Mark Blackwell

Proud 🇨🇦 Techie & Entrepreneur Turned VC @ Builders VC │☕ Enthusiast / Roaster

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

Investing US$250 Million To Help Transform Vital Sectors of the Global Economy

Doubling down on our 'Evolution of Industry' thesis backing inspiring founders tackling the future of 🩺Healthcare, 🚜Agriculture, ⛏️Industrials & 👷Proptech.

https://t.co/UKOwGEUm1K

[Luke Sophinos @lukesophinos]

In 2024, $100M+ exits to PE Sponsors are nearly all Vertical SaaS businesses.

Interesting...

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

@aubriepagano

[Builders VC @BuildersVC]

🌟 Congrats to Matt Rosenthal, Billy Gilmartin and the SewerAI Team on closing $15M Series B! Proud to have led their seed round in 2020. Their AI tech is revolutionizing sewer inspections, saving time, money, and protecting the environment.

🔗https://t.co/orFaYCZse0

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: RoaringKitty, AKA DeepFuckingValue, has sold his $20 GameStop, $GME, calls for profit as well as exercised for more shares.

He now owns 9 million shares, up from 5 million.

Unusual Whales noted his position change yesterday. We were first to note his original position as well.

[Julian Klymochko @JulianKlymochko]

$GME completed its 75 million ATM equity offering, generating more than $2 billion of cash

At current T-bill yields, GameStop's new cash raised will increase its pre-tax operating income by more than $100 million, compared to pre-tax income of just $13 million last year

Turns out, a twitter account called Roaring Kitty posting of a cartoon of a gamer leaning forward in his chair caused GameStop to increase its earnings by nearly tenfold

Whoda thunk?

[Luke Kawa @LJKawa]

At its lowest point this year, GameStop had a market cap of $3.1 billion.

It’s raised $3.1 billion in cash in the past 25 days.
https://t.co/wlwhaprFKw

[Builders VC @BuildersVC]

🎉 Exciting news! @changeengineHQ secures $10M Series A to pioneer next-gen employee engagement solutions!

Welcome aboard to new board members @JoshSteinVC and Adam B. Struck!

Learn more about how ChangeEngine is transforming employee engagement:

https://t.co/55Waeu3Ruv

[Ryan Holiday @RyanHoliday]

Vacations are great, but do you know what's even greater?

Building a life that you don’t need to escape from.

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

@robleclerc This is for sure an App versus the actual GPT5 release so I would be careful. Weird as the 'marketplace' has alot of shit in it.

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

@robleclerc I think its a bunch of random (no verified) apps with GPT 5.0 in the name...

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

@robleclerc How are you seeing that - early adopter program?

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

THE PE OPTION

Private company growth CEOs: if you're at ~$100M ARR and growing ~20% YoY, going public might not be an option. I'd suggest strongly considering the option of partnering with a PE firm such as Thoma Bravo, Vista, etc (they will clean up your cap table and take a meaningful stake in your company). They will give you the dry powder to buy adjacent companies in your space, build scale, and eventually go public.

Being the CEO of a PE-owned company is not for everyone, esp CEOs who are used to very little accountabilty from mostly fawning investors. That said, don't think of PE as the Gordon Gekko types - it's an outdated perception. These are exceptionally smart, savvy investors, whose goal is to build shareholder value. They are not going to strip down the company and sell it for parts. They will hold you to a higher standard of discipline (like public markets would!) but also be supportive (with capital) if you pursue high-ROI investment opportunities, including buying other companies. Also, either you become the acquirer and consolidator in your industry, or someone else consolidates you. Which do you prefer? Sitting still and hoping for a public market turnaround, is not a good strategy.

Anaplan, which of course actually went public, is pursuing the first strategy after being acquired in a take-private by Thoma Bravo.

---
Anaplan, an SF portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, agreed to acquire Fluence Technologies, a Canadian provider of financial close software. Fluence had raised around $17m from firms like Banneker Partners, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund and Graphite Ventures.

[Laura Buhler @laura_buhler]

Anyone tempted to buy in to the argument that the capital gains tax proposal will only affect the top 1%, my friend @andrewtgraham (who fights every day to create abundance for the 99%) explained it well: “ Very few people win the lottery. But you can be certain that if the size of the payout were to fall, far fewer people would buy tickets in the first place. Similarly, while vanishingly few companies find massive success and generate wealth for founders and employees, there are thousands of companies out there shooting for this outcome. The government has just made it harder for them to attract talent.”

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

Breaking is backed by a stellar team from Harvard, MIT & renowned scientists. They're targeting food waste & marine environments first & envision a future where new plastics are designed to be easily broken down by X-32!

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

Excited to lead Breaking's $10.5MM seed round 👇

1⃣Spun out of Colossal Biosciences, the tech degrades plastics into CO2, H20 & biomass in days versus decades

2⃣Breaks down packaging, PET bottles, nylon, paintbrush bristles & fishing wire within days

https://t.co/huaL4kjREh

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

♻️ X-32 is a natural solution! It requires no pre-treatment, sorting, cleaning or decontamination & creates harmless byproducts like CO2, water & biomass. The biomass can even be used to create biofuels & biodegradable plastics!

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

X-32 tackles tough plastics like packaging materials, polyester bottles & nylon. In lab tests, it started breaking down paint brushes, fishing wire & floss in just 5 days! Current solutions often target only one plastic type.

[Mark Blackwell @blackwellmark]

They discovered a microbe (X-32) that eats multiple types of plastic, breaking them down in as little as 22 months! This is a game-changer for #BeatPlasticPollution

[Builders VC @BuildersVC]

Inspiring CEOs at our #BuildersVC DAL event are crafting billion-dollar futures in climate, ag, healthcare & materials

🌱 @Checkerspot microalgae for next-gen products
🚜 @TractorZoom the Kelley Blue Book for farm gear
🌎 @280earth innovates in carbon capture

More events in 24!