The CEO betting on the long game
That instinct to watch and learn led Little somewhere unexpected. One of those clients he admired, Alex Conconi, was starting a new venture to be called Neighbourhood Holdings. In 2015, Little made the leap to join him at his family office.
“If it doesn’t work out, I can go back to practising law,” Little told himself at the time. “But I’d love to see what’s on the other side here.”
That was 11 years ago, and Little never went back. He became CEO at Neighbourhood in 2018, and alongside the young company, his leadership has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Spotlight
Neighbourhood Holdings offers alternative mortgage solutions to Canadian homeowners nationwide. On October 17, 2025, we acquired Fisgard Asset Management. Together as one team, we’re becoming one of Canada’s largest alternative lenders – bridging the gap between prime and private lending, maximizing industry potential, and empowering people to achieve their financial goals.
Company Profile
50%
Proportion of women in leadership
$2B
Funded mortgage volume reached in 2025, alongside acquisition of Fisgard Asset ManagemenT
2023–2026
annual Appearance on Great Place to Work® list
#5
Best Workplaces in Canada (under 100 employees) rating
~$800M
AUM (combined with Fisgard, post-acquisition in 2025)
Bio
Spotlight
Milestones
Company Profile
FAMILY
Father of two
FUNDRAISING
Rode the length of Vancouver Island (500km) in a day to raise money for mental health
rACING
Won provincial championships as a Junior, Elite, and Masters bike racer; Third place, Whistler Fondo Forte, 2025
Taylor Little
CEO at Neighbourhood Holdings
From junior lawyer to CEO, Taylor Little has grown Neighbourhood into an $800M alternative lender. His approach is refreshingly plain – hire the best, get out of their way, and build something that doesn’t need him
Read on
“I don’t care how you do it, but here’s what we need to get done. We set the rules, provide a safety net, and then let the players on the field do what’s best in the moment instead of telling them exactly how to move”
Taylor Little, Neighbourhood
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2012
2015
2018
2021
2023
2025
Called to the bar in British Columbia and began practising as a lawyer at Stikeman Elliott LLP
2012
Co-founded Neighbourhood Holdings
2015
Assumed leadership as CEO of Neighbourhood
2018
Neighbourhood surpassed $1B in funded mortgage volume
2021
Co-founded CSL Sports Ltd. to acquire La Bicicletta (now bici) out of bankruptcy
2023
Co-led Neighbourhood’s acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management, bringing combined AUM to ~$800 million – capping a year that also saw Neighbourhood cross $2B in funded mortgage volume
2025
Milestones
Published July 27, 2026
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“We used to say we’re a business of a thousand separate improvements, and we’d done the first 100; now we’ve upgraded to the first 200. There’s still plenty of road ahead to hit the rest”
Taylor Little, Neighbourhood
Once you’ve faced down a grizzly bear on a backcountry bike-packing expedition in the mountains of BC, sending a difficult email is a lot less daunting. This may be an extreme – if 100 percent true – example, but it’s emblematic of the way Taylor Little approaches his career: with a healthy dose of perspective.
Much like his bike expeditions, Little, now CEO of Neighbourhood Holdings, didn’t start out with the exact end coordinates for business endeavours. He brings a simple philosophy to both personal and professional facets of his life: get the basics right – work hard, be useful, stay curious – and trust that the rest will follow.
“I always felt like I could be a leader of something, a decision-maker somewhere,” Little says. “I started as a lawyer and worked with many different clients. I wanted to do what those business people did. They’re the ones making the calls, so I started paying attention to the ones doing it well.”
The art of sitting still One thing Little observed over the years was how many leaders feel they need to know everything and should always be busy. As he matured, he realized that the right move is often to sit still. Leadership is about scale; it requires attention to the big picture. If you’re focused on every detail and constantly spinning up new projects, there’s no room for that high-level contemplation.
Little leans hard into delegation, pulling from his own experience. Which bosses did he enjoy working with, which did he not gel with, and why? The ones who were prescriptive didn’t get his best. The ones who trusted him to deliver results without micromanaging the process encouraged higher-quality work.
Second, there’s an overarching outcomes-focused culture. People can work from home, start early, or come in later in the day. Accountability still reigns, however, as “we’d know pretty quickly if somebody's not actually doing the work,” Little laughs.
Third, the basics are done well. Neighbourhood offers competitive pay, a strong vacation policy, and RRSP matching. The company also foregoes after-hours socializing or extracurriculars, reasoning that as much as one might like their colleagues, after a hard day’s work, they’re probably ready for their home life.
That said, Little is quick to add that no frills don’t mean no perks: Friday lunches and travel opportunities are part of the package.
Another standout statistic is that 50 percent of Neighbourhood’s
Consequently, “I’m a results-oriented leader,” Little says. The team at Neighbourhood enjoys a high degree of autonomy, supported by the strong processes and guardrails befitting a financial institution, and Little operates from a coaching mindset.
“I don’t care how you do it, but here’s what we need to get done. We set the rules, provide a safety net, and then let the players on the field do what’s best in the moment instead of telling them exactly how to move.”
The best people, period That trust – define the parameters, then get out of the way – runs through the culture at Neighbourhood and has landed the company on the Great Place to Work list every year since 2023. Little credits that recognition to three things.
First, people: every applicant goes through psychometric testing, a standardized assessment designed to neutralize bias and match competencies to roles regardless of seniority.
leadership team are women, and not by quota or mandate. The overall workforce is diverse, an outcome Little ties back to the hiring process itself. Remove the bias from the front end, and the rest follows naturally.
“We hire the best people, and we promote the best people, period,” Little says.
The benefits of that approach show up on the balance sheet as well. Since Little became CEO, the company has grown into one of Canada’s largest alternative lenders, with $800 million in assets under management (AUM). Much of that impressive trajectory traces back to a single strategic move: the October 2025 acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management.
A deal built on substance and synergy When Neighbourhood started seriously evaluating the Fisgard deal, the team wasn’t looking for lightning in a bottle – though arguably that’s what they found. Synergy, Little believes, is a meaningless word unless you substantiate it with something, and that’s what they did. The team created a simple grid mapping out the concrete reasons for pursuing the acquisition and where the businesses had complementary strengths.
First was the credit box. Acquiring Fisgard gave Neighbourhood two balance sheets and, with them, broader appeal to the broker market. So far, Little says, the wider credit box has worked well.
Second was a new funding channel. Before the acquisition, Neighbourhood raised almost all its capital through institutional and advisor channels; Fisgard, by contrast, worked with retail clients. That was a totally different business model, a new group of people to talk to, and a natural complement to how Neighbourhood operated.
Third was the brand itself. Fisgard was a three-decade-old, respected name – so well regarded that Neighbourhood had once held it up internally as inspiration for what it wanted to become. Acquiring it brought a roster of established broker relationships: those who had always submitted to Fisgard would now submit to Neighbourhood.
“We want to cross $1 billion in AUM within the next year or two, and we will,” Little states unequivocally. “We’ve got a really good line of sight on [that goal].”
Laying the foundation for something that outlasts him Canada currently sits at a genuine crossroads. Little’s read is that we’re in a market four-and-a-half years into a correction with no quick way out, “more likely to tread the bottom for years than to swing sharply either way, for housing or the broader economy.” Underneath that, a generational turnover is hitting both the housing stock and the industry – new leaders, fresh consolidations, hungry challengers, and technology rewriting the rules. There are a lot of waves coming at once, but, true to form, none of it rattles him.
“We’re excited for it, we’re ready for it,” he says, and he’s reinvesting to match, betting Neighbourhood lands on the right side when the dust settles.
That confidence comes from experience and the belief that every speed bump or roadblock makes you stronger. Little still counts himself as being early in the journey, but each year leaves him steadier in the seat.
Neighbourhood marked 10 years in business last November, but Little’s looking to what’s yet to come. He continues to put in the work to secure the lender’s legacy.
“I’ve done my job well when it’s no longer needed,” he says. “We used to say we’re a business of a thousand separate improvements, and we’d done the first 100; now we’ve upgraded to the first 200. There’s still plenty of road ahead to hit the rest.”
2012
2015
2018
2024
2023
2025
Called to the bar in British Columbia and began practising as a lawyer at Stikeman Elliott LLP
2012
Co-founded Neighbourhood Holdings
2015
Assumed leadership as CEO of Neighbourhood
2018
Co-founded CSL Sports Ltd. to acquire La Bicicletta (now bici) out of bankruptcy. It is now profitable and two locations have been added
2023
Obtained the ICD.D designation at the Rotman School of Business in Toronto.
2024
Co-led Neighbourhood’s acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management, bringing combined AUM to ~$800 million – capping a year that also saw Neighbourhood cross $2B in funded mortgage volume
2025
Milestones