The short answer
Mark Janes shares how he took a backyard business idea to a global opportunity through Connected Yard, including startup equity strategy, the growth challenges along the way, and the eventual sale.
Key takeaways
- Why positive disruption of industry VS negative will drive more long-term value
- The framework for startup equity: How much to keep and how much to give away
- Different stages of funding from pre-seed to seed, to series A, B, and beyond
- Various deal structures and what one might be right for you
Listen to the podcast
49 minWatch the full interview
About this episode
Mark Janes started his entrepreneurial journey at the ripe age of 11 with a recycled newspaper business.
While it was great to find product market fit at his young age, the real lesson for Mark was around exiting. He learned a little earlier than most entrepreneurs the value of getting out while the timing is good.
Having worked for a number of major organisations helping build their businesses, Mark went on to grow and exit three companies to big name brands, and now puts his experience to good use helping other startups scale and grow through his venture studio.
Chapters
- 4:00Making the switch from corporate land to start up Life is tough. Mark has sage advice for anyone struggling with move: As soon as you do it, you wish you’d made the move 10 years before
- 11:16Great business ideas often revolve around easy-to-understand customer problems. Mark’s idea for ConnectedYard was born in his backyard and went on to disrupt the entire pool and hot tub industry
- 17:50The world of shares and vesting can be confusing for those who don’t come from corporate. Here, Mark breaks down what it means, how it works, and why it matters in layman's terms
- 25:07Getting funding revolves around three points: Getting product market fit, finding traction, and having the ability to scale. For ConnectedYard, their journey started with a $200,000 marketing investment to prove they could build demand. The rest swiftly followed
- 36:50Every deal is different. Mark stresses the importance of knowing what you want out of the deal. From Vendor Financing to Earn-out, here’s how to structure your perfect deal
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About Mark Janes
Mark is a company builder, CEO/COO and highly successful entrepreneur with a background in content creation and distribution. Englishman, born in Germany, raised in Southeast Asia/UK with a professional career that spans the U.S. and European markets, Mark brings a global perspective to everything he does.
He is recognised for his work building and shaping a wide range of companies from startups to large scale organisations across Media/AdTech, HealthTech, telecommunications, Infrastructure Tech, SaaS, FoodTech, Hardware, FinTech, Web3 and consumer electronics.
After successfully founding, building and selling 3 startups, Mark set up Exit Velocity to help early stage companies grow, scale and thrive to become strong, confident and successful businesses.
Through the Exit Velocity Venture Studio, Mark has invested in multiple companies and developed an online learning platform to scale to over 250 startups. He is well connected in the venture capital industry and has a wide range of senior connections across the tech industry.
Mark is also an EIR for Austrade and Tech Nation (AU and UK governments) mentoring hundreds of companies.
Mark recently became the Chair of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) Live Video committee and has the experience to work with senior management teams across large corporations.
Connect with Mark Janes
About the show
Buy Grow Sell is hosted by Simon Bedard, founder and managing director of Exit Advisory Group, a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm that helps Australian business owners value, prepare for and navigate a sale. Every conversation draws on real deals and the patterns behind them.
