Team

Mark Jacobson – Founder & Managing Partner

Mark is a seasoned executive recruiter, entrepreneur and private investor. For over a decade, he has partnered with Founders, CEOs, Board of Directors and leading venture investors to attract, recruit and select pivotal leadership for their high growth companies in the Internet/eCommerce, Mobile and SaaS sectors.

As Founder & Managing Partner of Ignition Talent Group, Mark takes a very personal, interactive and relationship-based approach to placing superior, senior-level talent.  Throughout his career, he has completed hundreds of CEO, Board Member and other functional leader assignments for early-stage and multinational corporations alike.  Mark leads the EIR and Future Founder Practice at Ignition.

Previously, Mark was a Partner at Barlow Group, where he was responsible for leading, managing and executing searches in the Digital Media, Mobile and Software sectors.  Before joining Barlow Group, Mark was a Senior Associate at James & Company, a premier boutique executive search firm.  He also served as a Senior Associate in Silicon Valley working in the Advanced Technology practice for one of the world’s largest executive search firms.

Earlier in his career, Mark served as Director, Human Capital for a boutique venture capital fund where he assisted in attracting and retaining key executives, advised and recruited for the Fund’s portfolio companies, and lead professional recruiting efforts for the Fund.

Mark began his career at a premier law firm working on high technology venture financings, M&A and public offerings. Mark earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Tufts University and has completed graduate coursework at UCLA and UC Berkeley.

Chris Farmer – Founder & Chairman

Chris has spent his career working alongside leading entrepreneurs as a co-founder, investor, recruiter and strategic advisor to build world class teams and, ultimately, world class companies. As a serial entrepreneur, Chris understands the need to recruit the best and the brightest to achieve a company’s full potential and works tirelessly to do so.

In addition to his Board role at Ignition, Chris is a Venture Partner with General Catalyst Partners, where he focuses on consumer Internet, software, media and mobile investments. Previously, Chris was a Vice President with Bessemer Venture Partners where he served as a Director or Observer on the boards of Access 360 Media, GoTV Networks, Goal.com & Millennial Media.

Prior to BVP, Chris was a consultant with Bain & Co., where he advised on private equity transactions in the entertainment, media, software & telecom sectors. Prior to Bain, Chris spearheaded the turnaround of Skybitz, a wireless services company ranked #2 in the inaugural 2007 Deloitte/CTIA Wireless Fast 50. Chris led fundraising for the company, helping to raise two rounds of venture capital. He also headed product management & business development, guiding product design & establishing strategic alliances with AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Motorola & Qualcomm.

Earlier in his career, Chris founded Geostrategy Partners, an investment advisory & management consulting for angel investors & private equity funds. He also served as a Venture Advisor to a fund affiliated with Hummer Winblad where he led investments in SkyBitz and Applied Semantics (acquired by Google). Chris started his career on Wall Street in the private equity group of Cowen & Company.

Mike Mangini – Director

Mike Mangini is a two-time entrepreneur who brings 10 years of research, investing and entrepreneurship skills to the Ignition Talent team.  He is focused on Executive recruiting and talent research at Ignition, and serves as founding Principal for Bari Capital – a private vehicle focused on alternative investments.

Mike was founder and CEO of National Sports Exchange, an award-winning fantasy sports company which was acquired and became part of Yahoo!  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Bentley University, loves a good debate and lives in San Francisco.

Tim Thomas, Partner & Head of Technical Talent

Tim Thomas is an entrepreneur, engineer and team-builder with a proven track record of developing world-class engineering teams for venture-backed companies. Tim is focused on scouting the world’s best technical talent on behalf of Ignition’s clients from developers to VP of Engineering & CTO. Over the course of his career, Tim has recruited and managed multiple teams of 50+ software developers and engineers and consistently delivered industry leading software, hardware & services. He is an experienced technology leader and start-up executive with a broad understanding up and down the technology stack from applications, embedded software and middleware to hardware and cloud infrastructure.

Most recently, Tim was Co-founder, CTO and Partner with SRI Advisors where he worked with seed-stage and emerging growth companies on key strategic initiatives including technology architecture and product development.

Prior to SRI Advisors, Tim was a key early member of the executive team for Skybitz, an award winning start-up providing wireless-enabled SaaS services where he led software and hardware development, manufacturing, and operations as SVP Engineering & Operations. During this period, SkyBitz was ranked as one of the fastest growing start-ups in the country and was ultimately acquired by Telular, a publicly traded company.

Earlier in his career, Tim was Director of Software for Ciber Inc., Senior Program Manager for Northrop Grumman, and Lead Systems Engineer with McDonnell Douglas. Tim graduated with honors with a BSEE from the US Naval Academy. He is a former Naval Officer where he supervised force-wide HR programs and the deployment of new technologies across the submarine fleet.