Mark-Eric Jones: «The inborn must-have is the belief in yourself»
02.02.2013
Mark-Eric Jones is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years’ experience as an executive and a constant in the venture kick jury pool. In an interview for venture kick, he talks about his passion being an active jury member and gives us some insights about the challenges of entrepreneurship.
 Mark-Eric Jones, founder of Leman Micro Devices and venture kick jury member
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«You have been an active jury member at venture kick for some time. What is it that drives your involvement?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I am driven by three elements: first of all, as a CEO, I think it is important to step back from the job periodically and look at your own company from a distance. I find that participating as a venture kick juror helps me do this by forcing me to look analytically at other start-ups, often resulting in a better perspective on my own. Second: I want to help encourage vibrant local start-ups environment which helps start-ups themself as well as the region in general. And third: I have had a very successful career as an entrepreneur and want to give something back to young entrepreneurs.»
«How do you see the program and its achievements? How has it developed for you in the last years?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I like the venture kick program because it helps address the difficulty of funding the very early stages of a start-up and thus nurture the entrepreneurial environment in Switzerland. I really believe that the quality of start-ups that we see has improved over the past years and this is very encouraging. When I first started on the jury, it was hard to find 50% of the cases that I wanted to say “Yes” to. Now it is increasingly difficult to find 50% that I want to say “No” to! Also with many regular jury members that I have gotten to know well, I have expanded my network substantially.»
«With the new year, venture kick has launched a new financing model based on entrepreneurial spirit – are you familiar with this model?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Yes, I completely support this new model and hope that it will help accelerate the growth of the venture kick program.»
«Do you have a personal venture kick memory you will keep in mind for the future?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «There are many useful insights I have gained both from listening to pitching entrepreneurs and by reflecting on exchanges I had with other jury members when discussing the cases. It is rare to leave a pitching session without some benefit. Perhaps one of the most direct impacts for me has been the fact that I met the person who later became the lead investor in my latest company when the two of us served on the venture kick jury in 2011.»
«You can check the entrepreneurs live over the three venture kick rounds. In which fields do start-ups usually make the biggest step and thus manage to surprise you?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Most of the start-ups are often led by very technical people. What I always look for and enjoy seeing is the change as people put more and more emphasis on the non-technical aspects of the business. It’s typically an evolution where they realize that their creativity and drive can be (and should be) applied to other areas than the core technology in order to get the best results. It might be surprising to hear that a very technical person can also develop very strong business skills, but I believe that the desire for true understanding, creativity and drive equally applies to both fields.»
«You are a successful and keen entrepreneur yourself and have just started a new venture –from your perspective, what are the most important factors to survive these adventures?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I believe the key required quality is the ability to handle contradictions. Let me explain! Entrepreneurs must combine a sense of urgency to get things done with some patience when things don’t happen as quickly as required. They must have enough optimism to pull the whole team out of set-backs, whilst constantly thinking through what can go wrong. They need to work well with a team, but also be able to avoid burdening their teams with issues that they need to resolve themselves. And probably most importantly, they must be able to drive an idea that everyone else opposes, but also know when they need to change!»
«And what are the qualities that you can’t learn and you should bring along?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Most qualities can be learned, but the one that you must have built-in is belief in yourself and conviction that you will succeed (even if it takes a lot of effort and time).»
«You studied in the UK and your name doesn’t sound quite Swiss – Can you tell us how you came to work in Switzerland?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I grew up in the UK although my mother was born in Spain. I started my first company straight after finishing university and much later realized that since it had evolved to a business serving the semiconductor industry we needed an office in California’s “Silicon Valley”. I went there in 1992 to set up the office and rapidly realized that we had to make this our headquarters (but kept the R&D in the UK), so I stayed there, initially running my company, then a division of the US public company that acquired us and then joining a memory technology company to help them change their business model and grow a licensing business. After we had taken that company public on NASDAQ, a bid was announced for us to be acquired by another larger, public US licensing company and I was approached by a headhunter to be CEO of a memory technology start-up company on Parc Scientifique in Switzerland that had just raised a series A investment where the investors wanted an experienced CEO to lead it. Since I didn’t really want to work in the larger acquiring company and I really liked the founders and investors of Innovative Silicon (the Swiss start-up), I moved to Switzerland in 2004.»
«Last question: What would you like to learn or to start if you had unlimited time?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «If I had unlimited time, there is almost an unlimited number of things that I would like to do. I often find the most stimulating and interesting things are those that are quite different from your previous experiences. As far as work is concerned, I’m having great fun with Leman Micro Devices which, although young, has the potential to cause a major disruption in the medical device industry and to make Vital Signs measurements cheap and easily accessible to the whole of the world’s population. Outside of work, my passions include offshore sailing, archery and major house renovation (DIY)!»
«Thank you very much Marl-Eric for your detailed and inspiring answers. Let us just wish you to find enough time for everything you want and you have to do!»
More about Mark-Eric Jones
Mark-Eric Jones is currently founder and CEO of Leman Micro Devices SA, a medical technology company based in Lausanne. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience as an executive of private and public companies in the UK, USA and Switzerland including more than 25 years as CEO. He has an M.A. degree in Electrical Sciences from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK.
Mark-Eric Jones: «I am driven by three elements: first of all, as a CEO, I think it is important to step back from the job periodically and look at your own company from a distance. I find that participating as a venture kick juror helps me do this by forcing me to look analytically at other start-ups, often resulting in a better perspective on my own. Second: I want to help encourage vibrant local start-ups environment which helps start-ups themself as well as the region in general. And third: I have had a very successful career as an entrepreneur and want to give something back to young entrepreneurs.»
«How do you see the program and its achievements? How has it developed for you in the last years?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I like the venture kick program because it helps address the difficulty of funding the very early stages of a start-up and thus nurture the entrepreneurial environment in Switzerland. I really believe that the quality of start-ups that we see has improved over the past years and this is very encouraging. When I first started on the jury, it was hard to find 50% of the cases that I wanted to say “Yes” to. Now it is increasingly difficult to find 50% that I want to say “No” to! Also with many regular jury members that I have gotten to know well, I have expanded my network substantially.»
«With the new year, venture kick has launched a new financing model based on entrepreneurial spirit – are you familiar with this model?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Yes, I completely support this new model and hope that it will help accelerate the growth of the venture kick program.»
«Do you have a personal venture kick memory you will keep in mind for the future?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «There are many useful insights I have gained both from listening to pitching entrepreneurs and by reflecting on exchanges I had with other jury members when discussing the cases. It is rare to leave a pitching session without some benefit. Perhaps one of the most direct impacts for me has been the fact that I met the person who later became the lead investor in my latest company when the two of us served on the venture kick jury in 2011.»
«You can check the entrepreneurs live over the three venture kick rounds. In which fields do start-ups usually make the biggest step and thus manage to surprise you?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Most of the start-ups are often led by very technical people. What I always look for and enjoy seeing is the change as people put more and more emphasis on the non-technical aspects of the business. It’s typically an evolution where they realize that their creativity and drive can be (and should be) applied to other areas than the core technology in order to get the best results. It might be surprising to hear that a very technical person can also develop very strong business skills, but I believe that the desire for true understanding, creativity and drive equally applies to both fields.»
«You are a successful and keen entrepreneur yourself and have just started a new venture –from your perspective, what are the most important factors to survive these adventures?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I believe the key required quality is the ability to handle contradictions. Let me explain! Entrepreneurs must combine a sense of urgency to get things done with some patience when things don’t happen as quickly as required. They must have enough optimism to pull the whole team out of set-backs, whilst constantly thinking through what can go wrong. They need to work well with a team, but also be able to avoid burdening their teams with issues that they need to resolve themselves. And probably most importantly, they must be able to drive an idea that everyone else opposes, but also know when they need to change!»
«And what are the qualities that you can’t learn and you should bring along?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «Most qualities can be learned, but the one that you must have built-in is belief in yourself and conviction that you will succeed (even if it takes a lot of effort and time).»
«You studied in the UK and your name doesn’t sound quite Swiss – Can you tell us how you came to work in Switzerland?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «I grew up in the UK although my mother was born in Spain. I started my first company straight after finishing university and much later realized that since it had evolved to a business serving the semiconductor industry we needed an office in California’s “Silicon Valley”. I went there in 1992 to set up the office and rapidly realized that we had to make this our headquarters (but kept the R&D in the UK), so I stayed there, initially running my company, then a division of the US public company that acquired us and then joining a memory technology company to help them change their business model and grow a licensing business. After we had taken that company public on NASDAQ, a bid was announced for us to be acquired by another larger, public US licensing company and I was approached by a headhunter to be CEO of a memory technology start-up company on Parc Scientifique in Switzerland that had just raised a series A investment where the investors wanted an experienced CEO to lead it. Since I didn’t really want to work in the larger acquiring company and I really liked the founders and investors of Innovative Silicon (the Swiss start-up), I moved to Switzerland in 2004.»
«Last question: What would you like to learn or to start if you had unlimited time?»
Mark-Eric Jones: «If I had unlimited time, there is almost an unlimited number of things that I would like to do. I often find the most stimulating and interesting things are those that are quite different from your previous experiences. As far as work is concerned, I’m having great fun with Leman Micro Devices which, although young, has the potential to cause a major disruption in the medical device industry and to make Vital Signs measurements cheap and easily accessible to the whole of the world’s population. Outside of work, my passions include offshore sailing, archery and major house renovation (DIY)!»
«Thank you very much Marl-Eric for your detailed and inspiring answers. Let us just wish you to find enough time for everything you want and you have to do!»
More about Mark-Eric Jones
Mark-Eric Jones is currently founder and CEO of Leman Micro Devices SA, a medical technology company based in Lausanne. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience as an executive of private and public companies in the UK, USA and Switzerland including more than 25 years as CEO. He has an M.A. degree in Electrical Sciences from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK.