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.
What is it Like to Wake Up and Have the Press Ready to Torpedo Your Business?
In case you missed it, the press yesterday ran several stories questioning the viability of a wireless charging company I invested in called uBeam. Obviously my day turned out very differently than I had anticipated when I woke up, but it wasn’t half as bad as the entire team at uBeam must have felt yesterday. […]
How Would You Build a Movie Studio if You Started Today?
I met Andrew Stalbow and Petri Järvilehto from Seriously several years ago after they had just left Angry Birds where they were responsible for international business development / licensing and the game studio, respectively. They had a new company in mind and they posed a question to me “If Walt Disney were to try and […]
Getting Your Series A Mojo Back
You Need to Find Your Mojo A Chip On Your Shoulder A few years ago I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. I think it’s an important read. A chip on one’s shoulder as in, “Fuck the system, it’s broken and I want to fix it” is exactly the […]
The TACO Challenge
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. In the US this is often confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16th and is called Grito de Dolores. That made some people think of taco bowls and love Hispanics. Whatever. Our portfolio company mitú, the fastest growing digital video company focused on the Latino market in […]
Stuck in the Middle With You
Stuck in the Middle With You Reservoir Dogs … If it’s lost on you Google it It’s safe to say that all eyes globally are on the United States right now with an election that feels more like a script of House of Cards than the sad reality we’re living. There are reasons to be despondent […]
Why on Earth Would Anybody Post Business Videos on Snapchat?
Why on Earth Would Anybody Post Business Videos on Snapchat? By now if you follow me on Twitter you probably know that I do near daily “Snapstorms” or a collection of short videos (usually < 5 mins in total) with entrepreneur advice on Snapchat. Here’s a recent one I did on Fund Raising in tough […]
Lead, Follow or Get the Fuck Out of the Way
Lead — It’s hard to be a real leader. Decisions are never black or white, so most people fudge. The straddle middle grounds to keep everybody happy. They make compromises to try and hold together constituencies. On business decisions they want to hedge their bets so they do a little bit of everything but nothing […]
Never Ask Two People to do One Person’s Job
Why you do me like that? Over the year’s I’ve tried to offer some tangible, practical advice to help people communicate more effectively. I’ve weighed in on: But one thing really drives me nucking futs and that’s asking two (or more!) people to do the job of one person. If you want somebody to action […]
Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business
There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. When I publicly Tweeted […]
The Importance of Teams and Why the Best Leaders Cultivate Them
I was watching my favorite show on TV this morning – GPS (Global Public Square) with Fareed Zakaria. It is a hugely compelling show because Zakaria covers world issues that will affect all of us in ways that are accessible and with frameworks for processing disparate information. He brings knowledgable experts from varying points of […]
Understanding the Rich Tapestry of American Culture as Experienced Through Food
Like many immigrant families and many Jewish families I grew up around a kitchen table, often outside my house and experiencing food, culture, life and other people through meals. I remember fondly my dad (from Colombia) wanting to eat out of the house and experience the best multi-cultural foods one could actually find in […]
How to Avoid Being Disrupted as a VC
My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” Numero uno. I was nowhere to be found. And that’s a true reflection of just how successful and prolific Greg has been in LA. In a world that is […]
An Inside Scoop on the Funding Environment and What it Might Mean for You
$30 million. That’s how much Invoca raised and we’re announcing it today. It is an heroic accomplishment in a brutal fund-raising market in which only market leaders can bring in that sort of money. But the story started more than 6 months ago. And the narrative may tell you something about your own journey one […]
How to Decrease the Odds That Your Startup Fails
Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. We also know that even though many of us who are experienced in startup successes & failures look at businesses and say, […]
The Long Economic Case for Snapchat
Last week I wrote a primer on how to use Snapchat for my peer group of “over 30” people who don’t yet “get” Snapchat. Today I want to talk briefly about why I believe Snapchat is an important media company. If you still don’t get Snapchat please read the primer or follow me on Snapchat for […]
