Mark Suster | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 30, 1968 |
| Education | University of Chicago (M.B.A.) University of California at San Diego (B.A.) |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, investor |
| Spouse | Tania Suster |
| Children | 2 |
Mark Suster is an American businessman and investor. He is a managing partner at Upfront Ventures, [1] the largest venture capital firm in Los Angeles. [2] Aside from his business career, Suster is also a prominent blogger in the American high-technology startup scene and venture capital world. [3]
In 1999, with Ireland-based real estate entrepreneur Brian Moran, he created his first company, a construction collaboration technology business called BuildOnline, where he also served as chief executive officer. [4] BuildOnline merged with US-based rival Citadon in December 2006. [5]
By September 2006, Suster had already left Citadon, having established a second company called Koral, a content collaboration software business. [6] In April 2007, Koral was acquired by Salesforce.com where Suster then assumed the role of Vice President of Product Management upon the completion of the acquisition. [7]
Suster later joined Upfront Ventures (previously known as GRP Partners), a venture capital and investment firm, in 2007. [8] In 2009, Suster started the Launchpad LA accelerator while continuing his employment at Upfront. [9] At Upfront, Suster led investments in companies including Ring, Bird, Invoca, ThreadUp, MakeSpace, mitu, Nanit, [10] Osmo, Tact, and uBeam. [11]
Suster also led the initial funding round for, and was on the board of, Maker Studios, an online video talent agency (acquired by Disney in 2014). [12] He was also an early investor in online car-shopping system TrueCar, which went public that same year. [13] Unlike other Silicon Valley technology entrepreneurs, Suster has been open about turning down investments in potential start-up businesses that later became successful, including Uber. [14]
In February 2023, Suster said an excess of capital in the startup market was keeping many startups afloat. Of 5,000 early-stage companies Upfront Ventures had funded since 2019, half were at risk of going out of business, he said. [15] Less than a month later (11 March 2023), Suster called for calm as investors became concerned about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, suggesting a "handful" of VCs were creating panic. [16]
Suster and Upfront are hosts of the Upfront Summit, an invite-only VC conference in Los Angeles. [17] The event brings more than 1,000 attendees each year and have taken place in locations such as Paramount Studios, the Rose Bowl, and Dolby Theatre. [18]
Investors including Upfront Ventures/Suster have been in lawsuits brought by Loot Crate [19] and Maker Studios. [20]
Suster grew up in Northern California and is a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and the United States. He is of Romanian Jewish ancestry. [21] Suster graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He later received his MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. [22]
Since he was diagnosed with ADHD in 2014, Suster has openly talked and written often about how he's learned to integrate his business skills with his coping strategies for ADHD. [23]
Suster is married with two children. [24]
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.
Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden.
Hakeem Temidayo Seriki, better known by his stage name Chamillionaire, is an American rapper. He began his career with locally-tailored releases in the early 2000s, and signed with Houston's Paid in Full Entertainment to release the collaborative album, Get Ya Mind Correct (2002) with labelmate and hometown native Paul Wall. He signed with Universal Records in 2005 and released his debut studio album, The Sound of Revenge in November of that year to commercial success. It was supported by the singles "Ridin'" —which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group—and "Turn It Up". His second album, Ultimate Victory (2007) was met with continued success; it became notable for its lack of profanity and lead single "Hip Hop Police" —as well as its accompanying music video. His pop rap 2009 single, "Good Morning" peaked within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 was intended to lead his third album Venom, which was ultimately never released.
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.
Christopher Sacca is an American venture investor, company advisor, entrepreneur, and lawyer. He is the proprietor of Lowercase Capital, a venture capital fund in the United States that has invested in seed and early-stage technology companies such as Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Twilio, and Kickstarter, investments that resulted in his placement as No. 2 on Forbes' Midas List: Top Tech Investors for 2017. Sacca held several positions at Google Inc., where he led the alternative access and wireless divisions and worked on mergers and acquisitions. Between 2015 and 2020, he appeared as a "Guest Shark" on ABC's Shark Tank. In early 2017, Sacca announced that he was retiring from venture investing. In 2021, Sacca announced that he was back into venture investing with a focus on Climate issues.
Michael Jones is an American entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Science Inc. In 2017, Jones was named one of Los Angeles's 500 most influential people by the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.
Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London, India and China.
John William Gurley is an American businessman. He is a general partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in San Francisco, California. He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List and is considered one of the top dealmakers in the American technology industry.
Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm is headquartered in New York City and Los Angeles.
Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $35 billion as of March 2022.
Domo, Inc. is an American cloud software company based in American Fork, Utah, United States. It specializes in business intelligence tools and data visualization.
Baseline Ventures is a venture capital investment firm that focuses on seed and growth-stage investments in technology companies. The company was the first seed investor in Instagram, an early investor of Twitter and has been called "one of Silicon Valley's most successful — and smallest — investment firms" by Forbes. It is headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming. They also do commercial representation of some athletes.
Evan Beard is an American entrepreneur, engineer, and co-founder with Ashton Kutcher of the media company A Plus (aplus.com). A Plus ranks among the largest websites in the US, with 30 to 50 million monthly unique visitors, and six months after launch was the fastest growing website in comScore's Mobile Metrix database. Beard has been recognized on the Forbes "30 under 30" list which features the "brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents" and Business Insider's list of the "most inspiring and influential people in New York tech". Prior to A Plus, Beard co-founded Etacts and ArmorHub, both acquired by publicly traded companies.
Dataiku is an American artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning company which was founded in 2013. In December 2019, Dataiku announced that CapitalG—the late-stage growth venture capital fund financed by Alphabet Inc.—joined Dataiku as an investor and that it had achieved unicorn status. As of 2021, Dataiku is valued at $4.6 billion. Dataiku currently employs more than 1,000 people worldwide between offices in New York, Denver, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Munich, Frankfurt, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo, and Dubai.
Sierra Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in San Mateo, California. It targets startups in sectors including enterprise tech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and healthcare.
Upfront Ventures, formerly known as GRP Partners, is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. It is one of the largest venture capital firms in Los Angeles, with $2 billion in total raised funds. Since its founding in 1996, Upfront Ventures has invested in more than 200 companies, with notable exits including Ulta, Overture, PayPal Credit, TrueCar, Disney Digital Network, Kyriba, and Ring.
Kara Elyse Nortman is an American venture capitalist, the founder and managing partner of Monarch Collective, and professional sports team owner who co-founded National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel City FC.
Launchpad LA was a startup accelerator program located in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2009 by venture capitalists Mark Suster and Adam Lilling.