Mark Soane
Managing Director
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- Full Name
- Mark Soane
- Title
- Co-Founder & Managing Director
- Firm
- GlidePath Partners
- Firm Type
- Growth equity investment firm (the stub's "Angel Investors" label appears to be an aggregator misclassification — GlidePath is an institutional growth-equity/late-venture firm, though Soane's long career also spans early-stage venture and angel-type activity)
- Investment Stage
- Growth-stage / late-stage companies positioning for exit (also considers bridge financings for existing portfolios); historically early- and expansion-stage venture
- Check Size
- Typically $2–5M in an initial round, generally via convertible preferred stock, also participating via bridge notes
- Target Company Profile
- Startups and growth-stage businesses seeking to accelerate toward "better and bigger exits"; often companies with existing unfilled equity or bridge-loan offerings
- Sector Focus
- IT / software (SaaS, web/marketplace), healthcare services & health IT, industrial technology, energy & clean technology, space technology, medical devices
- Geographic Focus
- United States (Rocky Mountain region / Colorado emphasis)
- Location
- Denver, Colorado
Background
Mark Soane is a co-founder and Managing Director of GlidePath Partners, a Denver-based growth equity firm founded in 2014 that helps startups and growth-stage companies "accelerate toward better and bigger exits." He has been an active investor across three investment funds over his career. Prior to GlidePath, he founded and was Managing Director of Appian Ventures, an information-technology-focused venture capital firm, and before that founded and served as Managing General Partner of Quest Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Early in his investing career he was an associate at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he led the firm's investment in Veritas Software.
Beyond investing, Soane brings substantial operating experience in venture-backed companies. He served as Executive Chairman of Controlled Products Systems Group, where he led the turnaround of a $40M wholesale security-systems distributor, and was VP of Product Management and Client Services at Multum Information Services, a healthcare IT company later sold to Cerner. Earlier roles included finance at International Paper, a management role at Personics Corporation (an early digital-music precursor sold to Time-Warner), and positions at TRADE, Inc.
Soane holds an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College, where he graduated with Highest Distinction, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He is active in the Colorado investment and civic community: he is the former chairman of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, was reappointed by Governor John Hickenlooper to the Colorado Venture Capital Authority (which he formerly chaired), and serves on the board of StepDenver, an organization dedicated to long-term addiction recovery.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests in startups and growth-stage businesses, with a stated mission to help companies "accelerate toward better and bigger exits" — the firm's differentiator is structuring deals around a clear exit path.
- Typical initial check of $2–5M, usually structured as convertible preferred stock, with willingness to participate in bridge notes and to fill existing, unfilled equity or bridge-loan rounds.
- Sector focus spans IT and software (SaaS, marketplaces), healthcare services and health IT, industrial and space technology, energy and clean technology, and medical devices.
- Emphasizes custom investment structures that "catalyze investment from inside investors and give management something to work for" — signaling a preference for companies where alignment with existing investors and management incentives can be engineered.
- The GlidePath principals collectively bring "over 50 years of experience leading, investing in, and advising" growth companies, reflecting a hands-on, operator-informed approach rather than pure financial investing.
Notable Investments
- Ping Identity — Enterprise identity management; became a major Denver-area success (later IPO'd and acquired by Thoma Bravo).
- Veritas Software — Enterprise storage management; Soane led Bessemer's investment; IPO'd and later acquired by Symantec.
- Tendril Networks — Home/utility energy management software.
- Alianza — Cloud-based communications platform for North American service providers.
- AllClear ID — Identity-theft protection services (sold to Experian).
- Sensys Networks — Wireless traffic-detection systems (sold to TagMaster AB).
- Voyant Technologies — Voice conferencing bridges (sold to Polycom).
- Carefx — Healthcare IT system integration (sold to Harris Corp).
- OpenLogic — Open-source software management tools (sold to Rogue Wave Software).
- Ischemia Technologies — Cardiac ischemia diagnostics (sold to Alere).
- GDM Electronic & Medical — Electro-mechanical systems for medical, robotics, defense, automotive and research sectors.
- AdPay — Online classified and obituary management for media companies.
- Controlled Products — Perimeter-control/security equipment distributor (also an operating role for Soane).
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