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

Apr 19, 2020

Posted by

Mark Suster is the Managing Partner @ Upfront Ventures, one of LA’s leading and largest venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Bird, GOAT, Maker Studios and Ring.com to name a few. Prior to joining the world of venture, Mark was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Products. Mark is also the author of one of my favourite industry blogs, Both Sides of The Table.

CLICK TO PLAY

CLICK TO LISTEN ON ITUNES

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Mark made his way from founding enterprise companies to joining “the dark side” of venture with his move to Upfront?

2.) How does the current economic landscape change the world of B2B? How will renewals be impacted? How will customers approach discounting? Similarly, how will the world of B2C be impacted by COVID? How does this impact marketing and ad spend?

3.) How does Mark think about reserve allocation today with Upfront? How does that change in the face of COVID? Why does Mark believe this environment will redefine valuations? How should founders respond in the face of heavily changed valuations?

4.) Does Mark believe we will see a graveyard of new venture firms who have deployed too quickly and have too many hungry mouths to feed? How does Mark think about building temporal diversification into the portfolio? How can managers use reserves more intelligently moving forward?

5.) Does Mark agree with the Twittersphere that VCs remain “open for business”? How will we see deal volume impact? How will we see size of transaction impacted? What is the most important role a VC can play today? How will the M&A market also be impacte din the face of COVID?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Mark’s Fave Book: Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World

Mark’s Most Recent Investment: Solve

As always you can follow HarryThe Twenty Minute VC and Mark and on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Share this post

Link copied

Link copied

Link copied

RELATED POSTS

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO YOUR FAVOURITE PLATFORM

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO YOUR FAVOURITE PLATFORM

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO YOUR FAVOURITE PLATFORM

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO YOUR FAVOURITE PLATFORM

© 2024 20VC. All rights reserved.

© 2024 20VC. All rights reserved.

© 2024 20VC. All rights reserved.

© 2024 20VC. All rights reserved.