Mark Selcow is a former founder-operator turned investor at Costanoa Ventures who built and scaled two companies, BabyCenter and Merced Systems, before becoming a venture capitalist. He focuses on investing in companies outside the Bay Area and personally experiments as a consumer in sectors he invests in, such as opening an HSA account to understand pain points before investing in HSA platform Lively.

• Deep interest in the modernization of insurance and financial infrastructure. He highlights companies that are transforming legacy systems, such as Noyo for improving health insurance data exchange, and emphasizes that customer selection is a critical success factor across the fintech sector.
• Strong focus on data infrastructure, machine learning, and the tools required to scale AI. This includes an enthusiasm for synthetic data as a means to scale artificial intelligence, illustrated by his support for Parallel Domain, and solutions that help manage enterprise data lakes.
• Investments in developer tools and open source software, with a specific perspective on commercialization strategy. He has noted that companies building on open source need both strong bottoms-up adoption and the ability to solve meaningful use cases that the open source project itself cannot serve well.
• Commitment to digital health solutions that streamline complex operations and compliance. His excitement often centers on platforms that solve logistical challenges, such as Kevala unifying long-term care staffing and Skedulo adapting its software to manage high volumes of vaccine appointments during the pandemic.
• Appreciation for tactical operational advice regarding sales and product marketing in a hybrid world. He frequently shares practical guidance for founders, such as specific strategies for closing million-dollar deals remotely over Zoom or the essential elements required for great product marketing in high-growth SaaS companies.