Mark Suster

In 1999, with Ireland-based real estate entrepreneur Brian Moran, he created his first company, a construction collaboration technology business called BuildOnline, where he also served as chief executive officer.[4] BuildOnline merged with US-based rival Citadon in December 2006.[5]

By September 2006, Suster had already left Citadon, having established a second company called Koral, a content collaboration software business.[6] In April 2007, Koral was acquired by Salesforce.com where Suster then assumed the role of Vice President of Product Management upon the completion of the acquisition.[7]

Suster later joined Upfront Ventures (previously known as GRP Partners), a venture capital and investment firm, in 2007.[8] In 2009, Suster started the Launchpad LA accelerator while continuing his employment at Upfront. At Upfront, Suster led investments in companies including Bird, Invoca, MakeSpace, mitu, Nanit,[9] Osmo, Tact, and uBeam.[10]

Suster also led the initial funding round for, and was on the board of, Maker Studios, an online video talent agency (acquired by Disney in 2014).[11] He was also an early investor in online car-shopping system TrueCar, which went public that same year.[12] Unlike other Silicon Valley technology entrepreneurs, Suster has been open about turning down investments in potential start-up businesses that later became successful, including Uber.[13]

In February 2023, Suster said an excess of capital in the startup market was keeping many startups afloat. Of 5,000 early-stage companies Upfront Ventures had funded since 2019, half were at risk of going out of business, he said.[14] Less than a month later (11 March 2023), Suster called for calm as investors became concerned about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, suggesting a "handful" of VCs were creating panic.[15]

An April 2023 article in Business Insider revealed that of the 19 boards Suster has sat on, nine of the original founder-CEOs had stepped down early, left the company entirely, or had been removed.[16]

Investors including Upfront Ventures/Suster have been in lawsuits brought by Loot Crate[17] and Maker Studios.[18]

Suster grew up in Northern California and is a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and the United States. He is of Romanian Jewish ancestry.[19] Suster graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He later received his MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.[20]

Since he was diagnosed with ADHD in 2014, Suster has openly talked and written often about how he's learned to integrate his business skills with his coping strategies for ADHD.[21]

Suster is married with two children.[22]