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Richard Marques
CEO of Revcontent
Age: 34
Richard Marques has been lucky enough to have a couple of mentors in his career. But the one with the most influence was his dad.
Marques says his father always kept him grounded. “He brought a ton of perspective to the table,” he says.
His father came from Brazil — with a different type of experience growing up than Marques. “He was able to see through a different lens,” he says. Father-and-son faced different upbringings, with Marques describing his as more “cushy.”
“It was easy for me to take that for granted,” he says.
His father instilled in Marques to be grateful for any opportunity he was given, and Marques let that be his motivation. That shows in Marques fast-rising career in technology.
First, Marques worked for music service Rhapsody, now Napster, while attending the University of Florida. Nearing graduation in 2011, Marques sought a place to start his career. He looked everywhere, from New York to Los Angeles. He found the next step in an article on a company called Clickbooth, a Sarasota-based firm focusing in pay-per-click online advertising.
Marques applied for a position and was invited in for an interview. As he was just looking for a job, he remembers not really knowing what position he was interviewing for at the time.
He ended up helping the company spin out a startup called Revcontent, which was officially up and running. Clickbooth founder John Lemp, another mentor to Marques, was running it at the time. Marques became Lemp's right hand man. Clickbooth lives on, under the name Perform[cb], while Marques is CEO of Revcontent. A group of institutional investors led by New York-based Star Mountain Capital and Capital Dynamics acquired a majority stake in Revcontent in June.
In the early days of Revcontent, Marques says he would feel lost as the atmosphere at work was a bit chaotic. Marques does well in process-oriented and structured atmospheres.
“It was taxing,” he says, noting he didn’t have a work-life balance at the time.
His father, Ricardo "Rico" Marques, was there to remind him to keep his end goal in mind. He also reminded him that everyone is replaceable — meaning a lot of people who would give anything for the position he was in, so Marques would remember not to take opportunities for granted. “He always kept me on course,” he says.
With his daughter Elaina in the picture now, Marques’ perspective has changed a bit. “Nothing is about me anymore,” he says.
While Marques has been fortunate enough to have more than one influential person in his life, the one that really stands out is his father. “He never did this to be my mentor,” says Marques. “He was just being my dad.”
Name: Richard Marques
Age: 34
City of Residence: Sarasota
Employer: Revcontent
Title: CEO
Birthplace: Teaneck, New Jersey
Years in the area: 32
Marital Status/Children: Married. Two-year-old daughter.
Alma Mater/Degree: University of Florida (Go Gators) - Advertising & Business
What's the weirdest job you've ever had? Never really had strange jobs. Always did work that I enjoyed whether it was pushing carts at Target or being a camp counselor
What's your top tip for being productive? Time is far and away your most precious resource and the paradigm has shifted where virtual, remote work is the new status quo. We’re all now very used to days packed with back to back short meetings. A critical productivity adjustment I’ve unlocked for myself since we went fully remote is staying disciplined with calendar management. I don’t accept every meeting invite I get. I’m not afraid to push meetings weeks out. Most importantly, I block off large swathes of time on a weekly basis to avoid perpetually bouncing from one Zoom meeting to another. This functionally allows me to take a step back, evaluate the business, strategize and execute on work that needs to get done as well as move forward pertinent items covered in the perpetual cycle of meetings.
If you could have a side hustle, what would it be? Some of the most fun memories I have traveling with friends is riding pedal pubs in Savannah, Asheville, Key West, etc. I think owning and operating a pedal pub or something similar in Sarasota, near downtown and the Village in Siesta Key, would be a really fun and fulfilling endeavor.
What's your favorite off-hours activity? My daughter turns two in December, she’s at a really fun age right now, so I try to spend as much time with her as possible when I’m not working. Current favorite activity is going in the pool and teaching her how to swim. That and being really bad at golf.
Have you gone to the movies in 2021? If yes, what did you see? No. But Suicide Squad was an amazing straight to streaming release.
What's the top item on your bucket list? I’ve always dreamt of taking a nice RV cross country. Admittedly, I’m not the most rugged person around, so I’d need basic amenities like AC and a shower, but I love road tripping and have yet to see most of the great USA.
What's your favorite podcast? For work - Pivot w/Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway. For leisure - Pardon My Take
Where is your happy place? Anchored on a sandbar somewhere in the intercoastal or bay surrounded by friends and family
Describe yourself in three words: Resourceful. Compassionate. Restless
Who is your mentor for your career and why? My dad. He is my personal embodiment of the American dream. He came to this country from Brazil 30+ years ago with my mom. He didn’t speak English and worked a bunch of odd jobs in New York to help pay the bills. He and my mom moved to Florida when I was really young to escape the cold weather and raised me in a loving, joyous household. Whether it had to do with school, sports, social actives, or just being my dad, he was always there for me and supportive in whatever it was I wanted to do. Whether he meant to mentor me or not, he taught me so much about myself, and about how to make the most out of the human experience.
What are the biggest lessons you have learned from your mentor? Always be there for the people you love. On bright days and dark ones, simply being present will usually be more powerful than anything you say. He always taught me to not take myself too seriously and to definitely not take life too seriously. In a professional sense, his lesson was always very simple, visualize where you want to be in 2 years, in 5 years, in 10 years. What does it take to get there? There are so many things out of our control, but we control our mindset and what we do to work toward our goals and dreams.
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