Nift

The Gratitude Flywheel – Reshaping how people discover and engage with brands.

Partnerships

Sell Grow Repeat

On a mission to help founder led sales organizations, early stage companies, and digital entrepreneurs build sales processes and strategies that work.

Some recent successes:

- From 5% to 40% close rate in 3-months
- 40% increase in revenue in 2-months 
- First 1K customers in 6-months
- From $80K to $2M+ ARR

💪🏻 Let's work together!

Founder

TalentSheets

More than 490+ marketers and founders use TalentSheets to manage and support their influencer marketing efforts.

The first influencer platform that layers on top of Google, turning Google Drive into your own personalized influencer marketing database. All without changing your current workflow or costing you a fortune.

Co-Founder

LOOM CLUB

A neighborhood club where a community of locals exercise, co-work, and socialize under one roof. 

Re-imagining community & wellness for a changing world.

Investor

Plei, Inc

Plei is the largest pickup soccer platform & organizer in the United States, boasting more than:

- 180,000+ soccer players on the Plei App
- 40,000+ games hosted on the Plei App as of Aug '23 (30,000+ in 2023 Alone)
- Partnerships with 130+ sports facilities across 15 U.S. cities

Teachable

Director Of Business Development

Fullscreen

Fullscreen empowers talent and brands to build and monetize highly engaged, social-first audiences through best-in-class strategy, creative services and technology.  Our company is a global leader in social-first entertainment experiences and services for the world’s top talent, digital influencers, brands and avid fans.   
 
For our talent and digital influencer partners, we provide a range of services and tools that include talent management, multi-platform content optimization, brand partnerships, live touring, consumer products, and a powerful consumer-facing technology platform that provides affinity brands, talent and influencers with websites, online stores, fan clubs and social optimization tools to help them seamlessly analyze data and create meaningful relationships with fans. 
 
For our brand partners, we work with marketers who are looking to engage valuable, elusive youth audiences on social platforms through original entertainment, influencer marketing, multi-platform social content, organic and paid distribution, live events, and targeted media.  We have offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta.

VP Sales and Marketing

Reelio

- Founder with a strong focus on sales & marketing
- Built and managed cross-departmental teams for goal and process alignment that continue to provide stellar relationships and results for our clients.
- Drove company from ideation and pre-revenue to annual 8-figures 
- Sold into key accounts, such as, Estée Lauder, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, & Dunkin' Donuts without pre-existing relationships
- Liaison between market demands and product development in order to better shape product roadmap
- Built an outsourced SDR org to deliver 11X ROI on cost
- Drove company to successful acquisition

Co-founder & VP, Sales & Marketing (ACQUIRED)

Partnerships @ Nift | 3X Founder (8-figures, 7-figures, and a dud) | Investor. Advisor. Bourbon Lover | Exploring the tactics and stories from the best entrepreneurs on the planet

Daily insights on business building.

Sales & Marketing Leader with 10+ years selling high-value solutions as a player/coach to meet customer needs. 

Creative and curious mindset, with a track record of leveraging problem-solving skills to uncover new revenue opportunities and drive business growth. 

Unquestioned ethics and a strong commitment to doing what is right for customers, co-workers, and the company.

EQ > IQ

Some highlight from across my career:

- Responsible for more than $100M in advertising budgets

- Scaled startups $0 to 8-figures, then again from $0 to 7-figures

- Built an outsourced SDR Team that produced 11X ROI on net new logos

- Trained more than 50 sellers to systematically attain quota through repeatable process

- Sold into and built marketing programs for some of the best companies on the planet. 

I'm excited to create something amazing with you.

💪🏻 Let's work together

Mark Borum

The hits keep coming. Nift has once again been named to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™.

One of North America’s fastest-growing technology companies, driven by 731% revenue growth over the past three years. 💪

[Full release in comments]

For the first time, the people who own the transaction are also becoming the most powerful media owners in the room. 

Walmart, Target, Kroger, Instacart, Uber, DoorDash… they have carts, orders,  identities, and now the media dollars.

Everyone’s hyped about retail media racing toward ~$100B. The more interesting question is: what happens when every “ad opportunity” is attached to a logged-in, paying customer?

The space is still relatively new, but its month-over-month rate of change can give you whiplash. If you still think commerce media is “sponsored products on a retailer’s site,” you’re already behind.

This is fast becoming the default way brands buy performance media:
closer to the transaction, closer to the customer, closer to actual revenue.

And the tension no one wants to talk about? there’s a ceiling on how many ads you can jam into an app, a feed, or a checkout flow before users tap out.

So the next phase isn’t “more ads.” It’s:

– Turning high-intent moments into value, not noise
– Growing yield per user without torching the experience
– Bringing in non-endemic dollars w/out turning into Times Square

The players who solve that balance — retailers, apps, BNPLs, streamers — will own the next decade of advertising. 

Everyone else will be arguing about CPMs while their users quietly churn.

Open article: Retail media ad spend will reach over $100B by 2027 by emarketer.com

Retail media ad spend will reach over $100B by 2027

Big milestone for us at Nift: we’re continuing our expansion in the UK with another phenomenal partner.

When Nift started, the idea was simple– help people discover great brands through gifts that actually feel good to receive. Watching that idea grow from a handful of partners in the U.S. to working with some of the biggest consumer apps in the world… that’s been surreal.

This latest addition to our UK partner ecosystem is a reminder of how far the team has taken this. 

New markets, new partners, and the same belief that there’s a better way for brands and consumers to connect than another interruptive ad.

I’m incredibly proud of what we’re building and even more excited for what opening up the UK unlocks next.

We’re pleased to share that Nift is partnering with Clearpay (Afterpay) as we expand into the UK.

Through this partnership, Clearpay customers will receive thoughtful thank-you gifts at meaningful moments in their journey—helping them discover brands they’ll love, while giving Clearpay a way to generate incremental revenue without interrupting the experience.

It also offers brands a more thoughtful path to reaching new audiences, rooted in relevance and choice rather than disruption.

We’re grateful to be partnering with Clearpay and look forward to what we’ll build together. 💪 

 🔗 Full announcement:  https://lnkd.in/gP4eRDNF

StackedSP

We help tech startups achieve audacious goals by stacking their teams with champions.

Founder & CEO

FounderProject

FounderProject is a new type of venture fund run by students investing in student startups.

Real Ventures

Real Ventures is Canada's largest, and most active seed stage venture fund.

Venture Capital

Ex-VC of early stage startups. Then founded FounderProject, a venture fund run by students investing in student startups. 

The problem? The fund didn’t materialize as I’d hoped, and that hit hard. 

Yet, amidst the disappointment there was real impact. Hundreds of startups took flight, thousands of startup jobs were created, and the VC world took notice.

It became clear to me: while the right funding matters, the right talent can make or break a startup. That insight led me to create StackedSP, a talent firm for venture backed startups.

Fast forward a decade, StackedSP has helped founders and their startups hire thousands - from founding employees, to leaders. Today, those startups are industry leaders and have raised billions from top investors.

But it's not just about the hires. I actively invest in tech startups, and am a limited partner in venture funds. And, building community is crucial. 

Enter Unstacked Startups – a hub for startup founders and talent. There's a podcast, live events, and a newsletter called FounderMail.

My mission? Empower founders, and startups to build a better future.

Ilan Saks

Startups don’t run on process — they run on people.

One of my favorite moments with Ruchi Varshney (ex-Dropbox eng leader, now co-founder of Maple) was when she broke down what talent actually means inside a high-velocity startup:

“Talent is the lifeblood of the company."

She also said something that every founder or leader should consider:

“Assume a default position of trust and rule by exception.”

Her take on early hires?
Generalists. High-grit operators. People who “flow like water” and fill gaps you weren't aware of.

Very insightful from someone who has scaled both a 200-person org and an early stage startup.

Full episode is live.
#UnstackedStartupsPodcast #HighAgencyTalent

Unstacked Startups & StackedSP | Backing founders & helping them hire elite talent ⚡

Hiring for raw attitude beats chasing nice resumes—every. single. time.

Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of acquire.com), nails it: “Attitude → Motivation → Skill —in that order.” You can train craft; you can’t teach optimism or intrinsic drive. 

Master the art of spotting high-potential talent—people who spike in curiosity, soak up ambiguity, and drive the room’s energy. 

Next time you’re interviewing, flip the script:

Does this person light up talking about solving gnarly problems?

Would I want to be stuck in a six-hour flight delay with them?

Could they teach me something new, tomorrow?

What's the most underrated hiring signal you’ve ever used? Give the clip below a listen!

Most startups don’t have a hiring problem.
They have a clarity problem.

In the last month, I’ve met dozens of founders who are trying to hire their first 5–10 team members.
Brilliant people building real products…
but struggling to attract the talent they need.

Every time, I ask the same question:
“Why would a top engineer or go-to-market hire choose your startup over the other 200 hiring this month?”

And that’s where things fall apart.

Great candidates aren’t just looking for a job.
They’re looking for a reason to bet their career on you.

If you can’t articulate:
• What you’re building
• Why now
• Why it matters
• And why the right person should care

…you’ll lose the talent you need before the process even starts.

At StackedSP, we keep seeing the same truth:
Top people don’t chase titles.
They chase conviction.

If your startup can communicate that clearly, hiring stops being a bottleneck—and becomes a competitive advantage.

Founders: What’s the one thing you wish more candidates understood about your vision?

#StartupHiring #Founders #EarlyStage #TechRecruiting #TeamBuilding

Loved this conversation with Ruchi Varshney — one of the sharpest minds in SaaS infrastructure and someone I genuinely enjoy learning from.

Billing isn’t glamorous, but it is critical to a SaaS company.

Ruchi breaks down pricing, AI in finance, and how to build trust-first teams in a way only she can.

Huge shoutout to Ruchi for making the time — grateful to have her on the Unstacked Startups Podcast.
🎧 Full episode: https://lnkd.in/eR8w5k3Y

 #UnstackedPod

“Billing is the heartbeat of SaaS.”

On this episode of Unstacked Startups, we sit down with Ruchi Varshney, co-founder of Maple and former Dropbox engineering leader, to talk about:

• Innovative pricing models
• AI’s role in finance
• Building trust-first startup teams
• What early-stage founders get wrong

This one’s for SaaS leaders, CFOs, and product minds rethinking what billing can (and should) do.

🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/eR8w5k3Y

taplio

The Battle

Mark Borum

Ilan Saks

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taplio

The Battle

Mark Borum

Ilan Saks

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mark Borum's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMark Borum's LinkedIn Performance