Mark Friend
Sales, Business Development, and Marketing in Santa Monica, California
Winc Wines | Business Development
First Glance:
At heart, I am a true competitor, but don't let winning and losing spoil the fun. Although admittedly biased, I believe there was no better sport than wrestling to help prepare me for any venture I may come across. When asked, my friends & family say I am driven and ambitious, yet stubborn and emotional. I'm always trying to clarify my life philosophy, but since I'm a quotes guy it would most likely sound something like this:
"Reality is negotiable." - Tim Ferriss
Deep Dive:
I am an ecstatic Uncle to Lincoln and Sadie, proud brother to Jim and his wife Lizzie, and humbled son to my parents Ron and Lori Friend. I strive to be half the person of these individuals. Outside of work and family, I am as active as possible through travel and fitness. I truly enjoy exploring new ground, doing as the locals, and crashing every new gym, coffee shop and food menu I can find. I enjoy many podcasts, and even an audiobook or two from time to time when I can stay up for longer than the first 5 minutes.
After completing my undergrad in Communications and competing in wrestling at Penn State University, I shifted my focus to a career in Sales. I established a strong foundation in Retail Sales & Management while working for E&J Gallo Winery in their Management Development Program, and then cut my teeth into the start-up community in Indianapolis. This new venture, called FiberIndy, is a fiber Internet provider offering ridiculously fast internet to residential and business customers, specifically to many large mixed use multi-family developments. Offering better, faster Internet along side a small team that has a work ethic second to none, it didn't take us long to attract some attention. We have recently gone through a M&A and look forward to national growth.
This change brought on a new transition for myself and I took the opportunity to go West. Along with my interest to move close to some family in California I was looking for another challenge and I came across an intriguing offer from a company that I consider a great balance of two things I love: wine & startups. I took a Business Development role with Winc Wines leading the charge on our new Corporate Gifting efforts, a brand new division for the direct-to-consumer monthly wine subscription company.