Serial Entrepreneur: Mark Fletcher

Now there is. With the help of Elance providers, Mark, a "serial entrepreneur" – we'll get to that in a moment – recently launched Startupping (http://www.startupping.com/).  Startupping is a community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs; you can share information, ask questions and tap into the experience of people who have built and are building web businesses.

"Having a community to turn to for advice and support is incredibly valuable for people starting any business," says Mark.  "While there are scattered resources, there isn't a central gathering place for Internet entrepreneurs."

To develop Startupping's entrepreneur community, Mark turned to the virtual outsourcing community.  "I'm a programmer and software developer," says Mark.  "I'm not a designer per se.  So I've worked with providers like QuartSoft (Elance username: Quart) for web design, MetaLink (Elance username: metalink) for Windows programming, and Logo Design Company (Elance username: logodesigncompany) for the Startupping logo."

So – why is Mark a "serial entrepreneur"?  Take a quick look at his resume.  In 1997 he started ONEList, a free Internet e-mail list service.  ONEList was acquired by Yahoo! for more than $400 million in 2000 – you may know it now as Yahoo! Groups.  At acquisition it served twenty million active users, one million email lists and sent out over two billion email messages a month, making it one of the largest services on the Internet.

Jump ahead to 2003 when Mark started Bloglines, a free web-based news aggregation service. "I took a different approach to building Bloglines," says Mark.  "ONEList was a large company with over 150 employees.  I wanted to prove an Internet company could be built and run cheaply, so I took advantage of virtual outsourcing."

Bloglines, like ONEList, was wildly successful.  Users could easily search, subscribe to, share, and publish blogs and RSS feeds. Bloglines was named one of Time magazine's Top 50 Web Sites for 2004, and was named the Best Blog/Feed Search Engine by the Search Engine Watch Awards in 2005. In 2005 Bloglines was acquired by Ask Jeeves.

"I start companies to solve problems and make life easier," says Mark.  "When you have a problem you're passionate about solving and you solve it, you're already a success – and if other people have the same problem, then you can help them too.  The key is to reinvent and apply different solutions."

Mark's advice for Elance providers?  "I know what makes a big difference to me," says Mark.  "I love thorough bids.  I also love when I put a project up for bid and a bidder will already have started doing the work.  If I post a project for web design, for example, and a bidder provides samples for my project, I think that's wonderful, and I naturally lean towards choosing that provider."

And what's ahead for Mark?  "I want to give back to a community that has done so much for me," says Mark.  "I want to build the resources on Startupping so it helps as many Internet entrepreneurs as possible.  Startupping doesn't have to become a "big" company – I just want it to be valuable to its users. I'm also an early stage angel investor, with investments in companies like One True Media, Wesabe and Techdirt."

"But I am a serial entrepreneur, and at some point I feel sure I'll start another company – building companies that solve problems is what I do."