Mark Suster

Who they are

Mark Suster is Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures — a two-time founder who sold BuildOnline and Koral to Salesforce before crossing the table, and now runs Both Sides of the Table, one of the most-read VC blogs in the industry.

Person

Mark joined Upfront (then GRP Partners) in 2007, when the firm had already invested in more than 200 companies and raised over $2 billion — he came in not as a career investor but as a founder who'd done it twice. He studied at the University of Chicago for his undergraduate degree, then got his MBA at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, before founding BuildOnline in London — a cloud software platform for large-scale engineering and construction projects — which he sold, then founded Koral, a document management and collaboration tool in the Bay Area, which Salesforce acquired. That founder-to-GP arc is the whole story: he's arguing from personal experience, not theory. He co-founded Launchpad LA in 2009, a tech accelerator that helped seed the Los Angeles startup scene, and co-hosts the annual Upfront Summit, an invite-only tech conference that in 2025 drew top VCs, LPs, and founders to the Intuit Dome. He writes prolifically at bothsidesofthetable.com — practical, founder-focused posts on fundraising, board dynamics, and market cycles — and posts actively on LinkedIn across venture capital, hard tech, aerospace/defense, health/longevity, and regional economic development. The through-line is someone who moved to LA, stayed in LA, and made it his mission to build the ecosystem there from the inside.

Company

Upfront's most recent headline is a 9-unicorn portfolio as of 2026, with Apex reaching unicorn status in 2025 just one year after Upfront's initial investment — alongside WRITER and Invoca. The firm has made 3 investments so far in 2026, including Neon, and closed two notable rounds in late 2025: a $46M Series D for Modern Animal in September and a $50M growth round for Nanit in December. Earlier in 2025, Upfront led Clair's $23.2M Series B in May, backing the embedded earned wage access startup with partner Aditi Maliwal leading the deal. The firm operates with a team of 47 employees including 19 partners, and remains one of the largest early-stage VC firms in Los Angeles with over $2 billion in total raised funds.

Market

Upfront operates in a venture market where 46% of global venture funding in Q3 2025 went to AI companies, with a trend toward fewer but larger deals — a dynamic that pressures early-stage generalist funds to sharpen thesis clarity. The firm competes in the LA ecosystem against firms like Greycroft and Daher Capital, and nationally against larger platforms, while investing across AI, fintech, cybersecurity, space and defense, agtech, health tech, life sciences, and gaming. Regulatory scrutiny on outbound investment in critical technologies like semiconductors and AI — from both the US and EU — is an active backdrop shaping how firms like Upfront think about portfolio exposure in 2025–2026.

Network

Mark's closest professional orbit at Upfront includes Managing Partners Yves Sisteron and Kara Nortman, and newer partners Aditi Maliwal (who led the Clair deal) and General Partner Kevin Zhang. Outside the firm, he collaborates frequently with Samir Kaji as a podcast guest and venture industry commentator.

Yves Sisteron· Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures
Kara Nortman· Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures
Aditi Maliwal· Partner, Upfront Ventures
Kevin Zhang· General Partner, Upfront Ventures
Samir Kaji· Venture industry commentator and podcast collaborator

How they likely show up

Two founding exits (BuildOnline, Koral) before becoming a GP → he evaluates founders from the inside, not from pattern-matching alone; expect him to probe operational specifics.
Long tenure at Upfront since 2007 → thinks in fund cycles and decade-long platform bets, not quarterly deal flow.
Prolific public writing at bothsidesofthetable.com and active LinkedIn presence → comfortable being visible and opinionated; he's used to defending positions, so expect him to engage directly with pushback.
Co-founded Launchpad LA and co-hosts the Upfront Summit → invests in ecosystem infrastructure, not just companies; relationship-building and community are part of his operating model.
Covers aerospace/defense, health/longevity, and cybersecurity alongside traditional SaaS and consumer internet → broad thesis, likely drawn to founders with cross-sector ambitions or unusual market entry angles.
Based in Santa Monica, deep LA identity → regional pride is real; how a conversation connects to the LA ecosystem will register.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific Both Sides of the Table post — he'll know immediately whether you've actually read it or just Googled the name.
→ Ask about the founder-to-GP transition specifically: selling Koral to Salesforce then joining GRP is an unusual entry point and he's likely thought deeply about what it changed in how he sees deals.
→ Don't pitch LA as an emerging ecosystem — he's been building it since 2007 and co-founded Launchpad LA; he's a primary cause, not an observer.
→ He's spoken publicly about macro and crisis dynamics (coronavirus impact, VC cycle timing) — he'll engage with market-structure questions, not just individual company stories.
→ Come with a view, not just questions — his public writing takes clear positions, and he responds better to someone who has a stance to discuss than someone fishing for his opinions.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Apex hitting unicorn status in 2025 just one year after Upfront's initial investment — a clean example of early conviction paying off fast, and a good entry point to ask how he sizes initial checks when the timeline to scale is compressed.
Reference Both Sides of the Table directly — it's his own property, running since before most VC blogs existed, and naming a specific post or theme (fundraising mechanics, board dynamics) signals you did more than skim his LinkedIn.
Bring up Launchpad LA's 2009 founding — he co-built the LA tech scene's early infrastructure at a time when no one was betting on LA, and it's a window into why he stayed when most ambitious tech people moved to SF.

Discovery questions

You founded two companies before becoming a GP — how has having been on the other side of the table actually changed the questions you ask founders in a first meeting?
With 46% of global venture funding in Q3 2025 going to AI companies, how is Upfront thinking about maintaining early-stage conviction in non-AI sectors without getting crowded out on price?
The Upfront Summit brought tech's elite to LA two months after the fires in 2025 — what does that moment say about where the LA ecosystem is now versus when you joined in 2007?

Avoid

Don't treat LA as a secondary market or imply that the 'real' action is in SF — he's spent nearly two decades arguing the opposite and has the portfolio to back it up.

Make it yours