The Craft with May Globus

Marlon Thompson is a truly wonderful human who is building a better, more inclusive business world. His passion for bringing equity, community and education to the venture capital space led him to launch Future Capital in 2020, alongside being a partner at LOI Venture. In a former chapter, he was also a spin instructor and a lululemon ambassador.

He was born in Scarborough, Ontario, raised by a single mother in the Malvern neighbourhood. It was an area with a range of diversity, with many ethnicities, cultures, and cuisines in one place. Precocious and mischievous, he was a rule breaker as a young child—something he eventually grew out of as a teen but being an entrepreneur today, being a bit of a rule breaker still rings true.

Marlon began his career journey in retail as a manager at Abercrombie & Fitch, before making his way to Vancouver after accepting a retail operations role at Indochino. He found himself in venture capital after a natural conclusion to his retail career, landing a role at The Next Big Thing (now called LOI Ventures) running an accelerator program for a new generation of entrepreneurs. Particularly interested in the financial side, he began to see a pattern of funding and capital lack that became a barrier to entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses.

In this conversation, we talked about the challenges he observed his single black single mother go through; what working in retail taught him about managing complexity; the current landscape of venture capital and how diversity leads to better businesses; extra pressures of being “the first” POC in a room & at the table; what “code switching” means and its roots in survival; understanding angel, LP & syndicate levels in the investment space; the importance of financial literacy & actionable steps; what to look for in an investor for your business; how he’s taking care of himself in the wake of recently losing of his mother; and much more.

Show Notes

Marlon Thompson is a truly wonderful human who is building a better, more inclusive business world. His passion for bringing equity, community and education to the venture capital space led him to launch Future Capital in 2020, alongside being a partner at LOI Venture. In a former chapter, he was also a spin instructor and a lululemon ambassador. 

He was born in Scarborough, Ontario, raised by a single mother in the Malvern neighbourhood. It was an area with a range of diversity, with many ethnicities, cultures, and cuisines in one place. Precocious and mischievous, he was a rule breaker as a young child—something he eventually grew out of as a teen but being an entrepreneur today, being a bit of a rule breaker still rings true. 

Marlon began his career journey in retail as a manager at Abercrombie & Fitch, before making his way to Vancouver after accepting a retail operations role at Indochino. He found himself in venture capital after a natural conclusion to his retail career, landing a role at The Next Big Thing (now called LOI Ventures) running an accelerator program for a new generation of entrepreneurs. Particularly interested in the financial side, he began to see a pattern of funding and capital lack that became a barrier to entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses. 

In this conversation, we talked about the challenges he observed his single black single mother go through; what working in retail taught him about managing complexity; the current landscape of venture capital and how diversity leads to better businesses; extra pressures of being “the first” POC in a room & at the table; what “code switching” means and its roots in survival; understanding angel, LP & syndicate levels in the investment space; the importance of financial literacy & actionable steps; what to look for in an investor for your business; how he’s taking care of himself in the wake of recently losing of his mother; and much more. 

TIMESTAMPS:

6:45 - Growing up
18:57 - Retail
23:52 - How he got to Vancouver
25:32  - What he learned from a tech startup
28:16 - What his mom thought about his career choices
34:01 - Code switching
41:19 - How he got into VC and angel investing 
45:03  - About his company Future Capital
50:23 - Levels of angel investing
56:39 - Equity
01:06:59 - Marlon’s finance advice
01:10:45 - What to look for in an investor
01:14:28 - How he is taking care of himself through the grief process
01:18:57 - Where to find Marlon 
01:19:37 - Final question

What is The Craft with May Globus?

The Craft is an audio-visual collection of intimate conversations with creatives, entrepreneurs, and pioneers across disciplines. Each episode weaves through their personal backstory, creative process, and way of living—an exploration of the humanity that connects us all.

Alongside the conversations, the show’s visual storytelling—through editorial-style photography—offers another way in. Like a modern-day magazine editorial, each image is a quiet window into the spirit of the guest and the world they’re shaping.