Mark Zaleski is one of the most experienced entrepreneurial operators Europe has. His career included senior roles at FedEx and ACNielsen before joining WebVan, the US grocery startup that raised and spent $600 million in a couple of years with nothing to show for it. From there, he ran QXL Ricardo, the publicly listed dot com auction house that had just lost over 99% of its market cap in 2000 and turned the business round to manage a sale for well over $1.1billion in 2007. More recently he has advised and invested in companies including DailyMotion and ProFounders capital.
He has seen some of the best and worst excesses of the dot com booms and busts and is probably one of the most experienced and successful web operators in Europe. He has also learned a huge amount on the way. In this video, taken at the 2010 BLN Growth Forum, he shares his thoughts on building and managing your board and investors.
Key takeways:
You get the board you deserve! A good investor doesn’t necessarily represent a good board member. Make sure when you look for cash and invite board members in that you remember, a fish rots from the head. If you don’t get it right, the rest of your business will go down the pan.
The second BLN Growth Forum will take place on 5th July in Cambridge, UK.
You will meet and hear from entrepreneurial ‘action leaders’ (as opposed to ‘thought leaders’) including – Tim Weller, CEO, Incisive Media – Warren East, CEO, ARM – Ariel Eckstein, MD EMEA, LinkedIn – Jonathan Milner, CEO, Abcam – to discuss relevant, actionable opportunities for your business. We like intimate events and limit the number of people at our events to make sure that you get a chance to talk to speakers and other delegates without getting lost in a huge crowd.
For more information on the programme, and to secure your place visti: http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/
The BLN Growth Forum is supported by BDO, Intel Capital, Mills & Reeve. For information about sponsorship opportunities at the BLN Growth Forum, contact us today.
