|
 Addison Marketing’s founder, Frances Mann-Craik, is a Silicon Valley native with roots in the Valley and enthusiasm and experience in both the US and high-tech Europe. She blends major corporate experience with passion, energy, and understanding of the life of an entrepreneur.
Frances grew up on Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California, four doors down from the famous Hewlett-Packard garage. Even as a child she had the goal of joining this renowned firm to become part of its emerging computer industry and the “HP Way.”
Frances joined HP’s Data Systems Division and worked in its computer technology groups for nearly a decade. From this solid foundation she went on to other major high-tech companies including: Sierra On-Line, Convergent Technologies (acquired by Unisys), Unisys, and Oracle.
Frances began working with tech startups in the ‘90s leveraging the “lessons learned” in previous years spent at leading high-tech firms. She joined the startup team of Tornado-Insider, a pan-European omni-media company in 1998. First, she was a contributing columnist writing about “Lessons Learned in the Silicon Valley” to help educate the growing base of European entrepreneurs in the ins-and-outs of managing high-growth businesses. She was quickly asked to join the growing Tornado-Insider team as the Senior Vice President of Marketing. She then began her 2.5 year “commute” from the Silicon Valley to Amsterdam. When Tornado’s sister company, GorillaPark a business incubator, was founded in 1999, Frances was a member of the founding team and its first CMO. At GorillaPark, Frances worked with 16 startup teams to develop their initial go-to-market plans.
In late 2001, Frances began a consulting practice to leverage her years of marketing and business development experience. She and her team have since worked with several startups in the US and Europe on marketing and business development programs.
In addition to managing Addison Marketing, Frances continues to write feature columns for Tornado-Insider and produces a weekly “Silicon Valley Bytes” column for this now on-line publication. She is an officer and member of the Board of Directors of the Wireless Communications Alliance, a California non-profit focused on wireless technology and business. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of Innovation Journalism, a Stanford University-based organization, funded by Vinnova of Sweden, that facilities international journalism fellowships with US technology and business publications. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of her alma mater Menlo College.
Addison Marketing allows Frances to do what she loves best, work with passionate entrepreneurs to rapidly accelerate their business growth by leveraging the strategic know-how of major high-tech corporations to the advantage of their startups and emerging tech firms.
|
