Our Story
Our Values and Beginning
Better Tools was founded after our Co-Founder Mark Ellestad read Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Mark realized that he'd spent most of his career 'accidently' focusing on helping improve people, businesses, and processes. Better Tools is an outgrowth of the realization that helping others improve is our true passion. Our personal values and our corporate values are in sync: Learn and Experience, Help Others, and Improve Constantly.
At Better Tools we promise that your improvement is our number one goal and we don't consider an engagement successful unless you've made measurable progress towards your goals.
The Better Tools team is focused on providing services that maximize your success. We help you get the most out of your career and hope you share our excitement for making things better.
Mark Ellestad: Co-Founder
Mark is an executive and professional coach and consultant, passionate about helping leaders take advantage of opportunities, overcome challenges, achieve critical goals, and improve themselves.
He has decades of experience as a leader, strategic thinker, manager, educator, technologist, and enthusiastic self-improvement nerd. He's most interested in working with people who are as excited about improvement as he is. Mark has a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA from Washington State University. Away from work, Mark is a SCORE mentor, local educator, writer, serial hobbyist, and father. www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ellestad-advisor-and-coach-a4221236
He has decades of experience as a leader, strategic thinker, manager, educator, technologist, and enthusiastic self-improvement nerd. He's most interested in working with people who are as excited about improvement as he is. Mark has a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA from Washington State University. Away from work, Mark is a SCORE mentor, local educator, writer, serial hobbyist, and father. www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ellestad-advisor-and-coach-a4221236
Alicia Ellestad: Co-Founder
Alicia has spent the last twenty years focused on process improvement at a variety of companies of all sizes, specializing in manufacturing and the semiconductor industry.
Alicia is a certified internal and external ISO auditor, a quality control expert, and is passionate about making complex systems achieve high quality through excellent process management.
She's also a skilled and empathetic trainer who enjoys making the learning process interactive and engaging.
Outside of work Alicia is a writer, animal advocate, farmer, people-helper, and mother.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-ellestad-12414998/