Mark Helow
“If you’re the smartest person in the room…find a different room.”
I’ve spent most of my adult life (over 35 years) studying, coaching, and learning from Entrepreneurs. I was the youngest Chair (age 28) ever hired by Vistage, and then formed my own CEO peer group process in partnership with Inc Magazine. I began working exclusively with venture backed CEOs in 2011, and love the unique challenges and opportunities that come in such a highly charged, creative environment.
I’ve worked closely with about 100 venture-backed CEOs over the last 10+ years, spanning stages from Series A through later stage and public CEOs. My current emphasis is working with CEOs who face the unique challenges of continuing their rapid growth after they’ve crossed $100 million in revenue. I’ve worked closely with Databricks (Ali Ghodsi), HashiCorp (Dave McJannet), Grammarly (Brad Hoover), Klaviyo (Andrew Bialecki), and many other later-stage CEOs. This wide view give me the ability to observe and understand how CEO skills must evolve as the company enters into its late stage/IPO period.
I believe the best way for high potential Entrepreneurs to learn their craft is through the deep benchmarking and modeling of successful CEO peers. But for this to really work, those particular peers must be highly skilled, deeply passionate about learning their CEO craft, and be willing to train like elite athletes. My job is to assemble and lead that group.