Career: Before becoming an author, Marshall spent over twenty years in venture banking and lending. The bulk of that time was at Silicon Valley Bank, where he held nine different roles in three countries over sixteen years. Most recently, he led SVB’s Relationship Management organization in Northern California and oversaw the bank’s in-house private credit team, the Strategic Capital Group. Before that, he spent three years building SVB’s Canada Branch as Head of Credit Solutions — the best, only, and token American north of the border.

Over the course of his career, Marshall has worked and provided debt capital to hundreds of high-growth start-ups, including Airbnb, Twitch, Fitbit, Planet Labs, Tubemogul, and Egnyte. Those experiences gave him a front-row seat to how founders use — and sometimes misuse — venture debt.

Prior to SVB, Marshall worked in venture lending roles at Wells Fargo, Greater Bay Venture Banking (acquired by Wells), and Comerica Bank. He holds a degree in economics from Sonoma State University, which mostly means he can draw an impressive graph and knows that incentives matter.

Writing: Marshall is also the founder of Writing Is Hard Publishing, the imprint he created to publish Venture Debt Deals. Besides writing, he occasionally speaks with founders, finance teams, and investors about the role of debt in startup financing and the broader lessons he has drawn from two decades in innovation banking.

Outside of Work: He is an avid skier, soccer player, and longtime CrossFit enthusiast who enjoys lifting oddly shaped heavy objects — including his two young children. He lives in San Francisco with his family.