Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures · Joined 2007
View Live Interactive Profile →Mark Suster built two enterprise software companies before becoming an investor - BuildOnline, a construction collaboration platform he founded in 1999, and Koral, a content collaboration business that Salesforce.com acquired in 2007, after which he briefly worked inside Salesforce as VP of Product Management. That real operating scar tissue shaped his approach when he joined GRP Partners (later renamed Upfront Ventures) later in 2007, becoming Managing Partner in 2011 and helping transform a firm that began by backing traditional retail chains like Costco and Starbucks into the largest and most established venture capital firm in Los Angeles. Suster also founded the Launchpad LA accelerator in 2009 and became one of the most widely-read voices in venture capital through his Both Sides of the Table blog, known for detailed, practitioner-level writing on term sheets, board dynamics, and fundraising that draws directly on his own founder experience.