How alum Mark Armenante built a career on big risks and zero regrets
Serial entrepreneur alum returns to CWRU in October for open talk on his experiences, expertise
The first time Mark Armenante (WRC ’74) saw Case Western Reserve’s campus, it was his first day of class. Applying at the suggestion of a high school guidance counselor and locking in his spot sight-unseen was relatively normal in 1970.
Although expected to follow in the footsteps of his chemist grandfather and father, Mark took an unexpected turn into an emerging industry.
“As part of a genetics lab, CWRU put me into proximity with a mainframe computer—it changed my life,” he said.
That experience would, decades later, reflect both the highs and lows of entrepreneurship—the risks, the rewards, the surprising endeavors that keep him interested and the signs it’s time to walk away from an idea.
He and his wife and business partner, Young Sohn, would make—and lose—money. Start—and sell—companies. And still, they are finding the fun—and fear—in it.
“There’s a non-zero chance you’ll go down in flames,” he said. “There’s sheer terror every once in a while.”
Finding his own path
Armenante knew after college that his future had to involve a line into computers—before computer science was really an option. But he managed to secure a job selling computers to banks, sharpening his skills by programming them during setup.
“I was making a huge $14,000 a year,” he recalled. After building up his sales skills, and later taking a job in marketing as well, he faced what he calls “the second most important thing that happened in my career: a job at Oracle opened up.”
Oracle was small, with an aggressive marketing strategy and only a few hundred employees. But that didn’t stop Armenante from jumping at it, leaving his role as a senior vice president for a new one as a director—taking a substantial pay cut in the process.
“My parents were distraught,” he said, chuckling. “But joining Oracle in the early ’80s was phenomenal. The entire software industry spawned out of there.”
When a job offer came from his former boss at Oracle who had left to start a new venture, he jumped. As the fourth employee, stock and a later IPO changed his life.
Join Mark Armenante (WRC ’74) and President and Morton L. Mandel Presidential Chair Eric W. Kaler for the final installment of the Case Western Reserve Bicentennial Speaker Series.
Thursday, Oct. 1
4:30 p.m. Dessert Reception
5 p.m. Program
Sears think[box] Community Floor
Armenante continued maneuvering around his career, moving onto new ventures when he lost the zeal for the current. Then came Veeva Systems, the company he and Sohn founded and financed with another colleague from Oracle.
The cloud-based software company focused on the life sciences industries launched with $4 million. It’s now worth billions.
But, as Armenante found, “after a couple years, it got boring.”
“When it’s boring, too big or too successful, other people are better suited to the job,” he explained. “We’re both startup people. You get to a few thousand people, and HR runs the company. It’s not as much fun.”
So the pattern continues: Start another company. Run it as long as it’s fun. When it gets boring, sell it and start again.
Finding the fun
Armenante’s portfolio now extends into restaurants, the wine business and farming.
“We had no right starting a farm—we didn’t know anything about it,” he said with a laugh. “Every carrot we send down to the restaurant costs us, but it’s a good carrot, and it’s fun. It’s worth it.”
To Armenante, entrepreneurship is about deciding what you’re going to do—and doing it.
“If you can accept failure and not be defined by it, you should start something. But don’t plan too much. Prepare yourself, but it’s more important to take action, do it wrong and correct later. Most people spend their whole lives planning and never do anything.”
He and Sohn live their lives that way.
Now, Armenante is enjoying watching his own children take their own risks and forge their entrepreneurial paths. But, unlike his own start, they didn’t have predefined roles.
“I don’t want to burden them with expectations,” Armenante said.
Finding his way back
Throughout his career, Armenante lost touch with Case Western Reserve, not returning to Cleveland for about 35 years. But he always looked back fondly on his time in University Circle, particularly the access students have to the Cleveland Orchestra and many museums.
“There’s so much culture right here,” he said. “Case Western Reserve made all of that very available. It’s like the computer lab to me—it brought me close to things I haven’t done before.”
President Emerita Barbara R. Snyder—who Armenante calls “a force of nature”—reconnected him with his alma mater, even convincing him to become a trustee.
And during the COVID-19 pandemic, he participated in the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series hosted by the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship. Since then, he’s occasionally connected with students to give advice, insight and a step forward in their own entrepreneurial journeys.
“Our students love hearing direct stories of how companies were founded by our alums,” said Michael Goldberg, executive director and associate vice president of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship. “They are always so appreciative of them coming to campus, and they begin to see themselves in the shoes of a great entrepreneur like Mark.”
Armenante will be back on campus as a Case Western Reserve Bicentennial Speaker on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 5 p.m. The program, hosted by President Eric W. Kaler, the Morton L. Mandel Presidential Chair, will be held in Sears think[box].
“We’re thrilled to have him in conversation with President Kaler, and I know there are going to be a lot of students asking great questions to try and get into the mind of an entrepreneur like Mark,” Goldberg said.
From his work in pharmaceutical technology to opening a restaurant or a museum, Armenante is proof that success isn’t found in standing still. And the inspiration for a lifetime of professional adventures can be found anywhere—including a genetics class right here on Case Western Reserve’s campus.
