Mark Blackwell

Mark Blackwell is an Investing Partner and lead of the Canadian office at Builders VC. Previously, Mark was a Product Manager at SolarWinds, which develops IT monitoring and network management tools. Mark joined SolarWinds when it acquired GNS3 Technologies ($30M), an enterprise networking startup where Mark was the Chief Operating Officer. While there, Mark contributed to over 1M monthly active users, 16M downloads, and a customer base that included the US Department of Defense, AT&T, Walmart, Google, and Facebook.

He is also the Owner and Advisor of Elbow Room, a renowned restaurant in Calgary. Prior to GNS3, Mark was an Investment Manager at Cenovus Energy's corporate venture fund, where he led the financing in HiFi Engineering and Skyonic Corporation and was a Board Observer for both. Earlier in his career, Mark worked in the technology investment banking division at CIBC World Markets, and as a Business Development Analyst at Enbridge, an energy transportation company; both roles were based in Calgary.