Mark Dempster

Founder

2023 - Current

Founder & Chief People Officer

2015 - 2023

Founders Circle Capital is a growth stage investment firm that “Invests in People” in two forms—their personal liquidity and their professional development—where the firm is 1000% dedicated to the people who are the ones building today’s Top1% highest performing venture-backed companies. Recent exits include Adaptive Insights (WDAY), Anaplan (PLAN), AppDynamics (CSCO), Carbon Black (CBLK), DocuSign (DOCU), Dollar Shave Club (Unilever), Elemental (AMZN), Forescout (FSCT), HotelTonight (Airbnb), Looker (GOOG), PillPack (AMZN), Pinterest (PINS), and Sonatype (Vista), Twilio (TWLO).

Chief Counsel

2013 - 2015

I’m three parts advisor to founders and one part investor in their start-ups. Working with underdogs, particularly those without prior swimming experience in Silicon Valley waters, is where I focus. I'm called upon to counsel them on matters of fund raising strategy, investor story telling, business modeling, consumer and enterprise marketing and business development. I'm incapable of saying "no" to those whose impressive IQ, domain expertise and technical prowess is exceeded by their EQ, ingenuity and passion. What gets me up in the morning and puts the beat in my step is the chance to help them sharpen their aim to change a corner of the world where, if successful, they'll reconfigure the balance of power in their industry. The glass, when optimistically half full, allows one to dream that they have a real shot of making both an economic impact and a human impact on those they serve (the former must precede the latter).

Marketing Partner

2000 - 2013

For 13 years, I had a dual task--attract entrepreneurs to consider working with Sequoia Capital and, once in business together, deliver an “entrepreneur startup kit” in marketing, sales and services. Typically, my catering to these start-ups began when their company amounted to two guys, some code and a dog. It was innovative fireballs and their teams, who took the brave leap during the young days of the 21st century, whom I so enjoyed being of service to in both small and substantive ways--Ashar Aziz, Brian Chesky, Patrick & John Collison, Kevin & Julia Hartz, Reid Hoffman, Steve Hafner & Paul English, Drew Houston, Tony Hsieh, Chad Hurley & Steve Chen, Jan Kuom, Phil Libin, Fred Luddy, Hosain Rahman, Steve Streit, Peter Thiel, Nir Zuk and scores of other incredibly talented innovators. (Way back) in 2000, I repositioned Sequoia Capital as the first “services” brand in the category. Sequoia has always understood that, when raising money from a venture firm, the founder is actually in the process of purchasing a service where capital is but one of those business building services. And the founder is prepared to pay for those services with a most precious currency—shares of their company. In short, the founder is the customer, not Oliver Twist asking for another bowl of porridge from the Head Master. For well over a decade, that "services" positioning was encapsulated in “The Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs” tagline. The broader messaging was expressed through a first ever ad campaign, four website generations, thought leadership articles and talks, untold numbers of entrepreneurial events (including the infamous RIP Good Times) as well as eight Limited Partner meetings and a dozen Partnership offsites. Self-aggrandizing PR, where veiled credit for a start-up's success was attributed to the firm or an individual partner, was strictly taboo. Only the founder deserves to stand under the bright spotlight of center stage.

Director, Brand Strategy

1993 - 2000

Before being in the business of pointing start-ups down a promising path, I worked with many large companies who had lost their way. CKS Partners is sadly no longer having burst into a billion particles as if it took a fateful turn in the Stanford Linear Accelerator (following a merger with USWeb, then a merger with Whittman Hart, leading to numerous tuck-in agency acquisitions, culminating in a rebranding as MarchFirst and then collapsing under a heap of "accounting adjustments"). But, in the era of Internet 1.0, it was the darling of the marketing world. As an integrated marketing communications agency and a marketing systems integrator, it was a turnkey service to many of the world's finest brands. The firm provided everything from naming companies and products to developing their first ecommerce experiences to integrating into legacy POS and CRM systems and everything in between. Within that breadth of service, I ran brand strategy on the West coast. Here I had the privilege of working with historic brands such as Craftsman, DieHard, Kenmore, Sears Roebuck & Co., Motorola, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and The Walt Disney Co. My work focused on repositioning these brands (or sub-brands under these brands), defining brand boundaries for product portfolios, mapping out brand architectures and nomenclature systems, and directing creative communication programs.

Account Director

1988 - 1993

I cut my brand strategy teeth at the world's largest "logo and label shop". When a consumer walks down just about any street on this planet there's a high degree of probability that they'll encounter a brand influenced by this venerable firm. I came into the firm as an analyst in the Image Assessment group (a fancy way of saying "research") as an analyst (a role slightly higher than intern, which is where a really started in this group). Here I worked on a global brand research study for IBM which assessed the perceptions of the company across every conceivable customer segment across every current and new product. I then migrated over to the Brand Identity group (a fancy way of saying "packaging") where I provided account service and brand strategy to image intensive brands (some might call them sin brands). Here I delivered brand positioning strategies, directed name generation projects, and guided logo and packaging creative programs for many products under the Absolut, Hiram Walker, McDonalds and Sutter Home brands.