Toys, Bankruptcy, and Trying Again with Brad Pedersen

In this episode, Fahd sits down with Brad Pedersen, entrepreneur and founder behind Lomi, Pela, and one of Canada's largest independent toy distributors, to explore his journey from selling flying toys out of a mall kiosk to reinventing himself again and again across toys, consumer goods, and climate tech. Brad shares how getting fired from his own merged company and clawing back from bankruptcy taught him more about leadership than any success ever did, and how a naive 21-year-old with zero capital learned to outmaneuver Goliaths who were too slow, too bloated, or too afraid to compete on the ground.

From hand-selling toys at carnivals and shopping-channel gambles to reviving legacy brands like Tonka, and building Lomi, the world's first smart waste appliance, Brad discusses what it really takes for a David to survive collapse and come back stronger. He also shares insights on leadership, why keeping the wrong people off the team matters more than hiring the right ones, learning to empower instead of control, and the underdog playbook he's sharpened across four decades of building things the giants said couldn't be done.

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