About Us : Our Team : Mark Franke
Mark Franke, President of Relatrix Corporation has a 25-year career in high-tech. At Relatrix, a start-up Application Services Provider, Mark is responsible for developing business strategy, driving marketing and sales, and providing technical feedback to the development and operations team.
He caught the ‘bug’ for the ASP business model while working as a partner at Evergreen Software Partners, a boutique business consulting and investment services firm based in the Denver area. During his four years with Evergreen, Mark worked with numerous small software and Internet companies to develop their market strategy and business plans. As part of the Evergreen team Mark helped clients place over $2 million in private equity and debt with angel and professional investors.
Before joining Evergreen, Mark spent two years operating as a business development consultant for several software companies helping expand their marketing and sales operations overseas. As the founder and owner of New Millennium Strategies, Mark developed the European market for an Austin based software and consulting client. During his 18-month contract, he helped build the software revenue for this company from zero to $1.5 million.
Always intrigued by the business leverage possible with software, Mark spent the first decade of his career developing his marketing, sales and management skills within the software divisions of Fortune 500 sized, as well as early stage companies. His experience during these ten years was predominantly in the energy industry, and heavily influenced by his five-year tenure in London, first as the general manager of European operations for a small geoscience software company, and later as International marketing manager Schlumberger Information Systems, the IT division of a $7billion/year energy services giant.
In both cases, Mark was responsible for managing small, dedicated teams of professionals who drove both direct sales (of over $2.5 million) in the UK, and channel sales from Asia, to Europe to South America. He also ran the North American operations of another software division in Schlumberger, where he managed a three regional offices and a staff of twenty professionals.
As a salesman, Mark consistently exceeded his territory quota. As a marketing director he helped set execute successful marketing campaigns, new product launches and market expansion strategies. And as a manager, he was recognized as Outstanding Manager of the Year by his peers – two years in a row.
More than anything, Mark enjoys seeking out new business challenges that leverage his combination of technical, business and creative abilities. He has an educational background in business and engineering, with a Bachelor’s degree in ‘Engineering through Business’ from the University of Texas at Austin. Mark lives in Evergreen, Colorado where he enjoys the outdoor activities of the Rocky Mountains and tries to find more time for his passion of reading history.
