”
Symend’s behavioral scientists design customer journeys that segment audiences and tailor messaging based on factors like customer tenure. After seven years and hundreds of millions of interactions, they’ve developed sophisticated insights into what works and why.
The Four Pillars of Value
When TELUS initially gave Symend a chance with 10% of their delinquent population, the results demonstrated value across four key dimensions:
- More money collected than existing methods
- Faster collection timelines
- Reduced operating expenses through self-service options that decreased inbound call volume
- Improved customer retention—customers who received “Symend treatment” stayed with TELUS an average of two years longer
That last metric proved particularly compelling. At scale, two additional years of customer lifetime value represents massive business impact that extends far beyond immediate payment recovery.
Maximizing Government Funding
For innovative companies like Symend, Canadian government funding programs provide crucial non-dilutive capital. Musani’s firm has worked exclusively with Boast since their first SR&ED filing in 2017, leveraging the partnership across multiple programs:
SR&ED Tax Credits: With large annual claims, Symend needs both completeness in capturing eligible expenses and confidence in audit defense. “How are you going to make sure you’re preparing the claim properly and that you have the completeness on that claim and you’re not leaving anything on the table?” Musani asks. “And if you get the letter that says we’d like to come in and take a peek at what is making up this number, how are you going to be able to defend that number?”
Symend has successfully navigated two CRA audits with Boast’s support, developing strategies to address potential soft spots and pressure-testing responses based on patterns from other audits.
IRAP Funding: Providing crucial support for research and development initiatives.
Government Internship Programs: Symend hosts 17 interns annually with partial salary funding, culminating in an end-of-summer showcase where interns present their projects to the entire company. “It’s been great,” Musani notes, emphasizing both the business value and the cultural impact of bringing in emerging talent.
Looking Ahead: SymendPrevent
The next evolution of Symend’s platform addresses delinquency prevention at the source. SymendPrevent is an insurance product that customers can opt into for a monthly fee, similar to device protection plans.
If a customer experiences job loss or unforeseen illness, they can make a claim that covers their bill for six months. Currently in pilot phase, the product represents significant market interest in proactive solutions rather than reactive collection strategies.
“Stay tuned,” Musani teases. “I think you’re going to see that there’s a lot of interest in it in the market, and you’re going to start to see it roll out a little bit more broadly over the coming 12 months.”
The Core Business Principle
Throughout the conversation, Musani returns to a fundamental business truth: successful companies focus on their core competencies while partnering strategically for adjacent needs.
TELUS doesn’t need to become experts in behavioral science and delinquency communication—that’s not their core business. Similarly, innovative tech companies shouldn’t try to become SR&ED tax credit experts when they could be focusing on product development.
“We’re not experts in SR&ED, and we don’t have the capacity to do it,” Musani acknowledges. “When you’re putting in a claim like that, you have to know that there’s the potential that it could be audited. What are you going to do if you get the letter?”
For Symend, partnering with specialists allows them to maximize government funding while maintaining focus on what they do best: helping major companies engage effectively with their customers during critical financial moments.
Talk to an expert from Boast AI today to learn how we help innovative companies like Symend maximize SR&ED tax credits and government funding to extend their innovation runway.
