Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim · 2026-06-18 · 28 min
This week, we revisit our conversation with Gary Swart. Gary is a General Partner with Polaris Partners, and until April 2014, he was the CEO of oDesk (now Upwork, NASDAQ: UPWK). Gary is a thought leader in entrepreneurship, on how best to hire and manage teams, and the future of work, including online work. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive, fueled by his extensive experience working with startups and small businesses and mentoring entrepreneurs and business school students. Gary has spoken at the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist's Ideas Economy panel, South by Southwest, TechCrunch 50, TiECon, GigaOM's Net: Work Conference, and at Harvard Business School, which teaches a case study on oDesk. His commentary has appeared in a variety of publications, including Forbes, TechCrunch, The Washington Post, and The Next Web. He has also appeared on TV and radio shows, including the BBC, National Public Radio, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Startups Uncensored. Previously, Gary led SMB Sales for the Americas at IBM's Rational Software Product Group, and also served as VP of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Intellibank. Gary holds a B.S.
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