User Guide to Me
Who I Am
I’m Mark Pastore (he/him) – I work with climate tech startups to help discover and implement healthy organizational practices and habits that will enable them develop into the very best versions of themselves over the long term. My work stems from a combination of my own experiences as a 3-time entrepreneur and lots of subsequent exploration, questioning, and research to figure out how we can do better at managing and operating businesses. I do not have all the answers, but am working on identifying all the right questions.
The question that motivates me every day: “What is required for us to do the best work of our lives?”
I’m a husband, father of two, and enthusiastic amateur cook. Past non-profit work has been in support of at-risk teens and women’s health. I day-hike regularly in the Bay Area hills, play golf at the Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland, and root for the Golden State Warriors.
Work Schedule
My regular work hours are Monday-Wednesday, and Fridays from 0830-1700, Pacific time. At the moment, Thursdays are reserved for thinking and personal business.
How to Reach Me
Send email to mark@malava.co, or mark@incanto.biz (they go to the same place, though for sentimental reasons I will always keep the latter as my primary address). I don’t stay constantly tethered to my email inbox, but will generally respond to emails within 24 hours. If we connect on Slack or by phone, you should already know how to reach me there.
I add value to teams by…
Carefully listening and observing both the what and the how of what is being communicated and by asking questions about what’s most necessary to fulfill the team’s underlying purpose and objectives.
The best way to convince me of something is…
Facts and data are a wonderful start, but typically not enough. If you can show me how a particular choice or course of action aligns with core principles or values to make progress towards a desired outcome, I’m likely to be all in behind your idea
Working style & personality indicators
I believe in getting started now, tapping the wisdom and insights of colleagues, repeated iterations of safe-to-try experimentation, and making adjustments as we learn. Socratic method and first principles thinking can help clear the clutter from complex decisions. In the early part of my career, I did business planning and economic forecasting in multiple settings, including for a multibillion-dollar computer company. I believe most forecasts are a fallacy; businesses generally are better off driving projects via scenario planning than via a formal forecast.
My Meyers-Briggs indicators are: ENTP/J, (extroverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving/judging)
My Enneagram indicators are: I’m a Type 1, wing 2 (idealist-helper).
How to give me feedback
If we’re working together on a project, I value thoughtful feedback under the following conditions: If I haven’t specifically told you that I’m open to feedback, please ask first if I’d be open to receiving your thoughts. Provide context and do your best to connect the feedback to specific operating principles or outcomes (see convincing me, above). Typically, I prefer asynchronous written to realtime oral feedback, as it gives a chance to better absorb the information.