Dan Martell

Martell is from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. By his own account, at 17 he was chased by police while driving a stolen car and was subsequently sentenced to six months in jail, after which he was transferred to Portage, a youth rehabilitation facility; while cleaning out an old cabin there, he found an old computer and a Java programming book, began learning to code, and regards this experience as the turning point of his life.⁠[1][2][2][2][2][2]

By his own account, Martell began founding software companies in 2005; among them, Moncton-based Spheric Technologies was sold by him in 2008.⁠[2][1]

Martell and Ethan Bloch co-founded the social marketing company Flowtown in San Francisco; its product launched in November 2009, initially helping businesses add social network account information to their marketing contact lists. About 13 months before its acquisition, Flowtown announced $750,000 in seed funding from angel investors including Dave McClure, Travis KalanickTravis KalanickTravis Kalanick is an American entrepreneur, a co-founder of the ride-hailing platform Uber, and Uber’s chief executive officer from 2010 to 2017. He drove Uber’s expansion to hundreds of cities worldwide with a hard-line approach to taxi regulation, resigned as CEO in 2017 amid scandals over company culture and pressure from investors, and left the board in 2019. He went on to lead City Storage Systems, the parent company of CloudKitchens, which he reorganized in 2026 into the robotics and artificial intelligence company Atoms.Open the full entry, and Mitch Kapor; in October 2010, because of changes to Facebook’s terms of service, the company dropped its original product and pivoted to gift marketing.⁠[1][1][3][3][3][3]

In 2010, Martell founded Clarity (Clarity.fm) in Moncton, a platform where entrepreneurs pay by the hour to consult mentors and experts by phone; Mark CubanMark CubanMark Cuban is an American entrepreneur and investor whose early work in computer systems and internet audio and video expanded into sports, film, venture investment and pharmaceuticals. He was the Dallas Mavericks’ controlling owner and a longstanding investor on Shark Tank, and co-founded Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.Open the full entry, Brad Feld, Eric Ries, and others have given advice on the platform. Martell himself took thousands of advice calls.⁠[4][5][6][4][6]

On October 13, 2011, Flowtown was acquired for an undisclosed price by Demandforce, a San Francisco maker of marketing software for small businesses, and its five-person team joined Demandforce. Martell said investors were “very happy” with the outcome.⁠[3][3][1][1][1]

In 2012, Clarity closed a $1.6 million seed round with investors including Baseline Ventures, Mark Cuban, Venture51, Howard Lindzon, Freestyle Capital, Real Ventures, and 500 Startups. That same year, Martell was named Canada’s Top Angel Investor; he has invested in more than 50 startups, including Intercom, Udemy, and Unbounce.⁠[4][7]

Martell then founded SaaS Academy, a coaching program for founders of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, and started a YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel to share his entrepreneurial experience. His personal website gives SaaS Academy’s founding year as 2015, while his publisher’s author bio gives 2016.⁠[2][2][7]

On February 3, 2015, the equity crowdfunding platform Fundable announced its acquisition of Clarity, placing it together with previously acquired products such as LaunchRock under its newly launched unified brand, Startups.co; terms were not disclosed, and the entire Clarity team joined. In the year before the acquisition, more than 17,000 entrepreneurs made about 150,000 advice calls through Clarity. It was Martell’s third company sale; after the deal he served as an adviser for about a year, and Clarity remained in Moncton.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][6][6][6]

On January 17, 2023, Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House, published Martell’s book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire, a 272-page hardcover about how entrepreneurs can “buy back” their time from low-value work in order to scale their companies; the book is labeled a Wall Street Journal bestseller.⁠[7][7][7][7]

As of October 2026, Martell runs Martell Ventures, a venture studio focused on artificial intelligence; leads Kings Club, a free mentorship community for young men (which holds free events in Kelowna, British Columbia, for youth aged 13 to 22); and has established the Martell Legacy Foundation. His personal business operates as Martell Growth Solutions Inc., and his social media content is published under the name Martell Media.⁠[2][2][8][8][8][2][2]

Dan Martell: Official website: https://www.danmartell.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]

X: Public account: https://x.com/danmartell (opens in a new window)⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmartell/ (opens in a new window)⁠[2]

YouTube: Public account: https://www.youtube.com/@danmartell (opens in a new window)⁠[2]