Mark McDowell got into computer science and AI after discovering the Apple II, and as a kid in the 1970s he wrote to the patent office asking what still needed to be invented; he later co-founded Acta Wireless with Alan MacIntosh in 2004, which played a founding role in both Montreal Startup and Real Ventures, and he chose to back SPARK Microsystems out of hundreds of wireless startups because it solved the tradeoff between bandwidth, power, and latency, leading its seed rounds in 2017 and 2020. His interests span blockchain, AI/ML, quantum computing, and even the return of analog technology, and he writes about blockchain as a way of reshaping social and economic power rather than just a speculative asset.