VentureOff was built on a simple belief: that career change — whether it's chosen or not — deserves more than a resume workshop and well wishes. The workforce is full of people with the skills, experience, and drive to build something of their own. They just need a real path to figure out if it's right for them.
Most career transition programs were designed for a workforce that looked very different from today's. They assume re-employment is the destination. They hand people tools for a job search and send them on their way.
But careers have changed. People have changed. Technology has changed. A growing number of professionals leaving jobs, voluntarily or otherwise, aren't looking for the next version of the same thing. They're ready for something different. They just don't know how to evaluate whether that something is entrepreneurship.
VentureOff exists to give those people a structured, honest process for answering that question. Not a motivational program. Not a pitch-deck class. A real framework for deciding whether to build a business — and if so, what kind, and how.
We also know that traditional outplacement hasn't kept up. The employers and HR teams we work with aren't looking to replace what they offer. They're looking to add something more meaningful to it. VentureOff is that addition.
The people coming through our programs aren't just making a career decision. They're navigating identity, uncertainty, and often grief. Our programs are built with that reality in mind.
How an organization supports people through transitions tells the whole workforce — the ones leaving and the ones staying — what it actually values. We take that responsibility seriously.
When everything feels uncertain, a clear process is one of the most supportive things you can offer someone. VentureOff is structured because structure helps. Not because we need to fill modules.
Most professionals in transition underestimate what they've built: the skills, the relationships, the pattern recognition, the domain expertise. Our job isn't to hand them a roadmap. It's to help them see what they already have clearly enough to choose their next move from a place of confidence, not fear.
Structured entrepreneurship programs and Career Studio tools that help professionals in transition figure out what's next — including whether starting a business is the right move. Self-paced. Supported by Scout AI Companion. Available at three program levels.
Explore ProgramsEmployer-sponsored program options that fit alongside existing severance, outplacement, and retirement benefits. Tiered to match employee level. Easy to add, easy to administer.
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Co-Founder & CEO
Mark Heckmann is the Co-Founder and CEO of VentureOff, where he leads product vision, technology strategy, and growth. A serial entrepreneur with a deep and varied track record, Mark brings more than 15 years of experience across startups and scale-ups to VentureOff's platform development.
Mark's entrepreneurial career began after his graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University, where he shifted from economic development into full-time company building. Since then, he has co-founded and operated ventures spanning commercial lavender farming, exoskeleton commercialization, subscription handyman services, startup consulting, and developed a founder methodology through his broader consulting work that directly shaped the entrepreneurship curriculum at the core of VentureOff.
Mark holds a BA from Denison University in Sociology/Anthropology and Communication, and a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mark@VentureOff.co
Co-Founder & COO
Cali Orr is the Co-Founder and COO of VentureOff, where she leads program development, client experience, and the day-to-day operations of building a platform she wished had existed for every professional she's spent a decade helping navigate career change.
Cali's career spans education, corporate sales, global operations, and over a decade of entrepreneurship and marketing consulting. After completing her MBA, she built a coaching and consultancy practice serving professionals and business owners. Across those ventures and more than 100 client engagements, Cali developed the frameworks, curriculum, and coaching methodology that became the foundation for VentureOff.
Cali holds a BA in Psychology and Spanish from Denison University and an MBA from American University. She is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cali@VentureOff.coWhether you're an individual figuring out what's next or an organization that wants to support your people better, VentureOff is here.
