Mark Suster
2x startup Founder & CEO who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. His first company, BuildOnline was sold in 2005, his second, Koral was acquired by Salesforce.com and became known as Salesforce Content, while Mark served as VP Product Management. In 2007 Mark joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner. He focuses on early-stage technology companies, usually looking at Series A investment, and blogs at the aptly titled Both Sides of the Table.
It’s Morning in Venture Capital
Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. They are frustrated by the past decade of subpar returns for the sector. The most recent report to weigh in on the troubles of the industry was produced by the esteemed Kauffman Foundation. There are obvious reasons the industry [...]
What to do About that Chip on Your Shoulder?
I’m fond of saying that I look for entrepreneurs that have a chip on their shoulder. That they have something to prove. That they’re not afraid to stick their noses up to the establishment. I have always felt this way. It’s something I kind of seek out. I guess my thoughts are that if you’re [...]
Marketing Presentation from Blue Glass Conference
I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. We’ve been testing things like: How do Facebook “Likes” perform relative to FB ads that drive you directly [...]
To Be Successful You’ll Need to Shake Hands and Kiss Babies.
It’s Wednesday late afternoon. I’m aboard Delta flight 1833 from Cincinnati (actually, Northern Kentucky for what it’s worth) to Los Angeles. I had a very enjoyable day in Cincinnati meeting many local entrepreneurs, angels and accelerators. I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC [...]
The Scarcest Resource at Startups is Management Bandwidth
When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement. It’s tempting to take on new projects, new features, new geographies, new speaking opportunities, whatever. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams. I [...]
Some Thoughts on Branding Startups and Communities
Brad Feld visited Los Angeles this past week. I always enjoy spending time with Brad as the antidote to the eco chamber. He is a unique human being with original thoughts & ideas and very limited concern for having to fit into other people’s narratives. And I’ve always remembered a quote from high school, “Non [...]
Don’t Try to “Pull an Instagram.” Here’s Why …
Instagram. It’s understandably on everybody’s mind these days. Clichés abound about, “You know what would be cool? …” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. Instagram happens to be one of the few social networks I regularly use along [...]
Some Thoughts about Selling at Startups
Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple, you should. It takes on many of the lessons MBA programs and Corporate America have been teaching about [...]
Why You Should Think Twice Before You Send That Intro Email
Intros.They’re the lifeblood of networking – the currency of mavens. They are your route to angel money. Your entrée to sales meetings. We couldn’t live without them. But when misused, overused or abused they can diminish your personal brand, consume your valuable time and waste that of the relationships you value the most. I would [...]
A Quick Hack for Speeding up Term Sheet and other Negotiations
I’ve started a series on negotiations in startups. In it I list some books and also link to some of my previous posts. It’s the first functional series I’ve done since sales & marketing. The very first time I ever negotiated a term sheet (and then legal docs for closing the round) I found the [...]
Never Negotiate Piecemeal. Here’s Why
When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. Like most first-timers, I learned the hard way. Negotiating was a subset of every activity in [...]
Always Go Home with the Lady Who Brought you to the Dance
I had this ethical dilemma pop up on one of the first deals I even did as a VC. I had been looking around at several deals in late 2008 as the markets were tanking. I had gotten close on a couple of deals but nothing rose to the level of “must do.” I was [...]
Find Egg-breakers: People With Influence and Authority Who Are Unafraid to Use Them
This came up again today so I thought I’d dust it off, update it and republish. It’s as timely as it was when I first wrote it 2-and-a-half years ago when few were paying attention to my blog VC’s keep different titles but the most common that I’ve come across that are investment professionals are [...]
Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh: How to Negotiate with Buyers
I recently wrote a post about negotiating with suppliers called “The End of the Mexican Road.” The post talked about how to find the lowest acceptable price & terms in a deal through testing. In the post I made clear that I believe that all negotiations should seek to find fair deals where both parties [...]
How This Entrepreneur Raised $28,000 Using Airbnb to Fund Her Startup
Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She’s a painter and a self-proclaimed Bohemian. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. Tracy built her company, Recycled Media, out of necessity. She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She drove her company to [...]
