Sam Marks
American entrepreneur and three-time founder, host of Invest Like a Boss (2016–2025), and founder of the Spirit Bright Foundation.
About
Sam Marks builds companies, backs founders, and explores cultures and philosophies asking what a well-lived life actually requires.
He started young, founding his first startup as a sophomore in college and selling it two years later. In 2008 he moved from Florida to the UK and founded SKYCIG, growing it into the UK’s leading e-cigarette brand before its acquisition by Lorillard Tobacco (NYSE: LO) in 2013. He went on to found Coworker.com in 2015, building it into the world’s largest marketplace for flexible workspace, and led it as CEO through its acquisition by IWG plc.
For nearly a decade he hosted Invest Like a Boss, interviewing leading investors and capital allocators about how they actually put money to work, and sharing what they taught him with a global audience. That work has since evolved into BUILD — a community and media platform for people who treat success as a foundation rather than a finish line, running as a quarterly mastermind, smaller expert-led sessions, and a video-first interview series.
Today, based between Bangkok and Barcelona, he has spent time in over 100 countries and territories across all seven continents, and years studying contemplative traditions — including periods of ordination as a Buddhist monk and thousands of hours of meditation practice.
Selected Ventures
- TheGreekFaces.com
- SKYCIG
- Coworker.com
- Invest Like a Boss
Selected Press
The Wall Street Journal — on Lorillard's 2013 acquisition of SkyCig, then Europe's leading e-cigarette brand
Financial Times — named Coworker.com an 'innovation to watch'
Fortune — on SmartMat, the connected-fitness startup Sam co-founded
Forbes — on bootstrapping startups in Southeast Asia
Entrepreneur — on SmartMat, his $300 connected yoga mat
Beyond Business
Sam is the founder of the Spirit Bright Foundation, supporting education, animal welfare, and humanitarian work across Southeast Asia — and a student of the meditative traditions that shaped that work.