Alumnus Mark Reinstra graduated from UW-Madison with a BS in Industrial Engineering in 1988. He pursued a second degree in law shortly after completing his undergraduate studies, and today is the Chief Legal Officer for Roblox, an online platform that connects a global community of creators and users.
His Badger experience: Mark grew up in the small town of New Richmond, WI, and starting school in Madison his first year was a real eye-opener. He quickly realized he was surrounded by students who came from very different experiences, and in many cases, had been exposed to a more expansive and difficult curriculum in their high school experiences than had he. Time at the UW forced him to focus, work hard and make the most of every opportunity that came his way. Of course, life on campus had plenty of fun to offer, too, with things like snowball fights on Bascom Hill and hockey games at the coliseum. (Mark chose not to go into detail about the state of Badger football during the mid-eighties, but did mention the UW Band and Section O.)
Career path: Always good at math and science, he began as a chemical engineering major but quickly changed gears when he realized that what really inspired him was the business side of the engineering world. To Mark, the field of industrial engineering represented a marriage of business, efficiency, and structure. He was also inspired by his father’s career as a small-town lawyer and was specifically drawn to the altruistic aspects of a career in law. Upon graduation, he planned to begin work at Bell Labs. On a whim, he took the LSAT before beginning that job. To his surprise, he was accepted at Stanford, the #1 law school in the country – an opportunity he couldn’t justifiably decline.
Although he has spent his career working as an attorney, his engineering background has still influenced his professional journey. According to Mark, “Thinking like a lawyer is really different than thinking like an engineer, but the marriage of the two is great.” Both disciplines require the ability to analyze a set of rules as they pertain to a situation or challenge. In engineering, you give an answer to the challenge, while in law you give the reasoning behind the answer.
A turning point came early in his career when a fellow lawyer exposed him to the world of venture capitalists. He took a position with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a firm that makes matches between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Mark found himself working 50-60 hours a week in this role, but he loved it. “When you’re in the right job, the time flies, you’re enjoying it, you’re giving it more of your attention. You’re more likely to succeed because you’re engaged. You don’t just “punch out”.”
It was through this work that Mark met the team at Roblox, where he functioned as outside counsel from 2004-2019. When he first began working with them, they were a small company, whose product was quasi-educational software with physics-like applications. In 2008, they realized that the kids on the platform were creating incredible things, and the grownups needed to “get out of the way.” The demand was for tools to build things, and everything the company does now is in support of the mission to deliver those tools to a broad audience of millions of creators.
In 2019, ready for a change from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he had risen to Partner, Mark joined Roblox as General Counsel. When Mark joined them in December of 2019, the company had about four hundred employees. As an online system, their business tripled overnight with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, there are over 90 million daily active users playing and creating on the platform from over 180 countries around the world. A huge part of his work has been helping Roblox to manage that growth – which nicely complements the passion for business efficiencies that led him to pursue an industrial engineering degree in those early days in Madison.
Looking ahead, giving back: As Roblox introduces new features to make the platform more and more exciting, Roblox, and Mark’s team in particular, will need to educate governments and regulators about why they should trust Roblox with the responsibility of providing an optimistic and safe platform for the almost 100 million visitors a day who visit the platform. The dynamic and exciting nature of the company ensures there’s never a dull moment.
Eventually, Mark sees himself stepping back to reflect on how he might lend his talents and experience to other organizations in the future, perhaps in the world of nonprofits or education. “There’s another chapter or two out there, but it won’t be in a money-making effort.”
Advice: The key to success, according to Mark, is focusing your energy on things about which you are excited. “Those who are going to excel are those that are passionate about what they’re doing. Then it’s not work, it’s enjoyment.”