20 VC 085: Mark Suster @ Upfront Ventures on Being A Super Entrepreneur Driven VC

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Suster is Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures which he joined in 2007, having previously worked with Upfront for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Mark is also the writer of one of my favourite VC blogs, Both Sides Of The Table which is a centre piece to the whole VC community and is a must read for all interested in entrepreneurship and VC.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Mark make his way into the world of tech and later make the transition to VC?

2.) How have Mark's entrepreneurial origins influenced his investment style and approach to startups?

3.) What really gets Mark excited in terms of the founders and the companies they have built?

4.) How does Mark recommend that startup founders can meet investors and get those initial meetings?

5.) What sector is Mark most excited by and why?

6.) Mark has said in the past 'too much money too early often fucks companies up'. Why is that and how should founders determine what is the right amount to raise?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

My Fave of Mark's Posts: Entrepreneur DNA, I Invest In Lines Not Dots

Mark's Fave Book: The Accidental Superpower

Mark's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Stratechery, Ben Evans, Chris Dixon, Tom Tunguz

Mark's Most Recent Investment: Mitu Networks

As always you can follow Harry, Mark, The Twenty Minute VC and Upfront Ventures on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings and following our fantastic episode with Antoine at Felix in London,
0:08.1	we are now flying across the world to join the legendary Mark Suster.
0:12.4	Mark is managing partner at Upfront Ventures which he joined in 2007, having previously worked with Upfront for nearly eight years as a two-time entrepreneur.
0:22.0	Before joining Upfront, Mark was vice president of product management at Salesforce.com
0:27.0	following its acquisition of Coral, where Mark was founder and CEO.
0:31.8	And prior to Coral, Mark was also the founder and CEO of Build Online, a European SaaS
0:37.3	company that was acquired by Sword Group. Mark is also the writer and CEO of Build Online, a European SaaS company that was acquired by Sword Group.
0:40.1	Mark is also the writer of one of my favourite VC blogs, both sides of the table, which really is a
0:45.8	centrepiece to the whole VC community and is a must read for all interested in entrepreneurship and VC.
0:52.4	Now please, what I'm about to say is not an advert or a sponsorship
0:56.0	or anything like that at all. It's just a resource that I absolutely love and wanted to share with you.
1:01.9	It is, of course, Mattermark Daily. It's a hand-cured newsletter by a good friend of my Nick Frost
1:08.1	found on Twitter at Thinker. And it's compiled daily to bring you
1:12.6	first person accounts of entrepreneurship, investment and insights from the startup ecosystem.
1:18.9	Literally, it's the first thing I read every morning and I simply could not live without it.
1:23.9	And the links can be found in the show notes or you can find it on any good search engine
1:27.8	just by searching for Mattermark Daily. And of course, Mark Suster has featured several,
1:32.6	several times on Mattermark Daily. But now, enough from me, it's time to meet the legend,
1:38.0	Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures. Three, two, one, zero.
1:48.0	You have now arrived at your destination.
1:51.2	Now, I'm hugely excited today to welcome the legend that is Mark Suster.
1:55.8	Thank you so much for joining us on stage show.
	...

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