Serial entrepreneur and CEO of early stage VC backed companies. Former CEO of Viigo (mobile software) acquired by RIM in 2010. Founder & CEO INEA (enterprise software) acquired by Cartesis in 2005 (which is now part of SAP).
Have raised over $25MM from tier 1 North American VCs for two companies, one in enterprise software, the other in mobile. Both companies had successful exits, one to Cartesis/BusinessObjects and the other to RIM.
CEO of Viigo from 2007-2010. Viigo became one of the 5 most highly downloaded BlackBerry apps of all time prior to the acquisition of the company by RIM in 2010.
Have managed two successful exits over the past 8 years, from first contact to close, gaining a wide range of experience including the sale process, deal negotiation, due diligence, the close process and post merger integration.
Founder and CEO of INEA, an enterprise software company focused on the Financial Services Industry. At INEA we built a fast growing organization that was a key strategic partner to many of the world's leading financial institutions. By 2005 INEA had deployments in over 44 countries worldwide. It was backed by RBC Venture partners, Ventures West, APAX Partners and Edgestone Capital. After the acquisition in June 2005, by Cartesis, I joined the Paris-based management team as Chief Product Officer, and led the successful integration of the two companies. Cartesis was subsequently acquired by Business Objects in 2007.
For the past 3 years I have worked for one of the early and disruptive players in the alternate financial services landscape (on-line consumer lending). Starting initially as a country CEO, in the past year, my remit has expanded to responsibility for all international operations outside of their home country UK.
Good conversation with Mark. He opened my eyes to not quickly go into the international market without knowing more of the laws first and gave me some actionable items along with insight.
Mark was extremely helpful. I contacted Mark because I wanted his perspective on building high growth companies. During our call, Mark drew from his own experience building and leading successful companies to help me identify the key things I need to focus on to achieve my objectives. I definitely recommend scheduling a call with him.
Mark delivered a ton of value in the short 30 minutes we spoke together. Not only is he astute, he was very helpful and offered to follow up with some resources and recommendations after our call.
Absolutely worth-while getting on the phone with Mark, who was knowledgeable about the topic and had sound advice to offer. Looking forward to doing another session in the future.
Great insights and advice. Glad I made the call.
Mark was singularly helpful in drilling down into the key issues I'm facing with my mobile startup. He has extensive experience and it showed in the insightful questions he asked me. He "got it" so quickly, and helped me look at the key challenges I'm going to face in product functionality, marketing, distribution and adoption in the marketplace. No doubt I will be following up with Mark as I build out this solution. Highly recommend a call with Mark.
Mark very quickly understood the business issues I am struggling with and offered to draw on his personal network to help me out. I am grateful for the opportunity to talk with Mark. I have me the advice to focus on customer validation and the business scalability issues inherent to the approach I currently use to serve my customers.
Mark was able to provide excellent advice on several different aspects of my business, particularly B2B sales.
In any early stage venture an entrepreneur is presented with a number of decision trees. These decisions can shape the future of the company. I learned a lot from my call with Mark.
