From Idea to Exit: A Founder’s Journey to Success

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Now let’s get into today’s episode.

Welcome to the Business Gay Podcast where we talk about all things business, marketing and entrepreneurship. I’m your host Calan Breckon and on today’s episode I have serial entrepreneur Sean Ramsay. Sean is responsible for pioneering and innovating immersive technology development in VR, AR XR and 360 degree image and video deployments for Google Street View and YouTube 360. Through his patented camera and software innovation of the BublCam and Bubl technology, Sean successfully exited to Samsung and private equity. So if you’ve ever used Google Street View, you have Sean and his technology to thank. He currently looks to aid in the discovery and financing of new ventures through LvlUp Ventures and is also an active volunteer for PFLAG Halton in Ontario, Canada. This recording was done in front of a live audience at the QueerTech Conference held in Toronto on November 7, 2024. So with that, I hope you enjoy the conversation I had with Sean.

[00:01:45] Calan Breckon: I want you to help us paint the picture from literal first idea about BublCam all the way to the final exit. How many years was that full journey?

[00:01:57] Sean Ramsay: I guess the idea started probably around 2009, 2008, 2009.

We were trying to work with we were working with Toyota to launch their new car like they were launching other they wanted to launch this vehicle and they wanted to take the car and put it in the middle of the screen and be able to look at it from every possible angle. And the idea of creating a 360 view or full spherical view of an object wasn’t really a thing. So we were like okay, maybe we can work towards trying to create this new object to get this new feature. And we really just were inundated. I was totally inundated with this idea of being able to create a 3D model and look at it from every possible angle. And after that, everything blew up. So between 2000, almost like 2007 till 2016 when we sold the company.

[00:02:52] Calan Breckon: Okay, so that’s like roughly like a 10 year period between like, oh, hey, I have this idea to like, okay, here’s the money. And I wanted to bring that up because the entrepreneurs in the room, the entrepreneurs here today, the ones who are going to be watching the recording, need to have an idea of how long things truly, truly take as an entrepreneur to start up. Because we always have these ideas that, oh my God, I’m gonna make it big, it’s gonna be amazing. And it takes a long time and a lot of sweat to get there. So let’s go back to that beginning. What did those early days look like for you?

[00:03:28] Sean Ramsay: Well, I was already running a design development studio because I worked at advertising agencies and I would only. I’d be constantly hiring my friends to do tech work and giving them these crazy budgets. I’m like, why am I giving them to these people? Like my friends, I’ll go start my own. And like, I already have the agency. So I was running a studio with my friends, we were doing this project, and then all of a sudden we were like, okay, we can do more than just this project. We can do. We can actually create something for ourselves. And most agencies, you know, they don’t work that way. They like, they’re creating things for other people. And every so often someone branches out and decides they’re going to do something for themselves. And that’s how, if you have the entrepreneurial spirit, that’s what usually comes out of it. You kind of discover yourself, you have an idea, you have an urge, and you have to make it a reality. And it’s not easy though, of course, because like, even then we were making money. We’re doing these things, we want to start our own idea, but at the same time, nobody wants to help you unless you actually have something ready going, ready to show. Nobody wants to get involved. It’s always get on, get on board, ride the train up, but it’s never put in, put the keys in to start the train. No one’s going to help you do that.

[00:04:42] Calan Breckon: Yeah. So how long did it take to actually develop that first prototype and what did that area of your life look like? Because we always hear about the entrepreneurial struggles. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into like that time frame because that’s where I think a lot of people here specifically will also be in that time. Frame of like, okay, the struggle, but hopefully it pays off. So how long did it take to get from that idea to building that first prototype and be like, this is gonna be a business?

[00:05:11] Sean Ramsay: Well, in like the first few years, like, I try to do it on my own. Me and my friend, like me and my partners were trying to figure it out. I didn’t know anything about patents, I didn’t know anything about legal. Like, I didn’t realize all of the things that are gonna be required. If you want to build a game changing product, you better watch out for all the people who are gonna try and take this product, take this idea, or actually look at it and say, oh, well, I have the legal team, I have the professional team. I might even build the product. I might just build the idea, protect it, and then come after you.

[00:05:39] Calan Breckon: Right?

[00:05:39] Sean Ramsay: The trolls are out there no matter what you’re gonna do. I didn’t know anything about that. I had to learn it all. That took like two or three years just to like work through the idea, work to find out, does anybody do this already? And well, you know, trying to figure out what’s gonna happen. I mean, things have changed since like, you know, 2007, 6, 2010. But I mean, at the same time, people need to figure out whether or not their idea is actually novel or if it’s just, you know, something that’s a pastime. Because you can have a pastime idea and still make a lot of money. It’s just you got to make sure you’re willing to commit because nobody wants to help, nobody gets involved. And then I think I probably started talking to, I don’t know, like 60 different venture capitalists, angel investors with the idea and nobody came to the table because we were just, I just had like designs done, I had basic racist prototypes done, but they weren’t functional until I sat down for coffee with one of a friend of mine who also had a design studio. And at coffee we’re just, we’re just like, we’re talking about new babies. We just had kids and it was just like, okay, this is really hard. But you know, we have all these ideas. It’s like, you know what, let’s, let’s build this stuff together. And I got my first $150,000 check from like a coffee. Talk about having new kids.

[00:06:55] Calan Breckon: It just goes to show, you never know where that first check is going to come from. I want to follow that thread a little bit. You brought up legal and I know that you took time to actually learn about a lot of this because it’s something that’s not necessarily talked about a lot, but ideas do get stolen. People will take something that you’ve pitched them and run with it if they have the case capabilities. So how much education did you do around that and also protecting your IP in that process?

[00:07:23] Sean Ramsay: Well, thank goodness I was like, I’m technically back. I like my technology background because I had to learn about patents real quick and I had to learn about engineering, mechanical engineering, really quick because I’m building a camera that I’ve never built before. Who am I to build a camera? But when you look into it, it took a look a couple years for me to figure out exactly, exactly how it took like what the process was and then finding out what the engineering requirements were and then the documentation to actually write down and figure out how I’d protect myself and protect this technology. Like I have about seven patents now. Four of them were related to that first product. And it just took forever. It took a while, but you have to do the work.

[00:08:03] Calan Breckon: Yeah.

How important are patents?

[00:08:07] Sean Ramsay: It depends because like nowadays you can do things really quick, get them out, make your money. And then it was patent rule comes for you, you just bank, you just bank it and leave. I mean like there’s a lot of technology that’s done that way. Although some of the larger technology backs right now that are happen. Like if you’re talking about building something in AI in the next two to five years, you’re going to see the amount of patent technology coming out around that because it’s still, still takes time. And one of the things that OpenAI was really good at was writing patents early they came out, they started working on technology for about like four or five years. I mean, I think figma is actually probably a great example of that too. They worked on their technology for about three years in stealth. Nobody knew what was doing. All they were doing was building the tech, writing patents. They just wrote patents around what they were trying to do and then three years later when they came out, no one could touch them. I mean those are the type of things, things that help you build into a company that is VC ready. I mean a lot of the times you have some type of protection. You go for VC money, they don’t want to talk to you, you say, well we protected this. Oh, the doors start to open.

[00:09:10] Calan Breckon: Yeah, I know that. You know, multiple questions we’ve had about the bow is have you done your trademarking? Have you done that? Because protecting that intellectual property and how you look in the world is definitely very Important for entrepreneurs.

Were there any early on strategic choices that you made that you think really helped move the needle in a positive way for you? Early on I think the biggest thing.

[00:09:36] Sean Ramsay: That changed us was we had a physical product so we were able to take advantage of like crowdfunding and we decided we’re going to do the crowdfunding thing. I think it was like 2013 we launched Kickstarter. We were Canada’s fastest raised Kickstarter at the time. We raised $100,000 in like 12 hours. And after that we raised about like, I think we closed it down to about 350,000 and it was just like that changed everything for us. But it doesn’t always work depending on the nature of your product. Like we had a physical product that we can actually provide all these tools and guidelines and perks around. So that really helped. And then partnerships really helped. And advertising like Kickstarter at the time in 2013 it was a thing we were able to take advantage of that really early.

[00:10:20] Calan Breckon: Do you think that physical products in some ways can be easier to pitch or sell? Because there’s a tangibility to it that maybe digital or etheric products don’t necessarily have and it’s harder to get investment in those ideas versus I kind of have this physical product that you can play with.

[00:10:41] Sean Ramsay: It can be, it depends because like your phys, a physical product is something that people can connect with easily and people connect with physical things all the time. So it’s so much easier to get your message out to have people use it and play with it. I mean it definitely makes a difference. But the nature of your software or your like digital platform, that also makes a difference because like what we’re doing with the bow, it’s really hard to get VC dollars primarily because a lot of VCs don’t see a television screen as a product that they can distribute new technology to. However, like you design a fintech and you know all of a sudden all these, all these doors open for you. So it all comes down to what’s trending, what VCs can connect themselves to and people can connect themselves to products so much easier than anything else.

[00:11:31] Calan Breckon: Yeah, definitely there is a what’s sexy at the moment. And you mentioned AI and it’s like, oh here’s the money. But if you’re not focused on that, it definitely is a different landscape currently right now.

[00:11:42] Sean Ramsay: But those doors are changing actually like I work for a vc, I work with level up ventures and those doors have been like for the past maybe like six to eight months. It’s like everyone’s trying to figure out that, you know, AI in your product doesn’t always make sense. And if you can’t figure, figure out how AI is going to improve the quality or service you’re going to have with your customers, then why are you even talking about it? I mean, it’s changing on this. That landscape’s changing.

[00:12:12] Calan Breckon: I have definitely heard conversations around, is the investment worth it? Like, right now, people are kind of having that conversation of like, oh, well, there’s all these billions of dollars over here. Are we really seeing that potential coming back in return, or is this just a really good textbook predictor, which it is right now, but we don’t know where it’s going in the future, and that’s what people are betting on. I talked about strategic choices that really helped move the needle. Was there anything that early on you made the choice strategically and actually was detrimental or, like, a warning that you could.

[00:12:44] Sean Ramsay: Partnerships. Oh, God. I wish I realized how crazy things get with partners earlier than I did, because I was used to, like, building businesses, building products and building teams, and, like, so, like, that stuff was easy. But building my investment team and then building my board, I had very little experience in that. And I wish I had more experience with that before because someone explained it to me once and I’ll never forget it. It’s one of the advisors from Inkwell, he said, become the bow tie CEO. So it’s like you have your team and your company coming to you, and you’re the centerpiece. Right. So you have to build your team, and it all funnels down to you, but you also have your board and your public team, and that all funnels down to you, too. And if you can’t control everything, your tie just kind of goes all crazy and everything. You want a perfect bow tie, you better be able to control both sides of the organization.

[00:13:42] Calan Breckon: Yeah. This is why we’re glad we have Sean with us.

What moment did you experience on your journey? That really was kind of that significant game changer that completely changed the trajectory of where you were going with Bubble when you were putting it all together.

[00:14:02] Sean Ramsay: So after we did the Kickstarter and we signed on maybe like 15 different investors, we went to California. We’re in San Francisco. One of my COO was doing a pitch, and I’m sitting in the crowd, and next thing you know, this guy from Samsung Ventures comes up and he’s just like, I really like what you’re doing. And it’s like, okay. And I realized at that time that getting out to events, being out and about makes all the difference. It can make all the difference. And so we sat down, we talked. Samsung became one of our largest investors. They put a million and a half into the company and then we ended up exiting to them anyway, like, and then they built a whole other camera around it.

[00:14:45] Calan Breckon: There has been a lot of talk about investment and investors here and there’s been a number of panels. What’s your experience with what I like to call dating your investor? From that first introduction, whether it be warm or cold, what’s your experience in that world?

[00:15:03] Sean Ramsay: So now nowadays it’s a lot different than it was like 10 years ago. Like 10 years ago you had an idea. Sometimes like I remember sitting with some guys who were like, I think it was like overhearing a conversation. Some guys were like talking about SpaceX and they’re like, okay, we have to do this whole investment thing. And these guys were just at like another table and listen to it and, and they were like, oh, we heard you guys talking about that. Is that a real thing? And they’re like, it’s kind of a real thing, but we might make it a real thing. Oh, I’ll give you some money. You know, like those type of things actually happen. I’ve seen it. Nowadays it’s like it really comes down to there’s a personal relationship that you have to have, like the investment team or the venture firm or the angel hears about what you’re doing, they have the conversation, they watch it for a little while and you date. And it’s so much more like this personal relationship that you have with your investment group that it didn’t always have to be. I mean people used to write checks crazily before. That doesn’t happen.

[00:16:02] Calan Breckon: Yeah, the landscape is definitely different, especially in, in the environment we’re in right now.

Let’s move to the end of that journey. You’ve developed Bubblecam, it’s going Great. It’s this 10 year process. How does the end of that journey look for you? Because I know you mentioned like partnerships and all these different navigating pieces. So speak to that.

[00:16:23] Sean Ramsay: So the bubble story, kind of the bubble burst and that happens with a lot of companies. And it’s funny because it’s like we had an investor come in from China and it turns out that they were like Chinese political party and they wanted to take the tech to China, which was happening a lot at the time. So they took the ip, they bank, try to bankrupt the company, try to keep us from getting Any money. And I was like, okay, you know what? I want no part of this. I’m great. You know, I sold out my shares. I sold, we sold the company, like part of the company to the Chinese group, we sold the part of the company to Samsung and we were just like, everyone just parted ways. So, you know, it was, it was crazy time. And as soon as we did, it’s like all these people came out and said, hey, that happened to me or hey, that happens all the time. Time. And none of these people show up before it happens. So it’s like there is, there is this incredible pocket of failure that happens and there’s so many people who find success from failure that you have to try and find those people early because like, if you can connect with the people who know both sides of the story, yes, resounding success and market crash. But you know what? At the same time, everybody can come out unscathed and everyone can benefit from in the future. But you have to understand the market, you have to understand how these things work and you have to pick your partners correctly because you know, some people are really, really ambitious and you know that ambition can turn into greed really quickly.

[00:17:56] Calan Breckon: Yeah, that’s why it’s really important to have mentors and advisors.

They were on stage yesterday, Bobby Reset and that panel. They were talking about how important it is to, to surround yourself with really great advisors, really great mentors who can help navigate these spaces for you, especially if you’re in those early stages.

I want to kind of wrap things up with how did that technology then find its way to Google Street View and kind of like the, what people recognize of it.

[00:18:24] Sean Ramsay: So when we actually built out the camera technology, that was one thing, but it was the software, it was being able to provide a spherical view of a product or a video or a photo and being able to distribute that across multiple digital platforms. When we put our Street View platform, like our 360 video and 360 imagery technology on Twitter and we were allowing people to embed it across their Twitter feeds, blew everything up. I mean, all of a sudden we’re getting all these calls from people who have said, we’re like, oh, we have our own HTML based embedding software. It’s like, yeah, well, ours works specifically with, you know, our camera and ours works specifically to distribute other types of cameras. Yours does not. So when we started doing all these things, it’s like, you know, we got these calls like we got calls from Google, we got calls from YouTube for YouTube360, which we helped to develop. And then we got calls from like NASA because they’re like, how do we put this on the Mars Rover? You know, we ended up doing that too.

[00:19:22] Calan Breckon: Okay, so that came after, after you kind of stepped away from it, all these other things.

[00:19:26] Sean Ramsay: Oh no, that came in while I was there. That like literally we put the camera out. We did our street, we did our Kickstarter, we got, we took the technology, we said, okay, hardware is cool but software can be better. We use that mandate in order to like distribute spherical technology which is still used today. Like if you Street View now, I mean like it’s based on all the stuff we were working on. We helped inundate what they delivered on and it’s still there today. Youtube360 is street view still use the technology backing that we like innovation that we worked on with them.

[00:19:55] Calan Breckon: Yeah. And you’re still playing in that world. So you’ve sold out, you had a great time. Now you’re living your next life entrepreneurship. What adventures are you going on these days?

[00:20:06] Sean Ramsay: So part of the reason why I actually got involved with the bow was because we’ve been looking at utilizing television as a platform rather than just using it as a streaming. We can use it as a streaming platform which we have to do and that’s what we’re used to doing it. But there’s so many other things we can use it for. Because for a long time the problem was 10 foot UI. Like when you looked at a screen from a distance, you couldn’t look at fine find small things. It always had to be blown out. Well, that’s not the case today. If you’re using like Prime Videos app, you’re using Netflix app. Have you ever looked at this, realized how small the text is, that is that you can read from a far distance. The technology’s changed and with connected televisions being pretty much wall hung computers, the technology is changing there too. So I’m really looking into how we can evolve that.

[00:20:52] Calan Breckon: Yes, we’re really looking forward to continuing all the crazy amazing things we’re doing with the bow together.

Let’s kind of wrap things up. Do you have any stage advice for anybody here today or anybody who might be listening to this later about your journey? Whether that be pros or cons for founders or entrepreneurs.

[00:21:11] Sean Ramsay: Anybody who’s going to start any business has to understand that going from zero to like paying yourself or which is what I call success, taking care of yourself and your family with whatever it is, your love affairs for this, whatever product it is, being able to do that.

That time can be very long. So, you know, buckle in, get ready for the ride. I mean, sometimes it’s just like it’s a quick. But most of the time it’s going to take work time and effort and sacrifice. And if you, if you’re willing to do it, then there can be a lot of payoff in the end.

[00:21:48] Calan Breckon: What do you think? If you could give one thing to that, what would change that for a new entrepreneur?

[00:21:56] Sean Ramsay: Well, there’s nothing that can change it other than the concept and the like. Being able to get from idea to concept, that’s the only thing that changes anything.

[00:22:05] Calan Breckon: So get there the fastest. So, like mentors, advisory, building yourself a good team?

[00:22:10] Sean Ramsay: Well, after you have a product, then you have to think about a business. And a product and a business are two very different things. And if you have to understand both, then you’re in the best possible position. But if you think that your product is a business, then you better go out and do your homework.

[00:22:28] Calan Breckon: Thanks for tuning in today. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, I would love a star rating from you. The Business Gay podcast is written, produced and edited by me, Calan Breckon. That’s it for today. Peace, love, rainbows.