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Expertise
MenuCorporate Venturing
Created 11 years ago in Business / Getting Started
Advice to enterprises looking to either build a corporate venture group or a connection with the startup / VC community as part of a broader innovation program.
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Mark Relph
Seattle / Vancouver / Toronto
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I'm a technology evangelist, experienced business leader, team builder and Microsoft veteran. My 20 year track record in tech includes executive leadership, technology evangelism, marketing, sales, business development and product management. Now I am focused on backing and advising startups while exploring my options to lead or join an exciting new venture. I spent 15 amazing years at Microsoft in a variety of roles in Canada and the US. I was VP of Developer Evangelism for Microsoft Canada. I focused on the early adoption of the Microsoft platform with developers. My team drove business development for high profile projects like the Winter Olympics, partnerships with app developers and I had responsibility for the dev tools business in Canada. I was also part of the executive team for Microsoft’s Canadian subsidiary. I then joined the Windows group in Redmond leading the Ecosystem Product Management team. My team was responsible for building a rich ecosystem of hardware and developer partners for Windows. I was part of the launch of Windows 7 and the planning team for Windows 8. Most recently, I lead the Emerging Business Team at Microsoft which focused on venture backed startups, the venture capital community and providing an “ear to the ground” on key trends in the startup market. In Silicon Valley, my team orchestrated Microsoft’s relationship with the top VCs and investors. We also worked directly with key startups to align them with Microsoft product groups and connect them to commercial opportunities. Currently, I am EIR at Growlab working with their companies and building the plan for my next endeavour. I am a proud Canuck and I am a Charter Member of the C100, an organization dedicated to supporting Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment.
Reviews (5)
Mark has A LOT of experience and he has shared some amazing insights with me, real-life stuff. Thanks!
Source: Clarity Bartosz Malutko Jan 15, 2014Mark is incredibly humble and accessible. His inputs were insightful and honest. Certainly provided me with some clarity!
Source: Clarity Franz Struwig Nov 1, 2013Mark is a very intelligent and experienced innovator in the tech world who was able to provide me with some awesome advice and feedback for my career!
Source: Clarity Michael Gagliano Oct 11, 2013Had a great call with Mark. He's got fantastic experience, asks great questions and had actionable advice. Thanks Mark!
Source: Clarity Reg Cheramy Oct 11, 2013I would work for Mark Relph again in an instant. He is one of the 2 best people I have ever worked for. He has a unique ability to both manage up and protect his staff. He really is a unique talent in an organization like Microsoft.
He also has a great ability to understand his market and segments. He is able to uniquely operationalize strategy into tactics with his staff. He is keen to use this operationalization to define key performance metrics that can be used to measure and track performance. He is an ideal executive to whom to report.
Source: LinkedIn David Crow Sep 24, 2013the startups.com platform
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