Alex Lepe
Even at age 5, Mark Schneider was demonstrating his entrepreneurial chops to anybody who was paying attention.
That was when he started selling watercolor paintings. Five cents apiece, but 10 cents for the ones where he stayed within the lines.
These days, Schneider, 37, the 2015 president of the Fort Worth chapter of the International Entrepreneurs’ Organization, owns and runs an array of healthcare companies.
“It’s my belief that this is what God gave me as a gift,” he says. “I am very blessed.”
Schneider, born at Harris Methodist Fort Worth and a graduate of Arlington’s Martin High School, grew up the son of an “accountant entrepreneur.” In his late 20s, Schneider’s dad, who had two sons, was working for a big accounting firm when he decided to go out on his own. He’s been out on his own since.
“He assesses risk all the time,” Schneider says.
Some ventures didn’t pan out. As a youngster, Schneider sold turtles door to door in a wagon. “That did not go so well,” he says.
In high school, Schneider started a landscaping company with an $8,000 loan from his parents and built it to three trucks and 19 employees. After graduation, he gave the company to his middle brother, who ultimately gave it to their little brother.
Schneider’s adult road to entrepreneurship began at Texas A&M University, where he graduated with double degrees in marketing and international business.
While in college, Schneider made extra money by signing up students to AT&T calling cards and hiring other students to sell the cards for him. In a good week, his teams sold 700-800 cards, he estimates. He got paid $1.50 per card and estimates be grossed about four times what he was paying to hire the students and hand out swag he bought at warehouse clubs.
After college, he went to work for a software company in Denver and became a top salesman over five years despite knowing little about technology to start. “I thought a PC and a CPU were the same thing,” he says.
He eventually went out on his own on a commission-only basis. “In the first month, I made more than I did annually.”
Next, Schneider saw digital signature software coming up and moved into that business, which got him into turnarounds and private equity.
He also invested in a bottled water company, which didn’t work.
In 2013, he invested in a healthcare company whose body chemistry products optimize performance. He and his partners today own a number of healthcare companies. Schneider declines to discuss those businesses for competitive reasons.
The trade-off: long hours. “And my wife is reminding me I’m married.”
Off the clock, Schneider is an oenophile, or a “cork dork” as he puts it.
Wine, which Schneider says he learned while living in Italy for a semester during college, brought him to membership in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a 60-member group in Fort Worth whose eligibility criteria begin at an audit-proven $1 million in annual sales.
Schneider marred in 2010, and he and his wife threw a reception at the Ashton Hotel in downtown Fort Worth for 300 guests. Schneider asked the owner if he could bring his own wine, ultimately nine wines and a total 1,200 bottles. That led to a conversation about what Schneider did for a living, which led to a pitch by the hotel owner - an EO member - to apply to join the organization.
Schneider declines to say how large his collection is. He likes Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons and has been collecting the birth years of he and his wife and their anniversary year.
Even wine turned into an entrepreneurial moment for Schneider, who asked his parents if he could study abroad in Italy for a semester while at A&M. His parents responded they were planning to surprise him with a pickup upon graduation.
“I thought, let’s negotiate,” Schneider says. “Lord willing, I’ll always make enough money to be able to buy a truck.”