Mark Blackwell

General Partner

Mark Blackwell is a General Partner at Builders. Previously, Mark was a Product Manager at SolarWinds, which develops IT monitoring and network management tools. Mark joined SolarWinds when it acquired GNS3 Technologies ($32MM), an enterprise networking startup where Mark was Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer. While there, Mark contributed to over 1MM monthly active users, 16MM downloads, and a customer base that included the US Department of Defense, AT&T, Walmart, Google, and Facebook.

Prior to GNS3, Mark was an Investment Manager at Cenovus Energy’s corporate venture fund, where he led the financing of HiFi Engineering, Saltworks, General Fusion, and Skyonic Corporation. Earlier in his career, Mark worked in the technology investment banking division at CIBC World Markets and as a Business Development Analyst with the utility-scale renewables business at Enbridge.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Calgary, where he studied Finance. He was honored by the Order of the University, the Rising Star Alumni Award & recently the 2021 Rising Star with Venture Capital Magazine. Mark is also very active in the Canadian ecosystem as the current Board Chair of the $100MM Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary, Vice Chair of the $2.2B University of Calgary Endowment Fund and Board Member of Emissions Reduction Alberta which has awarded over $800MM in total funding to climate and emission-related technology projects.