Mark Suster

Everything Mark Suster said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

20VC Disclosure

Suster: VCs settled with embezzling founder, getting equity but zero cash

“It's one step worse than that, which is, I know of a company in which the founder embezzled money. Ok, literally stole millions of dollars. In order to not end up in a big legal battle, their VCs ended up settling, and they got all the stock back, but none of …”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 7:44 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

SOURCERY Opinion

Mark Suster argues Series A is VC's most overvalued funding round

“And so I think that a round is the single most overvalued round in venture capital.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 20:26 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

20VC Assertion Not publicly verifiable

Suster: SoftBank, Tiger, Coatue, and Insight marked 60% of 2021-2022 unicorns

“Of the 1260% were marked by four firms, ok? SoftBank, Tiger, Coachu, and Insight.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 29:41 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated

Suster: Investors entering generative AI from 2023-2025 won't see strong returns

“So if you're betting on generative AI for the first time in 23, 24, 25, good luck making returns.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 35:04 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Not publicly verifiable

Suster predicts party rounds will perform worst over the next three years

“And party rounds did incredibly well. For the last five years, but I suspect party rounds are going to do the worst for the next three years, because getting conviction across three or four small investors that each own seven, eight, nine, 10% of your company …”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 37:14 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

20VC Opinion

Suster: Founders should avoid demo days and batch fundraising hype

“Like, you've got one company, and there's no divorce clause from investors, so I really think entrepreneurs need to take the time to get to know their investors, which is why I'm not a big proponent of demo days, or overhyping your company, or Waiting to meet …”

Mark Suster Nov 4, 2015 ▶ 16:16 20 VC 085: Mark Suster @ Upfront Ventures on Being A Super Entrepreneur Driven VC

SOURCERY Insight

Suster: Seed funds take 15 years to yield most profits

“A seed fund has a 10 to 12 year maturity, and it's really more like 15 years, and that's just the truth about venture capital. It takes longer for your fund to mature, and you might return your fund in year seven, eight, or nine, but you're yielding most of th…”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 9:31 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Opinion

Mark Suster calls Anduril the most important private company besides SpaceX

“So you look recently at Anduril, probably the most important company In the private markets behind SpaceX.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 37:56 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Insight

Suster: Going public without analyst coverage and institutional support is worse than staying private

“Going public, if you don't have coverage, and you don't have an institutional base that wants to invest in you, like, is worse than being private. Because you now have a fixed market cap that doesn't go up. You don't really have liquidity.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 44:12 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Prediction Not checkable as stated

Mark Suster predicts mega tech M&A remains dead regardless of elections

“The FTC has not been looking too kindly on these mega deals. And so I think the mega deals just aren't going to happen for a period of time. I don't know what will happen post November, but even either administration, I'm not convinced they're suddenly going t…”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 45:14 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Opinion

Suster: Defense tech startups like Anduril are critical for future warfare

“I would argue that's why companies like Anduril are so important, because the future battleground are going to require a new type of weapon, a new type of defense system, that if we don't develop it, the Russians will, the Chinese will, the Koreans will, and I…”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 51:14 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

20VC Assertion Contradicted

Mark Suster: 2021 tech overvaluations were worse than dot-com bubble

“1998, 99, 2000 are nothing compared to the overvaluations of twenty-twenty-one.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 0:00 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Open · timeframe May 2029

Mark Suster: Venture market correction will take another five years

“So we're two years into a correction. I think it's going to take another five.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 32:42 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated

Suster: Tech industry will see many more startup frauds exposed

“You're already seeing it, you know, we're reading about it, like, almost monthly in the press. Yes, you're gonna see a lot more of it.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 7:37 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Disclosure

Upfront Ventures sold $1.2B in secondary positions during 2021 peak

“We sold 1.2 billion dollars worth of positions in 2021. When everyone was writing crazy checks, I sold six hundred million dollars that year.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 23:25 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Open · timeframe May 2029

Suster: Private equity buyouts and secondaries will drive future venture capital returns

“Where, where are returns going to come from? They're going to come from private equity. So private equity firms are going to step in and buy assets from venture capital funds. They will either buy A company or they will buy secondary.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 27:04 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Open · timeframe May 2029

Suster: 1,000 startups funded in 2021-2022 will never exit at $1B+

“Of the 1221 and 22 that were funded, my guess is a thousand of them will never achieve an exit value of a billion dollars or more.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 29:32 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Disclosure

Suster: Upfront generated $1.4B from six hard-to-fund, capital-efficient startups

“On average of our companies that take longer and that we had reserves for. On average, it took six years to raise a growth round. Okay. But those companies by definition are more capital efficient because they didn't have access to it. I have six deals that fi…”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 45:49 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Disclosure

Suster: Fast-growing startup rejected $350M acquisition offer before crashing to $0

“And then I had one big company that was incredibly fast growing is the fastest growing company I had ever seen. And so I piled money into it and it ended up being a zero. We had an offer to sell the company for three hundred and fifty million dollars. Founder …”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 48:50 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated

Founders will need four times more VC meetings to raise capital

“It might take four times more VC meetings to get one check than it did only three months ago, but prepare for probably the hardest economic environment of any of our lifetimes, not just yours if you're a younger founder, but of anyone alive today.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 14:52 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated

Mature startups facing cash crises will be hardest to refinance

“So when we're looking at companies, we're looking at bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, we're going to build this for the next 10 years, we're in the first six to 18 months of our journey, as opposed to a company been around for six years and suddenly finds itself in …”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 16:46 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

20VC Prediction Held up

VC fundraising will be harder from 2020 to 2025

“I suspect it's going to be harder to raise funds for the next five years than it was for the last five.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 17:50 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

20VC Assertion Partly supported

Pay-to-play provisions have returned to venture capital deal structures

“It doesn't come back. It is back. It's back. Pay to play is on the table.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 24:10 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

20VC Prediction Didn’t hold up

Suster predicts lead VC ownership targets will rise above 20%

“Yes. In fact, I think it'll go up from 20%, not down.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 36:17 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds

Show 24statements(77 left)

The other half of the tape: Mark Suster's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 85 times in 52 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 41Molly O'Shea 5Miles Dieffenbach 4Parker Thompson 3Kara Nortman 3Samir Kaji 2Sam Corcos 2Rob Go 2

Statements about Mark Suster, by other people (6)

20VC Opinion

Mark Suster's 'always be raising' advice distracts founders from execution

“There is a headset that has become the norm, which is always be raising. I don't know if that's always right. I think it's where we are, but I don't think that's necessarily the right thing for all founders. I think it's often very distracting and very, and ma…”

Micah Rosenbloom Feb 15, 2017 ▶ 18:00 20VC: Why Founders Should Not Focus On Top Line Valuation, Why Capital Efficiency Is Key To Returns And Investment Success & Why Despite Popular Thought, $100m Is An Exciting Exit For VC with Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner @ Founder Collective

SOURCERY Prediction Not checkable as stated

Miller: Middle East LPs will invest less in VC due to conflict

“I think they'll want to invest less because I think they're going to be trying to like deal with domestic issues. So I think that there's a possibility that we see a downturn coming out of this that, that could shock venture industry.”

Ben Miller Mar 30, 2026 ▶ 51:41 The Public Venture Fund That 9x’d in 3 Days (Fundrise VCX) · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

20VC Assertion Supported

Mark Suster Aggressively Sold Portfolio Stakes During the 2021 Market Peak

“Mark Suster, I give him all the credit in the world. He's been in the game for a long time and upfront. He saw 20, 21 as an insane period. And he strip sailed like majority of his portfolios and his funds. For a very good price. DPI in the pocket. Like I, all …”

Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 56:48 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Opinion

Kim: Party rounds are the absolute worst early-stage financing structure

“Now, the absolute worst scenario, and Mark Suster actually talks about it in his recent post on both sides of the table, are these party rounds. I don't think these party rounds are happening as often, but these party rounds are where 20 plus individuals, you …”

Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 8:23 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital

20VC Opinion

Mark Suster Is the Best VC at Social Media Branding

“You know who I always love is Mark Schuster. He's like, so when we first, first started getting going in, in Twitter, 2008, nine, he was crushing it then. He's now crushing it on Snapchat and doing really interesting stuff.”

Ryan Holmes Oct 28, 2016 ▶ 20:04 20VC: Hootsuite's Ryan Holmes on Optimising Productivity in Meetings, Creating An Ownership Culture & Lessons From Running A Pizzeria!

20VC Opinion

Silicon Valley bias against LA startups is now a non-issue

“Fast forward to today, I think that's a non-issue with people like, you know, Mark Suster and Upfront Ventures and Snapchat in LA.”

James Borow Sep 18, 2015 ▶ 18:43 FF 013: 'Make Bets And Believe In What You Are Doing' with James Borow @ Shift & Brand Networks

Every mention by year

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Mark's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
20VCLEDGER	Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures	3	76	36% 5/14	full record on 20VC →
SOURCERYLEDGER	Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures	1	20	50% 2/4	full record on Sourcery →
MIXERGYLEDGER	Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures	1	5	100% 1/1	full record on Mixergy →