John Carbrey was still in his University of Toronto dorm room when the phone rang with an offer: $250,000 for the software he was building.
The offer pulled Carbrey into the world of entrepreneurship, and over the next decade, he founded and scaled multiple B2B ventures, including one EdTech company, currently named SchoolMessenger, which grew to serve 60 percent of public schools in North America and hit more than $100 million in revenue.
“Founders choose to partner with us because they get a whole co-founding team with many different specialities and skillsets.”
John Carbrey, FutureSight
But his curiosity never stopped, as Carbrey started studying bigger questions about entrepreneurship itself. Why do so many founders fail? Why are even repeat founders still tripping up on the first 50 hurdles on the path from idea to business?
“One of the most precious resources we have is the entrepreneurial energies of values-driven leaders,” he said. “We want more values-driven leaders doing impactful things in the world, and we want them to be much more successful at it.”
Today, Carbrey is the Founder and Managing Partner of FutureSight Ventures, a venture studio that believes building companies can be a science.
Based in Toronto and San Francisco with a team of over 20, FutureSight co-founds and funds vertical B2B AI SaaS companies, and aims to build world-class businesses with experienced leaders. FutureSight’s AI Company Creation Fund, a $15-million fund, will hold a final close in November 2025.
Founders typically approach FutureSight through an application or introduction. Some come with an idea they want to refine, while others may arrive with no concept, but a strong desire to build.
FutureSight matches them either with their own concept or with validated opportunities. From there, the founder works side-by-side with FutureSight to test the market, shape the product, and design a go-to-market strategy. The studio provides resources including design, engineering, and operations so the founder isn’t building alone.
“Founders choose to partner with us because they get a whole co-founding team with many different specialities and skillsets,” Carbrey said.
FutureSight’s model is structured around four stages: ideation, validation, company building and growth. The goal with validation, Carbrey explained, is to “kill as many ideas as we can.” Only about one percent of concepts survive that first stage, and by aggressively filtering early on, FutureSight aims to save founders from wasting years on ideas too small to matter.
FutureSight ideas that make it through are matched with a co-founder and management team, as well as resources and coaching across product development, go-to-market, finance, cost modelling, investment readiness, and leadership.
One of the companies in FutureSight’s portfolio is Mercata, an AI-native research operating system for fundamental investors. Its founder, Toronto-based Rich Emrich, had already built and scaled Acuity Insights to over $20 million in recurring revenue. After exiting Acuity, Emrich was keen to get involved with another venture, but wanted to avoid attaching himself to “something that’s going to be small,” according to Carbrey.
“He was really looking for a partner in building the next generational company,” Carbrey added.
FutureSight had been interested in building a financial services company with AI, and started exploring the idea with Emrich. Together, they launched a product that gives portfolio managers and hedge funds what Carbrey called, “a significant amount of cognitive leverage to be much more effective” using deep research and AI.
Once an idea is validated and a venture is moved into the formation stage, FutureSight begins a 24-week process that involves providing pre-seed capital, recruiting initial customers, and launching an MVP.
Toronto-based CrewScope is another startup in FutureSight’s portfolio. Working with FutureSight helped CrewScope raise its $1-million round of pre-seed funding in 2025 from GroundBreak Ventures and the Ontario Centre of Innovation for a product that improves labour productivity in the construction industry.
Across these ventures, Carbrey said AI is the throughline. With AI holding the potential to transform a variety of industries, Cabrey sees the FutureSight model as a way to stand up companies with the right team, accelerating great ideas quickly.
FutureSight currently reviews about 1,000 founder inquiries each month, with only two being selected. The bar is high, according to Carbrey, and nearly all founders the team works with are repeat founders who have built and exited companies before.
So, why do they sign on? According to Carbrey, it comes down to partnership and clarity.
“They don’t want to do it alone, and we’re able to bring a unique full stack, co-founding team with many different experts,” he said.
FutureSight also helps founders zero in on what’s worth the next decade of their life.
“I’m most proud of being able to work with our founders and see them connect and say, ‘Yes, this is my mission on earth for the next decade,’” Carbrey added.
Carbrey defines success for FutureSight on two fronts: “launching iconic companies with values-driven entrepreneurs” and giving investors an “exceptional return” through exposure to the rise of AI. It’s a vision rooted in optimism, but tempered by the realities of today’s tech market.
“It’s never been easier to build, but it’s never been harder to win,” Carbrey said.
FutureSight’s bet is that by combining repeat founders with an expert co-founding team and a rigorous kill-bad-ideas process, it can tilt those odds in the right direction.
PRESENTED BY
FutureSight Ventures powers your startup with an entire co-founding team who have built successful companies, from zero to one, and want to do it again with you. FutureSight’s Annual Investor Summit & Demo Day is being held on October 29, 2025. Apply to join.
All photos provided by FutureSight Ventures.