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An interview with Mark Bathie

19 December 2011

1. So Mark tell us a bit about about your business Codesion how it ended up in Silcion Valley from an original Brisbane base?

I’d always considered moving the company to the U.S. After struggling to raise expansion capital here in Australia, I figured if we were going to get serious about rapidly growing the business, we’d have to seek funding elsewhere, and the natural place really for a Tech startup was Silicon Valley. Part of the struggle was due to the 2008 stockmarket meltdown, and part was due to the fact that my business was in SaaS/Cloud Computing, which back in ‘07/’08 wasn’t nearly seen as the big opportunity that it is today. With that we packed up and moved part of the team in January 2009. Immediately we were impressed with the volume of other startups, investors, and the ground swell of startup activity happening in general.

2. What did a successful commercial exit look like for you when you headed over and what did it look like in reality.

To be honest, I had no idea what it was going to look like, other that I knew it would more than likely be an acquisition of some description. One of my primary goals from when I started the business in 2002 was to be acquired, so I knew that’s what I wanted, but didn’t know when or how it was going to happen. I did have a few running conversations with other larger companies over the years, who may have been potential acquirers, but everyone plays their cards close to the chest, so you never really know where you stand with them.

In the end, it was a big decision to sell my company, and a totally new experience. For something I’d started from scratch and pored all my energy into for the past 9 years you don’t take these decisions lightly, and want to make sure your really ok with the decision, the market is favorable, and you have at least 2 competing offers to buy. Our first offer from CollabNet (the eventual acquirers), was somewhat underwhelming, so I turned it down in favor of a competing bid. CollabNet were obviously very keen to buy us and returned within a week with a substantially increased offer, which I accepted. The whole process took about 6 months from deciding to sell, to signing the paperwork.

3. Who typically added value through the exit process, the lawyers, the accountants, good mentors?

I have to say we had fantastic lawyers in Australia, and the US, and good accountants here in Australia as well. Our company was a bit more complicated given we had operating entities in Australia and the US, so its important we had lawyers in the US that had done several deals like ours. Our US lawyers especially were available at all hours, so if I ever had a burning question that was troubling me, I knew I could call them and get an answer or reassurance. The biggest value perhaps they add is telling you what you don’t know, and were great in some of the ‘heavy’ negotiation calls. Roger Sippl, a board member and investor of ours was also a great sounding board and mentor. His years of experience running companies and as an investor in the startup community added a lot of value. He not only added practical advice, but also jumped on a few negotiation calls, took the lead, which resulted in a better deal for us.

4. Would you do it again and what do you take out of the experience?

Startups are hard work, and an emotional rollercoaster ride. You experience the full spectrum of human emotion, and sometimes all at once. Forget about sleep and forget about seeing your friends and family. The up side however is extremely rewarding, fun and exciting. You live and breath it, and get a real buzz out of the feedback from your customers, which helps drive the passion and ability to work harder. You learn a hell of a lot about things you never dreamed of, and meet lots of great people during the process.

Would I do it again? Probably, if the right opportunity came up. I’d get too bored otherwise! There are of course plenty of things I learned running CVSDude / Codesion, some things I did right, some things not so right, but you take them all on board as a learning experience and build on it for the next time around. Some take aways include. Slow to hire, quick to fire. I hired a couple of senior management staff, who we’re so good for the business in the end. Not worrying about the competition so much, of course you want to watch what they are doing, but only worry about what’s within your control, or you’ll run yourself ragged. Put yourself first sometimes, as the founder I always felt responsible for all my staff and customers, often at the expense of myself. It’s a big responsibility, but at the end of the day the founder is the one taking on majority of risk, and should feel its ok to be a little selfish sometimes.

5. What are you up to now, i hear you have a new startup called freegler.com, tell us about it!

I took several months off to surf where I live on the Gold Coast, while contemplating where to go next. This was quite a unique experience, having no responsibilities for the first time ever. I’ve given several talks about some of the experiences running CVSDude / Codesion, and advise a couple of tech startups in the mobile and web space, which I’m really enjoying. I hope that my experience can help them avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into, and know where to aim their focus. I always enjoyed coding, and haven’t done so in years, since I delegated those responsibilities to others I hired, and wanted to get back into it at some level.

I put together a site called Freeger.com in a couple of months. It’s targeted at the social / peer-to-peer commerce space, and allows anyone to rent, or rent their things to their neighbors. Everything from sporting goods, camping equipment, power tools, kitchen appliances, anything really you have lying around your home that is of some value to someone else. I split my time now between surfing, coding and advising.

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