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 Prediction Not checkable as stated

Suster warns fashionable tech market creates excess capital and non-entrepreneurs

“I think we've returned to a moment where startups and Silicon Valley and tech have become fashionable, and everyone wants to do it, which means you're gonna have too many companies, too much money, and too many people who aren't truly entrepreneurs, kind of cl…”

Mark Suster Nov 4, 2015 ▶ 21:19 20 VC 085: Mark Suster @ Upfront Ventures on Being A Super Entrepreneur Driven VC

20VC Insight

Suster: Entrepreneurship does not pay off economically for most founders

“I think it's stressful, it's hard, it leads a lot of people to depression, and conflict, and stress, and for most people it doesn't even pay off economically. And so if you're going to dedicate yourself to it, you sure as hell better love the product concept o…”

Mark Suster Nov 4, 2015 ▶ 23:31 20 VC 085: Mark Suster @ Upfront Ventures on Being A Super Entrepreneur Driven VC

SOURCERY Assertion Contradicted

Suster: 25% of VC funds deployed their entire fund in 2021

“25% of all funds deployed their entire fund in twenty-twenty-one. 25%, one in four. The median time to deploy in twenty-twenty-one was 1.7 years, okay?”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 4:41 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Insight

Suster: Roughly six deals drive 80% of returns in a venture fund

“Empirically, about six deals in any fund drive 80% of the returns.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 6:01 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Opinion

Suster: There are too many cheerleader VCs

“I think there are too many cheerleader VCs.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 23:34 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Insight

Suster: Investor advice from non-operators is often not actionable

“You often get input from investors who have never done what you've done before. And so it's like, well, meaning smart people saying smart things, but it's not actionable.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 26:38 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Opinion

Suster: Pure software-only VC investing strategy is not realistic for the future

“So, I think VCs just got a little too comfortable that every investment they were gonna do was software only, and I just don't think that's realistic for the future.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 39:52 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Assertion Supported

Suster says 20-percent growth software startups currently trade at 4x revenue

“But the twenty-year average is six X. And right now, if you're growing at 20%, you're probably trading at Forex.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 40:56 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Insight

Suster: Disciplined valuations leave startups a much larger pool of potential acquirers

“There's a ton of companies that can acquire businesses for 100 to five hundred million dollars. There's not so many who can acquire it for two billion or five billion. So if you're disciplined as an investor, if you're disciplined as a founder, and you're fund…”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 45:35 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

SOURCERY Opinion

Suster: Tech entrepreneurs in 2024 are more patriotic than ever before

“I think entrepreneurs In 20, 24 are way more patriotic than they've ever been. And, you know, there's sort of a pride in helping America and capitalism.”

Mark Suster Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 51:39 Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

20VC Insight

Suster: Rejections come quickly in fundraising while commitments take months

“I used to tell people about fundraising, which is lemons ripen early. And what do I mean by that? So if you go ask 30 people for money, five or 10 of them are going to tell you no quickly because no's come quickly and the yes's take months.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 9:10 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Insight

Suster: Venture fund managers should pitch the smallest viable fund target

“Put the smallest number on the front of your pitch deck that you're possibly raising.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 17:39 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Insight

Mark Suster: All investors act like sheep and follow herd mentality

“All investors are sheep. End of story. Like, I don't want to pick on LPs, like LPs are no different than VCs. They're no different than retail investors.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 20:54 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Disclosure

Upfront Ventures deployed nearly $50M into discounted secondaries in 2023

“So in 23, I started buying secondaries at discounts. We deployed almost fifty million dollars into secondaries in 23 at deep discounts at a time where other people were, like, scared about the market”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 24:42 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Assertion Supported

Suster: Generative AI seed deals carry a 44% valuation premium

“If you want to do generative AI in 20, 23, 24, you're paying 44% premium to do a generative AI deal.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 34:36 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Assertion Contradicted

Suster: Series B generative AI deals command a 200% valuation premium

“At the B round, it's like 200% premium to an enterprise software company.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 34:48 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Disclosure

Suster: Upfront seed-invested in Ring after Shark Tank passed

“We were the seed investor in Ring. Everybody on Shark Tank passed on it. We wrote a check.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 51:35 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Insight

Suster: Combining hardware and software produces differentiated VC returns

“Hardware plus software is incredibly valuable. So the hardware actually provides you with a differentiated return if you also have a services business.”

Mark Suster May 1, 2024 ▶ 51:56 Mark Suster: Why Private Equity Will Replace IPOs and M&A as the Exit Path | E1147 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Opinion

Suster: Too many VCs lack real startup operating experience

“Too many investors that I had come across didn't have real startup operating experience. And I didn't feel like I always got the advice that I could have used at the time I could have used it.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 4:11 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

Sustained unemployment will cause widespread spending declines outside grocery and pharma

“If seventeen million people are out of work for six months or more, Spending is going to go down everywhere across almost every category, maybe other than grocery and pharma.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 13:02 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 Contradicted

Ad spend saw a 40% quarter-over-quarter drop in Q2 2020

“40% decline right now in quarter over quarter for second quarter. And we're already seeing it in the data of people starting to cancel marketing orders that we know are being canceled.”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 13:49 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 Disclosure

Upfront Ventures is closing deals entirely remotely without meeting founders

“We funded a company today. We submitted the term sheet two weeks ago, and I've never met the founder in person. We greenlit another term sheet last Monday. It'll fund early to middle of next week. I've never met the founder in person. We are going to our partn…”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 15:34 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 Insight

VCs without follow-on reserves risk being wiped out to zero

“And don't forget that in that eighty million dollar round that gets cut back to a forty million dollar, if you don't participate, sometimes you get flushed down to zero. And so if you don't have reserves and you're playing in a game where big checks are being …”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 23:48 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 Disclosure

Suster passed on Uber and Box due to personal biases

“The obvious example, Harry, is Uber, where having lived in London and seen the taxi lobby and how strong the taxi lobby was in London, that clouded my vision for what was possible. Having lived in Los Angeles and seeing how few people ever use taxis, that clou…”

Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 34:13 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(53 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 →