Venture Everywhere Podcast: Mark Jackson with Beth Lopez
Venture Everywhere Podcast: Mark Jackson with Beth Lopez
Mark Jackson, founder and CEO of Besolo chats with Beth Lopez, founder and CEO of Outfox Health in episode 52: Besolo, Be Happy.
Episode 52 of Venture Everywhere is hosted by Beth Lopez, founder of Outfox Health, an AI tool for quick healthcare answers, price checks, and affordable provider guidance. Beth chats with Mark Jackson, founder of Besolo, a company that supports solopreneurs with an all-in-one platform for benefits, taxes, compliance, and essential business tools. Mark shares his journey from a marketing leader to scaling unicorn companies and ultimately founding Besolo. Mark also discusses Besolo’s long-term goal of supporting millions of solopreneurs and empowering them to pursue independence with the security of traditional employment benefits.
In this episode, you will hear:
Potential for Besolo to become a major player by leveraging a large user base to negotiate benefits.
The societal shift towards solopreneurship and its implications for the workforce.
How the post-COVID era has accelerated the growth of the solopreneur and freelancer market.
The battle between enterprise-focused and independent-centric platforms.
Building customer trust through educational content, strategic partnerships, and network effects.
The gap in affordable coverage options for self-employed individuals.
If you liked this episode, please give us a rating wherever you found us. To learn more about our work, visit Everywhere.vc and subscribe to our Founders Everywhere Substack. You can also follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates and news.
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:04 VO: Everywhere Podcast Network.
00:00:14 Jenny Fielding: Hi, and welcome to the Everywhere podcast. We're a global community of founders and operators who've come together to support the next generation of builders. So the premise of the podcast is just that, founders interviewing other founders about the trials and tribulations of building a company. I hope you enjoy the episode.
00:00:34 Beth: Hi, I'm Beth Ann Lopez, founder of Outfox Health. Today on the Venture Everywhere podcast, we're sitting down with the incredibly impressive Mark Jackson, founder of Besolo. Mark is a career marketing and growth leader who scaled two unicorns and generated over 100 million in net new revenue.
00:00:49 Beth: He was employee number four and the first growth leader for Velocity Global, a $2.5 billion international PEO. And finally, Mark has over 10 years of experience as a solopreneur himself, giving him a deep understanding of the challenges facing those in the self-employed economy.
00:01:04 Beth: So Mark, it is great to be here with you today. And before we get to Besolo, I'd love to hear about Mark the person. Where are you from and how did you end up becoming an entrepreneur?
00:01:13 Mark: Thanks, Beth. Yeah, thank you for those kind words. You're making me blush a little bit here. Yeah, so I have a dad that is self-employed and was self-employed my whole life and saw the challenges that he faced every day trying to figure out how to run what was effectively a business of one.
00:01:29 Mark: And his scenario came with a lot of cursing and yelling at tax forms and that kind of thing. And so I think that started my focus on fixing self-employment was seeing all the struggles that he went through.
00:01:43 Mark: And then cut to after college, worked in the film industry for about five or six years and got very frustrated, also very independent in that space and got very frustrated with the glass ceiling in the film industry.
00:01:54 Mark: So I took a stab at a first tech company that was trying to be like the intermediary, whatever existed between writing an idea down on a napkin at a bar and actually getting something into production on IMDB. And we called it Cinimeo. And it was basically like, get traction for your film idea.
00:02:11 Mark: And we got beat by a company called Slated that got into the film financing side of things. They figured out how to connect ideas with financing. And you're like, "Oh, yes, of course, that makes perfect sense. Give access to money," right?
00:02:24 Mark: But that started the tech entrepreneurial bug was, oh, wow, you can look at a problem, be frustrated, and then potentially solve it with a tech or company solution. I think you and I both share that same passion.
00:02:39 Mark: You are very focused on fixing healthcare with Outfox Health. And that's definitely a big piece of Besolo. And it's just so cool to be sitting here talking with you right now. And we have this opportunity to fix a really nasty problem in this country.
00:02:51 Beth: Oh, that's so true. Well, I was just sitting with my friend the other day, who's a solopreneur himself. And he's been a solopreneur for years and years. And we were talking about the cost of health insurance.
00:03:00 Beth: And my husband recently got a corporate job, I get to get added on his insurance plan. So this is something amazing and new for us, because I've always been an entrepreneur myself. We're talking about how little they have to pay for the insurance, but something like $125 a month.
00:03:14 Beth: And it's this great plan that includes all these benefits. And I was telling that to my friend and he was like, “This is the biggest pain point I have. I'm paying nearly a thousand dollars a month for something that sucks……”
00:03:23 Mark: Yeah.
00:03:24 Beth: “We barely use it. I have a wife and my baby,” it's a huge cause of stress for him. So he was like, as soon as Besolo is in Massachusetts, I am signing up for this. So you're definitely hitting on a real pain point there. Is that a common story that you hear from other solopreneurs?
00:03:37 Mark: I mean, that's why I started Besolo. That's my founding story is my wife is a kidney transplant patient. And we call that scenario with the employer health insurance where the employer is subsidizing health insurance to make it very cheap. We call that the golden handcuffs of health insurance.
00:03:54 Mark: And today, that's where a lot of solopreneurs are getting their healthcare coverage, is from a partner. But there's still a huge, huge chunk, almost 40 to 50% that still are forced to go to the ACA marketplace and end up with really bad coverage or worse off, don't even understand what they're buying.
00:04:10 Mark: That's one of the big challenges we see too is how do you parse all this information that comes to you at the ACA marketplace of, what's an HMO? What's an EPO? What's a PPO? What are all these different options that you have? And what does that actually mean for my family?
00:04:24 Mark: So yeah, very common pain point is simplifying the health insurance acquisition process for solopreneurs. That is definitely something we're very focused on doing. And trying to give families more flexibility around how that family or that household makes income.
00:04:41 Mark: My fantasy idea 10, 15 years out, the golden handcuffs of health insurance scenario doesn't have to happen anymore. We've built enough of a pool of people to negotiate with benefits providers and get really good coverage for solopreneurs. And a partner doesn't have to live that lifestyle. You could have a household where both partners would be independent and they still feel very safe. So yeah.
00:05:07 Beth: Yeah, so I see that it's very personal for you, and I can see why it would be so meaningful building this from the beginning. And so I guess what made you say that this is the time to build this right now, as opposed to waiting a bit in the future or based on something you'd seen in the past?
00:05:25 Mark: Yeah, so the space is exploding. The post-COVID independent space is just rapidly expanding today. And I think that is very important. It's always important with a startup to try to catch a wave of expansion versus going into headwinds with market size.
00:05:44 Mark: But I think also in our case, finding the technology to actually build more than just a health insurance option. Besolo is so much more than just access to benefits. It's actually the entire self-employment operating system.
00:05:59 Mark: We have company admin, including formation, compliance, getting your LLC, getting your S Corp, getting an EIN, registered agent. And then you move into the day-to-day operations, it's an accounting platform, it's an invoicing platform, it's a time tracking, it’s all of the pieces needed for someone to run their own solopreneurial business.
00:06:18 Mark: And to be honest, a lot of those pieces are third party. And I think that's absolutely necessary for a startup of our size to be able to put together something that's this holistic. So yes, it's like a very lucky Venn diagram of multiple points in time happening at the same point.
00:06:37 Mark: You've got this huge expanding market, you've got access to the right technology, we've got an amazing team that was able to fill in all gaps between that technology to create this holistic platform. And then what that wave of solopreneurs actually created too was benefits providers are starting to look at this space and go, oh, interesting.
00:06:58 Mark: If 50% of the workforce is actually solopreneurial independent freelance, however you want to categorize it, in the next five to ten years, we should probably figure out how to get in there in a meaningful way.
00:07:09 Mark: So in that regard, Besolo is actually a very perfect distribution mechanism for us to go negotiate on the behalf of our pool with these providers that now want to get in. Versus 10 years ago, they were probably like, eh, we'll let them figure it out on their own.
00:07:23 Beth: Yeah, I see all these people quitting their jobs, becoming creators, becoming entrepreneurs, really fulfilling their dreams. And so do you think that this is a real shift in society and how big really can this get?
00:07:35 Mark: I actually love the fact that it's so painful to be a solopreneur today, but people still do it because that shows the value of that freedom. And that shows the value of that lifestyle. So a lot of people in the space categorize independent work or fractional work as like a temporary situation.
00:07:56 Mark: I actually think that that is a function of the current infrastructure failure. There's no infrastructure, there's no holistic infrastructure that exists to support the freelancer independent lifestyle. And so it's just the scenario where it's like a death by a thousand cuts.
00:08:11 Mark: So of course, someone who goes fractional and then five years into it runs into a wall like what I did, which is like, oh my God, I would probably rather in some ways be a fractional CMO or CTO or CRO or whatever. But I can't because I don't have access to the resources that my family actually needs.
00:08:31 Mark: So, but the fact that space is still, has doubled in full-time independence since 2020. The fact that that's still happening to me shows the absolute value that this lifestyle has. And I'm very hopeful that once Besolo is out there in the world in a very big way, that those numbers will just go through the roof.
00:08:49 Mark: So one of our major dreams is to have 2.5 million Besolo members. Cause that would effectively make us the largest employer in some ways. Cause we actually, we use what's called PEO to co-employ everybody. We're pooling everybody together to give access to these group benefits options.
00:09:07 Mark: If we had 2.5 million solos, we're bigger than Walmart. So we actually have more negotiating power. That's like, "Oh yeah. Okay." We'd have more negotiating power with benefits providers than Walmart would.
00:09:19 Mark: And at the bottom of my heart, too, and then what the data says, I do believe that people that choose the freedom of independent lifestyle tend to be healthier people because they have the time for that as well.
00:09:31 Mark: You have the time to take care of your family. You have the time to do your fitness. You have the time to go after your passions. And so I actually think that we're going to uncover that this is going to be one of the best goals benefits providers want to work with. And that's going to unlock some amazing things.
00:09:48 Beth: Yeah, I know that sounds completely amazing. And just having 2.5 million people living their dreams, bigger than Walmart, but not working under kind of Walmart conditions is the American dream, right?
00:10:00 Beth: And so I think it's really interesting that you're focusing on solopreneurs rather than the larger creator teams or agencies. And so sometimes these solopreneurs are difficult to reach at scale because they're all different. They're so distributed.
00:10:14 Beth: And so I know that you're this go-to-market pro, given your experience scaling little unicorns in the past. And so what lessons are you bringing with you to scale Besolo? And how are you thinking about go-to-market this time around?
00:10:26 Mark: Yeah, so I mean, I think it's important in any startup to be just incredibly customer-centric is to not allow some, how-to-scale-a-startup guide on the internet to choose how you go-to market as a company.
00:10:40 Mark: We found that there are two things that are very true in this space. One is that solopreneurs tend to be people that are seeking information. So we are actively using, building out a very large content strategy, devising playbooks, informational guides, all those types of things to attack organic search effectively.
00:10:59 Mark: That's how I built Velocity Global was looking at where the gaps were in giving away free wisdom. You give away 95% of your wisdom for free, and then the last 5% is the service that you charge for. And in doing so, you build trust.
00:11:14 Mark: So that's definitely one huge part of how we go-to market, is sharing wisdom. And I think that is the core DNA of the company. That's the way we're always going to lean inside the product and in the marketing is give away as much wisdom as possible to make this lifestyle more attainable for people.
00:11:30 Mark: And I think that plays nicely with the second approach, which is we're going to be partnering with a lot of groups, communities, marketplaces, et cetera, that are currently supporting the solopreneurial lifestyle and try to build these network effects.
00:11:45 Mark: We're promoting what they're doing. They're promoting what we're doing and just demystifying as a whole the space. Because we see what we're actually selling at Besolo. It's less to do with like, oh, it's a benefits plan or it's like a tax platform, or it's an S Corp thing. It's actually the antidote to choice paralysis.
00:12:06 Mark: Because as a solopreneur, you have so many different ways you can choose to form your business. Are you a sole proprietor, LLC or S Corp? Are you going to run a W2 payroll for yourself as an S Corp? Or are you going to just do normal distributions?
00:12:20 Mark: How are you going to get your 401k? Are you going to do an IRA? Are you going to use Carry? Are you going to use one of these other solo 401k companies?
00:12:26 Mark: And I think what we're trying to do is do all the work of curation, set like a baseline threshold of, hey, here's when you're qualified for where our product is today. If you meet these little boxes, check, check, check. Cool. We've made all the next 10 decisions for you and they've turned them into little toggle switches.
00:12:45 Mark: Okay, you want business insurance, turn it on. We got you, right? You want a 401k? We've gone out and found the best 401k for you that's fully payroll integrated with our system. Turn it on. So we're actually, yeah, an antidote to choice paralysis.
00:12:59 Mark: And I think that's the general theme across how we're gonna be marketing as well and supporting the lifestyle through the marketing.
00:13:07 Beth: Yeah, and I love that analogy of the OS for your solopreneurs and getting rid of that choice paralysis and bringing the best of curated different types of services. Because when you're an entrepreneur, you want to innovate on particular things.
00:13:21 Beth: Whether it's like your product or your content, but not everything. You want to have a normal company formation and taxes. You should not be trying to innovate too hard on that side.
00:13:32 Mark: There is actually a recipe.
00:13:33 Beth: Yeah.
00:13:33 Mark: Once there's a qualification criteria met, there is a recipe or at least a rough recipe that we can set and say, okay, you follow this recipe, you're going to get a solid A minus or A on getting the most out of your tax strategy.
00:13:47 Mark: You're going to get a really good 401k plan, you're going to get a really good healthcare plan. And some people loop out and get so into trying to get the absolute best into one little nuance of their business that they then fail to check all the other boxes. And then that door is wide open again for death by a thousand cuts.
00:14:05 Beth: So true. Yeah, it reminds me a bit of Apple. And the curation strategy that they have taking the best of the best, putting it in one place. And like you said, simplifying those choices, but arguably something even more impactful, like all these solopreneurs.
00:14:19 Mark: Hm-hmm.
00:14:20 Beth: Yeah. And so what makes Besolo different from what others are doing in the space?
00:14:5 Mark: So I think what we're going to see over the next 10 years is this big battle unfold between who is enterprise-centric and who is solo or independent-centric. And what I mean by that is there's a lot of reasons why enterprises or large companies or mid-sized companies like using independent talent.
00:14:49 Mark: It decreases their employment burden, it allows them to hire and fire a lot faster and not necessarily in a positive way. Usually not in a positive way, usually in a pretty exploitive way.
00:15:01 Mark: And there are some partners or some providers and competitors out there or adjacent companies that are very focused on satisfying the needs of the enterprise.
00:15:12 Mark: I think Besolo and then there's some other providers out there that are very focused on really truly elevating the lifestyle of the solopreneur.
00:15:22 Mark: And I think if you play that battle out over time, especially with the wave of expansion that's happening in independent, the one that provides the best service for the individual solopreneur will eventually win, especially whoever can get into the demand side of the equation as well.
00:15:41 Mark: So in our fantasy, eventually, is Besolo is also facilitating access to next gigs, clients, et cetera, not necessarily doing the recruiting or the placement or anything like that, but there's some part of our equation that unlocks better gigs and better clients.
00:15:59 Mark: And I think as soon as you do that, the alternative enterprise centric model of, oh, if you leave working for Uber, you lose your benefits, even though you're a contractor, that just feels insanely exploitive versus, yeah, you're with Besolo as long as you're in good standing, you'll always have this.
00:16:18 Mark: You can work with whoever you want, however you want. That's the whole lifestyle. Just keep doing it. We'll handle all the infrastructure side of things. You just go focus on getting more clients and living your life.
00:16:30 Mark: So I'm super curious to see how this plays out over time. And I really, really hope that a player like Besolo wins and really empowers the freelance fractional independent lifestyle.
00:16:41 Beth: Totally. I mean, if I'm a freelancer or a solopreneur myself, I mean, who am I going to go with? The big enterprise platform that I know is that not made for me or Besolo. You're really focused in on that particular customer segment.
00:16:56 Beth: And yeah, speaking of that, I was reading earlier about how some creators are making insane money, just doing the most random things. And so what's the weirdest success story you've seen from someone using your platform?
00:17:07 Mark: Oh, wow. I will be honest today, we are very much focused on the fractional and freelance software engineers. It is really cool in general to see the people that are making money as influencers in the space. We actually have a couple of users that are solopreneurial freelance fractional influencers, as well as fractional CMOs, CTOs, et cetera.
00:17:29 Mark: And they're like part of that flywheel. So I think that part's really cool to be supporting them on that journey, which is also complimentary to our journey and complimentary to our mission.
00:17:38 Mark: But thus far, yeah, I don't have anybody that's like a professional Maine Coon cat breeder making six figures or something just yet, but I'm sure we'll get there.
00:17:48 Beth: Yeah, but I'm sure having a bunch of AI engineers and these fractional CMOs at big companies must be pretty interesting to get to deal with.
00:17:55 Mark: Yeah, everybody has a very interesting and unique story. And I think that's something that we really do really well is connecting with the person, figuring out what their individual needs are and making sure that our framework, our platform works really well for them and will work really well for them for the coming decades.
00:18:11 Beth: And so maybe this is something that you see on your own journey and also from working with your customers who are entrepreneurs themselves, but mental toughness seems to be a real requirement for entrepreneurship.
00:18:22 Beth: Personally, I found that I am constantly being humbled, whether it's from customers perceiving my company a certain way or investors another. It's like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.
00:18:34 Mark: Yeah.
00:18:34 Beth: And so what is the hardest part about building Besolo and what's the stuff that is testing you mentally?
00:18:41 Mark: Yeah. So I think the challenge with any startup is as soon as you get into market and you've got your baby that you've built and you're like, oh my God, this thing is going to be amazing. And you start doing what every founder does and you do your cold outreach and you face so much rejection.
00:19:00 Beth: Yes.
00:19:00 Mark: And I think that's one part of the process is understanding that rejection does not mean failure. It might just mean that your messaging is incorrect. It might just mean that the person's having a bad day.
00:19:13 Mark: And yeah, you got to take some punches to the face and try a different angle and dodge and try again. And we got lucky. Eventually we adjusted our messaging and just doing cold founder outreach, found our first handful of customers and they were like, oh my God, thank you so much for making this. That's a key thing that I remembered from my time at Velocity Global.
00:19:32 Mark: And I think it's a really good indicator of whether or not you're onto a really good product is when people thank you for selling them, that's a really cool experience. But that happens one out of 25 or 30 times.
00:19:46 Mark: The other times are still gonna be punches to the face of like, you know. I love actually love cold outreach as a founder because sometimes you just know that somebody's super upset and they're just like, hey, you should go die. And I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm trying to help you. I'm really not trying to mess up your day, but I appreciate that response. I'm like, okay, move to the next one.
00:20:05 Beth: Should I come back in next quarter?
00:20:07 Mark: Yeah. So I'll talk to you in another six months. I'm sure you're probably deep in that too. Just like--
00:20:13 Beth: Totally.
00:20:13 Mark: Cold outreach battle zone.
00:20:16 Beth: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I guess another part of it too is just that dedication and consistently continuing to do the cold outreach, continuing to get the reps in, like you were saying. And some people just give up too early. And so how do you stay focused when you're building something like this? And do you have any specific routines or practices that really have helped you out?
00:20:36 Mark: Yeah, I mean, one, I always try to remember, I think it's Seth Godin was talking about the dip. Is that a lot of times the time that you're in the worst time is like just before you're about to succeed.
00:20:48 Mark: So I try to remember that pretty regularly. I also had the CEO founder of Velocity Global share a pretty good quote with me back when we were together. He said, “Until the really great stuff comes along, do the not so great stuff. The not so great stuff always leads to the great stuff, whereas doing nothing pretty much leads to nowhere, and do it with passion.” So like, just keep trying. It's up to bats.
00:21:10 Mark: And then on the personal side of things, I think the startup space is just going to be incredibly difficult on your mind and you need to find time and you need to find ways to recuperate and reboot.
00:21:22 Mark: So for me, that means lots of fitness and trying to get really good sleep. I think 21 year old me would have not believed that 21 year old me working on Cinimeo would have been like, oh yeah, it's all, the answer is all nighters and 24 hours, seven days a week.
00:21:36 Mark: And it's like, I think the answer is probably 12 to 15 hour days and then seven to eight hours of sleep over time.
00:21:43 Beth: Yeah. I mean, sleep is just so foundational too. Do you do anything to track your sleep?
00:21:48 Mark: Yeah.
00:21:49 Beth: Yeah. Have you got any particular protocols or things that are working well for you?
00:21:52 Mark: I found two things. One, making my to-do list for tomorrow just before going to bed really helps kind of clear the mental slate. So I'll try to make the to-do list. And then I'll also look at my calendar and see if my to-do list is extremely overly ambitious.
00:22:07 Mark: And then also make sure that there's actually focused time on the calendar for the day to get those things done. But the overly ambitious to-do list is almost as dangerous as the underly ambitious to-do list.
00:22:18 Mark: And then on the sleep side of things too, recently adding magnesium. So like a zinc magnesium supplement into my diet seemed to help bring more deep sleep and REM sleep in, which you wake up feeling refreshed, which is far better than wake up feeling exhausted and trying to tackle really hard problems.
00:22:36 Beth: So true. Yeah, I use a WHOOP to track my sleep and supplements and all of that stuff too. And so it is interesting seeing the impact of these different things over time. And so we realized that health can have such a big effect on your ability to bring your whole self to work and bring your best work.
00:22:52 Beth: How do you, I guess, bring those values to your team as well? So from my experience, so some of my team members, they'll work way into the middle of the night too, and it'll be like 2 AM their time and they're messaging me. I'm like, shouldn't you be asleep?
00:23:04 Beth: You know, but you don't want to burn them out, the same way we take care of ourselves. We should take care of our teams. And so yeah, how do you promote that in your team and also just what's it like to work at Besolo?
00:23:14 Mark: Yeah. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head, is just having a baseline culture and understanding across the team that I think one of the biggest enemies is burnout. If you burn yourself out, you're good to nobody for a week or two weeks.
00:23:27 Mark: I'd much rather have somebody that's rested and able to keep showing up and keep doing those things until they find the next great thing versus get to the point where they really need to take two or three weeks away. Or their brain is away.
00:23:42 Mark: Their brain is away, and they're there, but they're completely burnt out. So we've got a… we could do fitness challenges. We've got like a fitness channel on our Slack to everybody shares their fitness challenges. I race dirt bikes. I'll share whenever I have a race, kind of the wins and stuff.
00:23:57 Beth: And co-founder Jeff is a runner and Charlie's a runner. And so, yeah, so just try to support the fitness side of things and yeah, make sure that everybody's getting enough rest and we're in it for the long haul. It's not about sprinting for the next six months. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon on a marathon on a marathon on a marathon.
00:24:15 Beth: Absolutely. Potentially 10 years plus.
00:24:17 Mark: Yeah.
00:24:18 Beth: So, well, Mark, this has been amazing. And so I would love to wrap this up with a speed round. And so getting to our first question for this, what's a book you're reading or a podcast you're enjoying lately?
00:24:29 Mark: Yeah, I actually just finished up A Walk in the Park being someone that lives in Northern Arizona, which is about these two guys that did the entire Grand Canyon through hike, which is 700 miles. And the vast majority of it has no trail. So you're literally walking on those ledges.
00:24:48 Mark: And I don't know, it just felt like one of those things that felt very similar to the process of doing a startup. There's no trail. You're out there in very intense weather and intense conditions. And it was like this really nice meditation of preparation and perseverance and continue to go on.
00:25:05 Mark: And also they did a really good job of making sure to remind you to embrace the beauty of a moment that happens that is really cool, like a win and really sit with that moment. So not necessarily a startup book, but a really great book for anybody, A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko.
00:25:22 Beth: That's fun. And if you could live anywhere in the world for one year, where would it be?
00:25:27 Mark: Like I said, I'm super lucky to be based in Sedona, Arizona, and the rest of my team is in Denver, Colorado, both incredibly beautiful places. So I don't usually think about that type of fantasy, where am I going to live?
00:25:40 Mark: But I think if I had to go anywhere else for a year, it would be Iceland. Got to stop there for a four night flight layover one time and just experience the culture and the beauty of that place. And I was just like, wow, this is just something else. And so I think it'd be really cool to spend more time in exploring Iceland.
00:25:59 Beth: And what is your favorite life or productivity hack?
00:26:02 Mark: I mean, I think I already mentioned it a little bit, but it was that, honestly, that making tomorrow's to-do list the night before just to clear my brain. And to also ensure that I have the focus to get through what matters for tomorrow or make adjustments to schedule tomorrow.
00:26:17 Mark: And then that empowers restful sleep. If I don't make that to-do list for tomorrow, I will literally, you know, wake up 1 AM and then 2 AM and then 3 AM. My cats are having a dance party on us for some reason. So that happens too.
00:26:33 Mark: So productivity hack number two is, try to keep, make individual beds for your cats so that they're not having a dance party on you at 3 AM. But yeah, that little to-do list hack is super simple and just clears up the day. It's really nice.
00:26:45 Beth: And where can our listeners find you?
00:26:47 Mark: I'm blessed or cursed with a very popular name, Mark Jackson. So I think honestly the best and easiest way to find me is just to Google Besolo CEO and you can see my LinkedIn or our website there. And I've got a meeting link on my LinkedIn that's public. So if you ever wanna talk, I'm happy to chat at all times.
00:27:06 Beth: Right, well thank you so much, Mark.
00:27:08 Mark: Thank you, Beth, I appreciate it.
00:27:12 Scott Harley: Thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed today's episode. For those of you listening, you might also be interested to learn more about Everywhere. We're a first check pre-seed fund that does exactly that invests everywhere. We're a community of 500 founders and operators, and we've invested in over 250 companies around the globe. Find us at our website, everywhere.vc, on LinkedIn, and through our regular founder spotlights on Substack. Be sure to subscribe, and we'll catch you on the next episode.