MARK ANDREW TERLESKY

Mark Andrew Terlesky/ Darsey Solutions, LLC

"Louis: My papa would like to meet you ... He runs our little group. Avner: I thought you ran the group. Louis: Everybody works for someone." -- from the 2005 film, Munich

"Mom & pop stores are not about something small; they are about something big ... We must have mom & pop stores because we are social animals. We crave to be part of the marketplace.” –- Robert Spector

"You have family-owned businesses that have been around for 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives intact for even a few decades." -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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A creature of SMBs & their SBUs. Have helped: start from ∅ & run 4, & run 4 established ones, in 4 spaces (Law, Ads, RDBMS/ SQL, & Staffing); &, advise 35+ SMBs re: ads, HR, & government regulations compliances. Also an investor in 5 SMBs.

BUSINESS/ CAREERS

In July 2024, I started Darsey Solutions, LLC ("Darsey"), investing in small businesses, including formerly in FetchFind LLC; Nori, Inc.; Mighty Well Inc.; Pocketful of Quarters, Inc.; and, Preemadonna Inc.

Through the years:

I held senior team-leader and always hybrid INTERNAL fused with EXTERNAL (more about this fusion below) positions/ roles with several small- and medium-sized businesses ("SMBs") in the San Francisco Bay Area, all either young or brand-new branch offices/ strategic business units ("SBUs") of SMBs, or, new or established SMBs launched by 1st-time entrepreneurs who left bigger employers to go solo or start their own SMBs. See my LinkedIn profile for further details.

They included: a RDBMS/ SQL company; a staffing/ recruitment firm; an advertising company; and, 3 boutique law firms. All six of the foregoing are/ were at their cores consulting and advisory organizations. For a brief moment or longer, consulting gives the consultant an enviable "back stage pass" to clients'/ customers' most privileged and confidential trade and operations secrets. And, the adage "those who can, do; those who can’t, teach" never applies to true and competent consulting. A consulting organization must be a going concern itself to be able to advise other organizations to stay such, or become such.

Internal:

My internal roles oversaw the operations of HR, IT, legal, accounting, knowledge management, vendor relations, project management, websites & social media, landlord relations, customer service, sales, collections, telecom, banking, marketing/ new business development, purchasing, meetings & travel arrangements, and insurance/ risk monitoring.

My internal accomplishments included: 5x an operations lead or co-lead; 4x a HR lead; 4x an 'intra'preneur leading the start-up of new branch offices/ SBUs or departments; and, 1x an employee #1.

External:

While in the staffing/ recruitment industry, I performed prospecting to potential customers to market temporary ("temp") and direct-hire staffing services, and worked with recruiting teams to select talent for placements with customers, which included law firms, insurance companies, department stores, real estate companies, high rise property management/ building security companies, e-commerce companies, concerts/ nightclubs, and others. At any given time I had over 25 temp workers on assignments out in the field, and with customers’ reps (my placements' line managers) I helped co-manage certain temp workers for brief times when situations warranted

While in the cable TV advertising industry, I identified and persuaded local SMBs to purchase advertising/ run commercial spots, prepared advertising contracts for customers’ campaigns, and teamed up with customers and their chosen video production teams to script and produce 30-second commercial spots from scratch, or adopt/ re-tool their previously produced spots, to run "on the air." My largely “mom & pop” customers included owners and/ or management of:

a restaurant; 4 car dealerships; a dental practice; a big-screen TV and appliance store; 2 furniture stores; a gas station; an auto body shop; a high-end pawn shop/ jewelry store; a bank; a go-kart racing track; a tires store; an auto show at a convention center; a carpet cleaning business; and a few others.

While working in the legal services industry, 35x+ I was a senior member of legal teams providing consulting and advocacy services to companies (many cyclically as repeat/ regular clients) in regards to HR compliance, pre-litigation & litigated business disputes, California LLC registration and LLC manager(s)/ member(s) and ownership structuring, Delaware and Tennessee corporate good standing compliances, and related matters. The organizations served included:

an art gallery; a pharmaceutical company; several game companies; a food distributor; the "family office" of a former founder/ CEO of an oil company; a motorcycle components company; a liquor store; a realtor firm; a promotional items/ "see before you buy" company; a law firm; a veterinary clinic; a beer brewery; a mortgage brokerage company; a medical billing service; a specialty foods company; an engineering firm; a soft drink/ beverage company; a VR company; a clinical statistical programming company; and others.

On the flip side, 120x+ I was a senior member of legal advocacy teams helping individual employees (including 3 public company CEOs, at least 7 private company CEOs, over 20 CFOs, COOs & SVPs, plus scores of scientists, founders, salespeople, attorneys, I.T. personnel, HR directors, admin assistants, and others) assert their claims against some of the biggest names in:

social media; electric cars; VR; cell phones; biotech; vaping; enterprise software; multimedia software; networking equipment; on-line auctioning; e-commerce; on-line payments; medical devices; billionaire "family offices"; flash memory products; SaaS; semiconductors; VCs; games; telecom; mobile applications; and search engines. As a result, I enjoyed a backstage pass to 120+ Silicon Valley lawyered-up employee off-boards and on-boards, involving many iconic companies providing the products and services listed above, and, a few involving direct reports to:

Tim Cook, Larry Ellison, Patrick Soon-Shiong, Eric Schmidt, Palmer Luckey, and Michael Novogratz, as well as direct reports to members of Jeff Bezos' and Elon Musk's C-suite inner circles.

EDUCATION

I hold a Master of Journalism from the University of California -- Berkeley. Prior to and while earning my master's degree, I had 50+ articles/ news stories published in 4 news outlets, including The Washington Times in Washington DC. During the course of my news reporting career, I had the privilege to interview hundreds of people from all walks of life, including scientists, politicians, community organizers, labor union reps, CEOs, an iconic actress, authors, university professors and administrators, law enforcement officers, and, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman [perhaps the most renowned former director of the National Security Agency, or NSA.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of California -- Santa Barbara (UCSB), where I primarily studied East European history, the Latin language, and the works of William Shakespeare. While at UCSB, I was honored to have been mentored for most of an academic year by a visiting professor from Hungary, Géza Jeszenszky, who later became his country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Ambassador to the United States.

See my LinkedIn profile for further details.

ROOTS

I was born and raised in two suburbs (Springdale, and then Wyoming) north of Cincinnati, OH. In my teens I was a member of the Wyoming middle school and high school varsity football, track & field, and wrestling teams. Growing up, I also spent a lot of time visiting family in Middletown, Springboro and Centerville, three mostly then rural communities outside of Dayton, OH. My family is replete with SMBs entreprenuers, and I'm proud to hail from them. My mother, stepfather, and birthfather all founded and ran solo health care practices in Cincinnati. My paternal grandfather opened and ran a drycleaning store in Cleveland, OH. Ditto as to my maternal grandfather and his pharmacy in Columbus, OH.

According to my 23andMe results, genetically I am 48.8% French & German; 43.5% Eastern European; 5.6% Greek & Balkan; 0.7% Manchurian & Mongolian; 0.4% Sardinian; and, 0.1% Siberian.

TRAVELS

My travels have included 30+ U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany (including East Berlin, before reunification), Austria, and Italy.

HOBBIES

"When asked by a reporter what her husband's hobbies were, Mary Todd Lincoln stated flatly: 'cats'." -- Anonymous news reporter. I relate.

I'm also into growing Darsey, following the fitness routines and mindsets of the late Arthur Jones, founder of Nautilus exercise machines in the 1970s, and Nick Lavery, an amputee but still serving active duty Green Beret, and donating a chunk of my income to humanitarian and animal rights causes (see the "Volunteering" module in my LinkedIn profile).