The Place: Jo’s downtown
The Hour: 9:00 am
The Cup: Marc is an early bird and beat me to the coffee shop. His coffee was hot, that’s all I can tell you. For me, it was iced – a little creamy, a little sweet.

Background: I wondered how long it would take before the people I was meeting with would start to know one another. Turns out, not very long. In this case, Marc and I met thanks to an intro from the always fabulous, Cup #9, Diana Lowe. However, Marc also knows Jacqueline Hughes, the infamous 10th cup and they have, in fact, worked together on some projects. When I met with Jacqueline and mentioned my interview with Cup #7 pal, Ruben Cantu, she said to me, “I know, I read that. That’s how I found out about your blog.” Cool! And just for giggles, I’ll toss out one more fun fact. When I was reading through Jacqueline’s Tweet Stream from the cupcake project, I came upon a tweet from Kurt Bradley, taco lover and Cup #4. Ponderous, man! 12 cups in and look at the connectedness. At this rate, Cup 15 may just be Kevin Bacon.

So, what’s Marc’s story? Well, he’s a man with a lot going on. He’s a husband, dad to two boys (5 and almost 2), and he’s in the middle of multiple businesses and start-ups along with mentoring other entrepreneurs on their journey. Let’s get back to the business side of him in a moment. But first, how did Marc end up here?

Marc took several stabs at a traditional college education where the biggest lesson he learned was that college wasn’t for him. So, he opted for working in the family business; printing. Having grown up in the Midwest, he learned at an early age lessons about work that would stay with him into adulthood. His whole life, he watched his parents pour their hearts into their work and for Marc, that’s just what you do. You find a job, you work hard and you get by. And that worked. For a time.

We didn’t get into the details leading up the year of change, but Marc tells me that in a 12 month span of time, he got married, had a baby and when the education company his new bride was working for wanted her to move to London, off they went.

I have longed for this type of adventure of my own. In fact, Dave (my husband) and I considered moving to Taipai for a two year stint for his job. In hindsight, although there are so many things about living abroad that appeal to me, I also really adore my family and would find two years that far away from them pretty difficult. After hearing Diana’s story and now Marc’s, I realize we made the right choice.

Marc didn’t face the same level of painful hardship that Diana experienced (primarily at the hands of her tyrant boss), at least not to my knowledge. In fact, he really didn’t have much specific negative feedback. One difference he mentioned relates to the friendliness of American strangers in contrast to the English. Marc told me when he got off the plane in Austin, he saw that familiar head nod of a stranger acknowledging you. He tells me that sort of thing doesn’t happen in London. In fact, he and his friends there joked that you could always spot the Americans because they were the ones striking up conversation with people around them. I was surprised by this. While I wouldn’t call myself an expert on all things British, I have read Bridget Jones Diary and I watched the Olympics and that’s got to count for something. They’d probably think this coffee with a stranger things is crazy (or daft; barmy maybe).

There were many good things about living in London, but I know Marc had an incredibly difficult time finding work; partially because he was a foreigner but primarily because the economy was tumbling and he was in a dying profession. He looked and looked and looked for work. Nothing. What he did find though, was what he considered a problem with traditional recruiting methods. And like many problems, this one inspired a new approach and in turn a new business.

Marc recalled his single days and his quest for meeting the girl of his dreams. Like many people today (40 million at last count) he tried online dating. It was Match.com’s approach specifically that he was interested in. Was there a way to use this matchmaking technology and apply to recruiting? He decided there was. But rather than focusing only on skills and experience – which Marc explained were the least predictive indicators of success in a position, he instead looked at culture fit and work behaviors. He contends that most skills can be taught and he noticed that employers are starting to catch on. Find good, smart people who fit in and work well in the environment and everyone is happier. Can’t argue with that.

With the help of angel funding and a solid business partner, Marc did end up turning that idea into a business HireMatch.me which is still going strong in the UK. Marc leaves the day to day management to his partner now because just over a year ago, it was again time to move. This time, they had a choice between several locations and because he now found himself in the technology start-up world, Austin seemed like a perfect match.

Marc wasted no time getting plugged in in his new city. Like I mentioned at the start of this, he’s got several businesses cooking at various stages. He’s a part of Cospace Ventures which goes beyond simply offering a shared work environment for entrepreneurs by also off offering resources, training and consulting to help them get their ideas off the ground. He’s also the co-founder of FōTacts a mobile app which claims will change the way people connect. And when I asked what the most significant event has been for him in the last 30 days, he tells me something really big is in the works and he was visibly excited about the possibilities there. Sadly for me and also for you, it’s all hush, hush still. So you know what I know; which isn’t much. I’ll put an update in when I learn more.

What else is Marc passionate about? Besides the three loves of his life; his wife and sons, he tells me he is most fired up about a new approach to education that falls under the Cospace Ventures business. Marc talks to me at length about peer to peer education explaining that our education system is flawed. He rhetorically asks me, “Do universities exist to educate people or to get people employed?” Hmm, good question. One I’d not given any thought to this point. “They would tell you their purpose is to educate”, he says. Marc admits this education certainly isn’t worthless; citing it creates well-rounded people with broad knowledge base in math and English as an example, but points out the key problem – they aren’t employable. They have no experience. And in large part, what they have learned is theory from some professor who educates for a living.

Marc’s idea is to create learning environments where people learn skills from peers who do whatever it is they are teaching every day in the real world. Want to become a programmer? Why not learn from someone who programs day in and day out. Marc says this new model is successful for many reasons. But largely it can be boiled down to this – it’s experiential. When you learn something and then apply the knowledge, you remember what you learned. Not only that, but you now have experience. Marc’s concept adds in a component they call “Workshop” which is the culmination of the learning. First is a basics class, next is advanced followed by a hands-on class where you walk away having completed a project.

I’m reminded of Cup #10, Jacqueline Hughes who sent out over 100 resumes after college and got one interview and still didn’t have a job. She solved the problem by meeting people and creating her own opportunities. Also, I thought about how my own experience in college had ended with an internship which was, essentially, a longer version of Marc’s “Workshop”. Could this be the answer? Not just for new grads, but also for people who’ve lost jobs or are in dying professions or maybe are just tired of doing what they do and long for something new. Or to Marc’s point back at the start about hiring people who are a match with the desired work behavior and corporate culture. Is that what’s on the horizon; people are selected who will fit in and then trained to do the work once they are hired?

Maybe so. Seems pretty cool in theory and I certainly like the freedom it implies. What I like even more is that people like Marc are thinking up new ways of doing things as old as education and that I am fortunate enough to meet them, hear their stories and ideas and walk away with inspiration and ideas of my own. For me, it’s this sort of stuff that’s life changing. When you sit with someone you don’t know and start asking questions, I promise you will walk away a different person. I invite you to give it a try.

Want to learn more about Marc?  Check him out on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter to see what he’s up to.