Mark Selcow: Think Company First

03/24/20 • 38 min

Mark is a serial startup founder and operator who is now an investor at Costanoa Ventures focusing on SaaS, fintech, future of work, and marketplaces. Prior to joining Costanoa, Mark was an operator, co-founding and serving as President of two companies, BabyCenter (sold to Johnson and Johnson) and Merced Systems (sold to NICE Systems). At Costanoa, Mark helped several portfolio companies as an Advisor and Board Member, and even became Interim CEO of Quizlet, a leading consumer learning tool.

In this episode, we hear about Mark's experiences as a founder of two very different businesses - BabyCenter and Merced Systems. We also hear about how market conditions in the late '90s impacted the BabyCenter trajectory and how that experience has informed Mark's role as a board member and investor today.

Furthermore, we address topics such as ideal board composition, the role of industry experience, what its like to be an interim CEO, and how to think about exits as a founder.

If like Mark, you are interested in early stage business-oriented technologies and SaaS, fintech, and the future of work, you should absolutely follow him on Twitter @mselcow. For more information on his firm, follow @CostanoaVC or visit their website https://www.costanoavc.com/. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on Twitter @boardsnetwork.

Furthermore, we address topics such as ideal board composition, the role of industry experience, what its like to be an interim CEO, and how to think about exits as a founder.

Previous Episode

Brett Hurt: Public Benefit Corporations Can Have It All

Brett is the CEO and Co-founder of data.world, which is building the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world as a Certified B Corporation. He is also a seed-stage investor at Hurt Family Investments in partnership with his wife, Debra, and previously founded several companies such as Bazaarvoice and Coremetrics.

In this episode, we discuss the key characteristics of B Corporations, why you can “have it all” by converting to that legal form, how to convince your investors and partners to convert, and how it impacts the board not only legally but also behaviorally.

We also address topics such as communication with board members as an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and board member. Finally, we discuss the level of transparency conducive to productive culture as well as to what extent the board should be involved in shaping mission, vision, and culture.

If you want to follow what’s happening in the data world or the startup community in Austin, check out what Brett is up to at https://medium.com/@databrett and http://lucky7.io/. You can also follow him on Twitter @databrett. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on Twitter @boardsnetwork.

Next Episode

Kate Mitchell: Be Open, Be Honest (Part 1)

After a career in banking, Kate co-founded Scale Venture Partners that went on to back high growth companies such as Hubspot, Box, and DocuSign. She attended hundreds of Board meetings for more than a dozen private and public tech companies.

In this episode, Kate was kind enough to open up about her career path and first board experiences. We discussed what a banking career can bring to future board members, the importance of mentors, and why independent board members are so critical. Kate also helped us compare and contrast non-profit, private, and public boards. Finally, we discussed what a bad board looks like, how to build trust with management teams as a new board member, and how to continuously become a better board member.

If you want to know what Kate is up to, you should follow her on Twitter @KateDMitchell. For more information about her firm, follow @ScaleVP on Twitter or visit their website https://www.scalevp.com/. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on Twitter @boardsnetwork.