The Ben Mulroney Show - How almost anybody can become a venture capitalist -- The Founders Ball and cruise

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

GUEST:  Tim Ray/Canadian tech founder, angel investor, and CEO of VeriFast If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. So let's stay with the movie theme for a moment. There was a great movie that came out years and years and years ago. Launched Sandra Bullock to fame.

The bus, if it went under 80 kilometers or 60 miles an hour, whatever, it would blow up, speed. And then they wanted to capitalize on that again, and they made Speed on the water in a boat. That was not a good movie. But I bring that up because when Intrepid told me about this next interview, he's like, it's like Dragon's Den on the water. And I said, well, please, I hope it's better than Speed 2.

And based on the early conversations I've had with Tim Ray, my guest, who is the, this is his baby, his brainchild, I think it's got, it's got legs or fins, I suppose. Tim, welcome the show. Hey, Ben. Thanks for having you, man. So you are a tech founder. You're an angel investor, CEO of Very Fast, Very Fast. And you came up with this idea of the Founders Ball initiative.

And so why don't you give me the elevator pitch of your event. Listen, as a four-time founder, I've had a couple exits to myself. Luckily, in my current company, Very Fast, we've bootstrapped on a little bit of capital and scaling quickly. But I was like, you know, these early pitch competitions that I was in as an early founder have been really formative to my success later on. I was like, what if we were to have a Dragon's Den style pitch competition? And only the winner got on to like a crazy en bancion yacht party.

But the people that were out on the yacht were so, the who's who of Toronto and tech and entrepreneurs and business owners, that all the sponsors were happy to pay for the whole experience. So that way the cost of getting onto the boat, your ticket was actually your allotment to invest. in one of these startups. Right. Yeah.

Right. So getting that real like grassroots, angel capital, you know, purposeless profit, celebrating. So that's really what founder ball is. It's meant to be the Stanley Cup

of pitch competitions where we get to a million dollars. Yeah. Of angel capital, you know, 250 people, 5K each, not much if you're writing angel checks, to then really celebrate these like high index five startups.

Yeah. That we've narrowed down from over 200 applications. So you had 200 applications and you and your team went through them. You winowed it down to. to five, and we'll talk about those in just a moment, but what I like about your idea is, first of all, the fact that it's on a boat is cool, but it also has the added benefit.

People can't leave, right? And so you might as well, especially for these founders, and there's an element of, you have to be a salesman in order to sell your vision, right? But some need help on that work. They're not necessarily built for that sort of work. They've got to become that.

And this is an event where not only do they have to pitch sort of the team of Founderball, but they've got to, I'm sure, network and they've got to go from person to person in some cases to see if they can get that person's $1,000 investment or $5,000 investment. You have a leaderboard, right? Sure point. Yeah, it's, you know, we've already done the due diligence. We've already done the vetting of like their data room, they're raised money, their capital they are, who they say they are, right?

It's when we get to that boat and we give every the context of the term sheet, it's their charisma, their story, their ability to like hold an audience. Right. And these are five very different founders. We've got two ladies and three guys from deep tech to some CPG and some fintech. And they're all crushing it in their own verticals. And the thing that I love about the most with this is the investment is important that we all want to make money. Yeah.

But on 5K, even if we crush it, you know, on a 10x return, you know, 50K is not going to make anyone, like make it or break it. it's about the community in the movement around creating some fun excitement around the ecosystem. Yeah, yeah. And building a tradition, not just for startups in this country, but for investors to get excited about investing in this country. But if I may add, do you know what you said you're creating some fun around investing? It would be more fun if the people who didn't get the top amount were tossed overboard. You're on a boat.

Come on, hunger games on the boat. But the fact that all these are all here, there are. no losers. You're not going to make one of the losers there. No. So why make them walk the plank? It's like when we did, if I can bring it back to me, because it's always me, back in the day after we did Canadian Idol, they got very greedy. The producers, they're like, we're going to

do World Idol, and we're going to bring all the winners from around the world, and we're going to have a competition. And I said, why would you do that? You're bringing 30 winners together and turning 29 of them into losers. Like, why would you do that? And I watched Kelly Clarkson, the year original, she didn't win, and

she was crying in the corner. I was like, this doesn't make any sense. So the biggest stars in the world. This is insane. So that's why your idea is terrible. That's why you would walk the plank. Well, you know, that would be entertaining as well. So listen, in our last couple minutes in this segment, let's go through the founder

ball final five. So you got Blossom Social. So Blossom Social is this really cool. You know, the Gen Z these days, they love to share everything. They love to track each other. They like to watch the other live. This is a social investing platform that allows people to, like, publicly disclose their portfolio, their allocations, and see how they're actually performing versus the market. So a lot of

financial influencers are big on this platform. They have over like, I think, seven million active users and growing. They were one of the Apple's top 25 apps of 2025. They're absolutely crushing it. And they're based in Toronto. Yeah. Someone just asked a very interesting question. Are these companies that our listeners could invest in? Yeah. So basically, you know, anyone listening to this show that's ever thought of, you know, angel investing or investing in one of these, like, private companies before they go big. Yeah. You know, Ontario has now created new legislation around like self-declaration. You don't have to be an accredited investor to invest in a private startup anymore.

Yeah. So as long as you want to invest $1,000 and get on the boat, you know, the boat's free. You dress up an all-white party on a yacht. We have DJ, open bar, catered. It's like Coachella on a boat, right? Yeah. So maybe don't drink too much before you invest. Yeah, exactly.

Once you make that decision clearheaded. Okay, so there's Blossom Social. Then you've got Sell It 9. So Sell It 9 is this idea where we all have like unused electronics or old Apple iPhone, laptops, whatever. They all have a residual value. And they're creating a way where you can trade those old electronics in to get a credit. So when you go through your checkup process of a store like you would do for, you know,

Klarna, you get a credit to buy or pay for your new things with your old things. Oh, so it keeps it in the ecosystem. Yeah, exactly. Okay. We've got that. Then there's Marlowe. a women's health company. Marlowe made me laugh. Her is the first women's lubricated tampon with a patent. And her OG story was when her godinicologist told her that she should just spit

on a tampon. And it's like, you told me that your idea for this was getting told to spit lube, your tampon. And now that it created Marlowe, I'm like, this is hilarious. Yeah. I was always said like, I don't think that's ever been said on this show. For a company to be successful, they need to identify either a gap in the market or a problem in the marketplace, and they have to bring a solution to bear on that situation. And Nadia and her co-founder, they are awesome. And I think they're my dark horse to win, maybe. All right, but I got vegan nutrition. Vigain. I tell Melissa, so it's a vegan nutrition company, and they've created this new product called Surge, which is a 20 gram of protein drink, which is more of like a sparkling water, like

a, you know, whatever, versus like one of those milkshakes. Yeah. So it's a really light-tasting thing, but they patented this new, like, bubbly 20-gram thing, and they're crushing it. Yeah. And, yeah. I always thought, the next thing is protein-infused water. If someone can figure that out. And basically, they have a bunch of UFC fighters that are backing them. Oh, wow.

They're really cool. Okay. And the final of the five is Ponto Sense. So Ponto Sense is like the deep fake AI company where they've created this, the co-founders. One of them is actually OG Blackberry guy, the old, the dad and father and son combo. Okay. And they've created technology that has a 95% percent. sensor detection for when seniors fall.

Oh, okay. Versus like apparently an iPhone is like 8% accurate. Okay. And so basically they have like the, just a ton of patents in deep tech. Yeah. And a lot of VC backers. Okay.

All right. So there we go. So it's at the 2026 founder ball final five. You just heard it. It's June 11th, the board the Yankee Lady three. If people want to get involved, how can they?

If you want to come and be part of this inaugural experience, go to founder ball.org. And again, a thousand dollar minimum to get on. and that $1,000 then becomes your investment in one of these five all-star companies. Everybody wants to get in on a company at the ground floor, right?

This is their opportunity. All right, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to continue our conversations. We're going to zoom out and we're going to take a broader look at investment in Canada, startup culture in Canada,

and how we can compete globally. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Milority show. To some, AI chatbots are helpful tools. To others, an existential threat. But what happens when someone falls in love with one. I can't believe I'm doing this with somebody that's not a human.

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like silence in the movie theaters. But more importantly than that is entrepreneurs, people who bet on themselves, people with no safety net, and the entrepreneurs that I know couldn't be anything else. The serial entrepreneur, when they fail, they've just found

that one way that doesn't work for them to succeed and they try again. And we need to be fostering that in this country. We need to be celebrating that in this country. We need to be helping those who want to build that which does not yet exist. and one of those people is Tim Ray. He's been joining me today.

Thanks so much for being here, Tim. Thanks, buddy. Okay, so tell me how you got your start in either. Do you start as an investor or in tech? Like, you were an entrepreneur first. Yeah, I actually had my very first start idea, sitting in my class at Queens doing my MBA. Last month of the program,

someone was pitching me to this idea of like group buying the old group on model and literally Eureka moment sitting in class. I thought of this idea called Foodstruits.com. We were on Dragonsden in like season six. I had a real like when Kevin O'Leary was back, the show. It was a very memorable tete-tete-tete. I got replayed a bunch and I ended up exiting it to Torstar digital Torstar 10 months later for like $2.1 million. And you were hooked. Yeah, horseshoe up my butt just got super lucky. Thought I was like that guy. No, but you know, I, listen, there is an

element of luck, but what do they say about luck? Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Right. Right. And so, yeah, but you have to put yourself in a position to take advantage of that lucky moment. 100%. And so since then, has it been, I mean, is this idea of investing in the next generation, does that come from a sense of obligation or does it come from a sense of you want to, you want to help Canadians do what they need to do? Where does it come from?

Yeah, I think, you know, we've all been front row seats to Donald Trump, US Canada, a lot of like brain drain. You know, and for me, I talked to a lot of my founder friends and there's this like gravitation to move to Florida, go somewhere else. And, you know, bro, I'm, I'm hardcore elbows up. And I'm tired of, you know, Canada feeling like we don't have a lot to brag about. Yeah. And I want us to stop being so polite and, like, just like create some, like, groundswell.

Yeah. And get some swagger, right? And so for me, it's like, you know, I wanted us to swing big. I want us to like, start, like, you know, taking numbers. Yeah. And so for me, the founder ball and doing this thing is like part of my give back. Yeah. Like, I have a very fast growing company with like 70 employees crushing it.

I have four kids. I don't have a lot of time to do this kind of shit But I'm doing it anyway So therefore if I'm doing this Nobody else has any excuses to like put their time in right And I hear that and I love that Like I'm working with a startup out of Ottawa called Trexity And it's doing

Really great things And my founder It's from Ottawa born and Breton wants to keep the company here And that's great But he gets pressure He gets interest to move the company To places where let's be honest, the entrepreneurial spirit is recognized in a way with lower taxes,

an easier investment environment. What do you say to that? 100%. If you were to look at the investment environment in the U.S. with a QSPS exemption, you get a $10 million capital gains exemption, man, do I wish we had that? Yeah. Of course. Do I hate what we were trying to do like a year and a half ago with, you know,

increasing the taxes for the ones that take a risk? Yeah. You know, if we really want to, like, increase productivity, we really want to, to like index for like A players that come to Canada. Let's create the tax environment for people that take risk to root the rewards, right? Yeah. Listen, small and medium sized businesses are the job creators, right? And like I said, they don't have a safety net.

They don't have a plan B. They don't have a retirement plan. They just have their belief in themselves. That is what makes Western culture special. That's one of the things that makes why people want to move here so attractive, right? And so we have to make that possibility as probable as possible. And I think it starts with the tax environment. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, the government can't help people start businesses, increase productivity and crush it. But what they can do is create the framework that allows for more friendly risk-taking. For entrepreneurs that want to stay here, keep through capital here, attract capital to Canada, right? And I think that starts with the current government and what we can do to make the A players come back, right? Yeah, and there's always this fear. They say, well, if you lower the taxes,

well, then, you know, there's going to be less tax revenue and we won't be able to pay for everything. To which I say, well, good, we're paying for too much anyway. That would force the government to look and make some tough, it shouldn't be tough choices. There's some stuff that's just fat. But it's also very short-sighted, don't you think? Because if you lower the taxes for certain things,

you're going to attract that investment, which is going to lead to job growth and the creation of these big companies that are then going to in turn pay more taxes. I mean, to your point, it's about getting the capital here and creating the first amount of risk capital that you discount, right?

Like if you were to compare to the US's QSBS exemption, which is a $10 million capital tax gains exemption, you know, if you allow people who take the risk get a bigger tax exemption when they're doing an actual innovative startup, that would be huge. You still get all those employees that they're paying a lot of money to to pay income tax. Yeah, right? But the person who's actually putting it all in line, allow them to like get a little extra juice on the first 10, 20 million of like, of action, right?

And again, that's the type of person you want to foster that risk profile in, right? You want them then take that money that they make and invest it in another. their company, right? Right. And that's, you know, in that recycling, that's the flybill that, like, when founders have exits and they recycle it within the ecosystem. Yeah. Right. And you want to make us as a friendly entrepreneurial productivity, especially with like a 10 pound, you know, 100 pound gorilla to the southwest, right? Yeah. So in a nutshell, if, let's say there's someone listening and they say, you know what, I want to get in on this sort of thing. What's a, what's a one, two, three in terms of your experience, telling people with less experience. Here are the things you should be looking

for when somebody comes to you and says, I got a great idea for a company. I mean, it's all about momentum and taking action, right? If you have an idea and you want to do something about it, you know, you think of the name, buy a domain name, actually incorporate it and make it real. As soon as it's funny, when you actually get something with a name and a URL and even a splash page, all of a sudden it becomes real, right?

Even me creating a founder ball from scratch from an idea. Once you get that website and the brand and the idea, and then you start balancing it off of other people and tell as many people about your idea as possible because you know what happens? Nobody wants to be the person that says, coulda, shoulda, woulda. Yeah.

So you start telling everybody what you. your ideas are. And all of a sudden, you're going to, like, guilt yourself and actually doing it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's about getting over that fear of failure in the beginning to be the guy that rather, you know, rather fail than have, than rather have regrets. You know what I mean? I think there's a certain type of person that wants to say they got in on something that nobody else could. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So, I mean, if you're coming in and it's like, if you can really understand that problem, that, that problem that somebody else is doing and you want to maybe invest in back what they're doing. If it gives you an inkling of a eureka moment, like, oh, oh, geez, right?

Even with the Verifast, I was not the OG entrepreneur. I was actually the lead investor and a priesthood around. I put the first 100K in with the ugly MVP and no revenue. But I was like, man, I was like, this is like this idea of using open banking and AI for verifying ID and stuff like that. It's like, it's so obvious. It's so genius. So I was, I was fallen and a year later was our full-time CEO. That's amazing. Well, that was the same with my, with my friend's company, Trexity. I was just, I was an advisor to the company. And after a few years, I came on board as the 24th employee. Wow.

Yeah. And, uh, and there, listen. I, I opened some doors and my CEO just walks and he closes it behind him. Like he gets the deal to closed. The other thing is the thing with too is like, you know, there's nothing wrong with failure. If you're batting a thousand, you're not swinging hard enough. Yeah.

And, you know, I got lucky with, you know, my first angel investment was with Nix, uh, the woman's under startup. Yeah. She's amazing. Uh, my first few startups I had like, you know, a small seven figure exits with. Uh, my third one was a dumpster fire. It was a private aviation tech company. I lost $4 million personally over four years.

And that was the one that was the hubris of like, you shall not win at everything. Yeah, well, I say it all the time. And it's true when people say you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. If you lose in game seven of the NBA playoffs, you're going to wake up the next day and it's going to haunt you until the opening tip off the next season. The guys who won that game, they're going to go celebrate. They're not going to be as introspective, right?

And so failure is a hell of a teacher. It's a hell of a teacher. And I've had, I think, my fair share over the past few years. And now I'm very happy with where I am. Tim, I want to thank you so much. Founderball initiative. Give us a website again. Founderball.org.

Love to see you guys there. All right. And the trophy. Oh, look at this. Look at the trophy. It is the Stanley Cup of pitch competitions. If you win, you get to drink out of it. You get to hoist it.

And I think you get to keep it for a year, which I think is the traditional thing. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust.

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