Howard Marks Founded Activision Games and Sold a Company to Disney — Now He's Building His Next Startup, and Anyone Can Invest

Building a startup isn’t easy. That’s likely why roughly 90% of startups fail to make a successful exit. Uncertain economic conditions, poor management, a bad product idea and hundreds of other factors can contribute to the demise of a startup. 

But some founders are able to consistently find the right formula that ends up working. 

One such founder is Howard Marks, founder and CEO of StartEngine, one of the world's largest equity crowdfunding platforms. 

Most notably, Marks founded Acclaim Games and Activision Games, two wildly successful gaming studios.

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Marks purchased Activision Games in January 1991 and worked as the co-founder, chairman and director of the company for nearly 7½ years until 1998. The company later merged with Blizzard Entertainment Inc. in 2008.

After his time at Activision, Marks bought Acclaim Games out of bankruptcy in 2004. Using his experience turning around Activision, Marks turned around Acclaim in about six years and sold it to Playdom, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Co. DIS in 2010. 

In some of his blogs after he sold Acclaim Games, Marks said he wanted to do something new. Instead of being a founder, he wanted to be an investor. In 2011, he started an accelerator program called StartEngine. 

During its early days, StartEngine was known as an accelerator. Startups would apply to join the program, and the accelerator would provide money, guidance and resources to help them get off the ground. Those that completed the program would get an investment from the accelerator. Oftentimes, venture capitalists would invest alongside the accelerator.

After about five years, Congress passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, 

effectively allowing anyone to invest in startups. Seeing this, Marks pivoted slightly in 2016 and used the same name as the accelerator to create an equity crowdfunding portal — a registered entity where startups raise funds from the crow). 

From 1933 to 2016, it was illegal for everyday investors to invest in startups, but many of the biggest names in finance got their start from investing and founding in startups. Getting one startup right can result in thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of percent in gains and set someone up for life or make their entire portfolio. It also serves as a great diversification option and allows a new avenue of funding for small businesses. Now, any small business can launch on a platform and raise investment dollars from their community and customers. 

Since then, StartEngine has grown to one of the largest equity crowdfunding portals in the world at 1.1 million registered users, nearly $700 million raised and hundreds of companies per month raising on the platform.
StartEngine has opened an equity crowdfunding round of its own so anyone can invest for a limited time.

 See more on startup investing from Benzinga.

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