ANCHORS AWEIGH: High seas pitch competition taking to Lake Ontario
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — Raising cash to incubate Canadian tech startups is rarely smooth sailing, but a new high-seas, million-dollar pitch competition on Lake Ontario is aiming to keep Canada’s sinking venture capital market afloat.
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On June 11, 250 local founders, executives and angel investors are set to attend the first-ever Founder Ball — an event taking place aboard a Toronto-based yacht that promises to combine a live competition for $1 million in capital investment with a high-class en Blanc gala set against the Toronto skyline.
“Nothing’s ever been done like this before,” said event organizer Tim Ray, serial entrepreneur and CEO of VeriFast.
Founder Ball is billed as a live angel-allocation pitch battle where attendees can allocate their $1,000 admission fee as an investment toward one of the five startups chosen to compete for up to $1 million in startup capital.
Canadian startups often seek funding south of the border
The five startups, chosen from a group of 20 semi-finalists, are Blossom — a social network platform built for investors, tech re-commerce platform SELLIT9, women’s health startup Marlow, plant-based nutrition and supplement producer Vegain, and AI-based wellness monitoring system Pontosense.
Ray said his intention is to breathe new life into Canada’s VC space, taking it out of a stuffy boardroom and into a fun, interactive environment.
“Canadians are really conservative …. we don’t swing big,” Ray told the Toronto Sun, noting a lack of early-stage venture capital in Canada routinely drives many Canadian entrepreneurs south of the border for funding.
“We need to start a conversation, create a real movement, and get creative around how we raise capital.”
As founders spend the evening rubbing shoulders with event sponsors and investors, the event will feature a live leaderboard showing how much investment each finalist is attracting, with the winning entrepreneur crowned at midnight.
At the end of the evening, the winner — along with their newly procured funding — will hoist the Founder Ball Cup, a 25-pound trophy styled after the Stanley Cup.
“We’re trying to have as much fun as we are raising capital and creating some noise for the tech ecosystem,” Ray said.
“This is like the Stanley Cup of pitch competitions.”
For more information on the evening, visit founderball.org .