Dan Martell skydives and snowboards and believes running is among the secrets to a fruitful life. But the 31-year-old Moncton, N.B., native insists business is his sport.
With a background in computer programming but no formal business training, Dan’s passion for technology and business has meant he has had a hand in launching several companies to date.
Dan has been described as not having a “knowing-doing gap.” At 25, and just 10 months into his 2004 start-up, Spheric Technologies Inc., the Canadian firm was landing so many deals south of the border that instead of seeking visa sponsorships for his traveling employees, he moved quickly to set up a U.S. office. Growing by an average of 152% per year, Spheric raked in three business awards before he sold the company in mid-2008.
An award winning Entrepreneur, Dan recently co-founded Flowtown, a social marketing platform focused on helping small businesses achieve real results in the world of social media. Now living in San Francisco, Martell spends the majority of his time looking at ways to build a bridge between Silicon Valley and New Brunswick. As an informal angel investor, he is active in advising entrepreneurs using the Lean Startup approach to gain market adoption.
An avid reader who dreams of remaining a lifelong student, Dan invests in startups whose opportunities and ideas he can get excited about. His philosophy is to build companies that solve the business problems he faces. He takes risks in work and life and focuses on the journey over the reward. Martell is relentless in his work ethic – if a job has to get done, he’ll do it right away.
Martell is a board member of Propel ICT and StartupWeekend, a startup advisor to YearOneLabs and 500Startups. He is passionately involved in facilitating micro-lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries through the non-profit, Kiva.org.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/danmartell
Email: dan.martell [ at ] gmail [dot] com
