Mark Heaps

Basic Info

• Location: Austin, Texas (moved 2010)
• Role/Occupation: Developer Engagement Leadership at NVIDIA
• Previous: VP/Head of Brand and Creative & Chief Technology Evangelist at Groq
• Met: Through AITX community / tech circles in Austin
• Family: Married to Christina (21 years), two kids (16yo daughter, 14yo son)

Professional Background

• Creative director and communications specialist with ~80% Fortune 100 experience
• Apple: Senior image expert in early 20s
• Google: Worked on book scanning project (built hardware, designed lighting, trained models), contributed to Streetview object recognition, worked on "ghost bike" autonomous motorcycle project (Mountain View to Las Vegas)
• Groq: VP/Head of Brand and Creative, Chief Technology Evangelist; was API endpoint for Llama.com
• NVIDIA: Current role in developer engagement leadership in Austin
• Degrees in Fine Art (major) and Theater (minor)
• Self-taught musician - plays 12 instruments, performed thousands of shows
• Currently plays lead guitar in a band, appeared on Good Morning Austin
• Autism/ADHD - describes brain as "never stops"

Personal Background

• Originally from small island off northwest coast of England ("Windy Wing") - one mile by seven miles
• Father from submarine/shipbuilding industry; brother is naval officer familiar with HM Trident series
• Grew up paragliding due to extreme wind on island; 30-50 hours flight time
• Did skydiving including military-style static line jumps
• Met wife Christina at her sister's wedding where he was photographer; she was 18, he was 20
• Christina: Dual degrees, ran own business 16+ years, tech advisor, extremely non-emotional planner
• Philosophy: "She plans, I dream" - complete trust, Mark doesn't even know his bank balance
• Kids have higher-level NDAs than most people from lab tours
• Son built second mobile app at age 11 (Java/Python) but explicitly doesn't want tech career - "I don't want your life"
• Son passionate about plants/animals, built autonomous feeding/watering systems for school green tech program

Key Projects & Interests

• AITX community involvement - hackathons, llama launches with Dar
• Developer community building at NVIDIA
• Music - active performer, plays guitar
• Mountain biking with son
• Fascinated by wingsuit flight technology

Interaction History

2025-12-19: Lunch in Austin

• Extended conversation at restaurant (likely Cava or similar Mediterranean spot)
• Deep discussion on career philosophy, Silicon Valley culture, relationships, and keeping promises
• Mark shared extensive career history and personal stories
• Discussed dating/relationships in modern era vs past
• Gary mentioned getting introduced to someone the next day

Strategic Value & Collaboration Areas

• Deep connections at NVIDIA including Jensen Huang and Ian Buck
• Ian Buck messaged Mark saying his community work "makes my heart happy"
• Extensive network across Fortune 100 tech companies
• AITX community leadership and hackathon organization
• Creative/brand expertise applicable to any venture
• Could connect Gary to NVIDIA ecosystem and resources
• Understands developer community building from corporate perspective

Connections & Network

• Jensen Huang (NVIDIA CEO) - has personal rapport, organized bar/music quiz for Jensen at Supercomputing conference
• Ian Buck (NVIDIA) - direct relationship, receives encouraging messages
• Perplexity founders - consulted on "answer engine" vs "search engine" branding at Groq
• Steve Wozniak - met randomly at Mexican restaurant, talked for 3 hours about audio
• Sotham Singh - attended exclusive garage meetups with Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison
• Google leadership (Sergey, etc.)
• Meta relationships (contentious - they violated contracts with Groq over API endpoints)
• Mo Gawdat (Google X chief business officer)

Notes & Observations

• Communication style: Open, storytelling-oriented, generous with time and insights
• Philosophy: "Do all the things" - believes in following instincts and integrating life rather than compartmentalizing
• On promises: "Broken promises are hard to recover... physically you can heal. Hard to heal broken promises." Will sacrifice significantly to keep commitments
• On reputation: Reputation and network have meant he's only applied for two jobs in his entire career
• On Silicon Valley: Austin in 2010 felt like Silicon Valley 1997; now SV is too much "networking strategy" noise
• On family: Never let kids stop adventures - took daughter to Croatia at 6 months old; "integrate, not stop"
• On tech careers: "If you're in tech, it's literally your way of life" - never 9-5
• Career regret: Gave too much to corporations early on without understanding licensing/compensation; learned "I'm gonna stop working so hard to make everybody else rich"

Key Quotes & Insights

• "The amazing thing about the biology of humans is you can recover and heal. Broken promises are hard to recover... be careful of what you promise."
• "Nobody ever taught me music either and I played 12 instruments... same thing sort of happened with tech."
• On Meta: "Mark Zuckerberg already thinks he owns everything, and we just have to figure how to fit in his world."
• On his marriage: "She plans, I dream. Together, that's a pretty rad partnership."
• On his wife's approach: "I just let Mark rip. Mark's going to go make money, Mark's gonna find projects... I need to not get in his way."
• On integrating family: "Everyone told us how your life stopped because of these kids. But we were like, no, you have to figure how to integrate, not stop."

Background & Philosophy

• Believes in trusting instincts and following curiosity
• Music and tech both came naturally through pattern recognition
• Values independence in marriage - separate trips, separate interests, but shared values
• Christina handles all finances; Mark focuses on creating/earning
• Both live by keeping promises as core principle
• Second-tier lesson: "Be careful what you promise" - was too excited/agreeable when young

Transcripts

Transcript ID	Date	Summary
2025-12-19-mark-heaps-tech-career-wisdom	2025-12-19	Extensive lunch conversation covering Mark's unconventional tech career path, groundbreaking Google projects, Silicon Valley culture evolution, marriage philosophy, and principles around keeping promises

Recent Developments

• Active in Austin developer/AI community through NVIDIA role
• Playing in band, recent Good Morning Austin appearance
• Planning 2026 with many projects/opportunities
• Coaching son's basketball team, hosting end-of-season sleepover for 9 boys