Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. I first met Greg about 4 years ago or so. This is exactly the brand that GRP Partners wants to embody. So I began talking to him about joining the fund. You won’t regret it.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

SoCal Tech Calendar

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Want to know what industry leaders think about investment trends given the economys instability? Panel includes Paul Bricault, Venture Partner, Greycroft Partners; Debbie Landa, Founder, GrowLab; Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Director, Felicis Ventures; Mark Suster, Partner, GRP Partners.

GRP Partners 113

GRP Partners Media Invest 113

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 25, 2011

He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. Come hear him talk about about SoCal startups, entrepreneurship and the investment scene. Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He focuses on early-stage technology companies.

GRP Partners 100

GRP Partners UCSD SoCal Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

I was thinking about this yesterday because my assistant Tasha posted a link on Facebook to Paul C. ” In it he talked about how he gets daily emails asking for intros to Oprah (he does a lot of work with her) and his advice. Think about it – who knows angels the best? I wrote about there here. Be helpful.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

socalTECH

AUGUST 30, 2011

For today's Insights and Opinions piece, we turn again to prolific blogger and local venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners , for his insights into how a wider experience--beyond the confines of the startup world--can help you as an entrepreneur. Esther was talking about problems and entrepreneurs as far away as Russia.

Web 2.0 124

Web 2.0 GRP Partners Blogging Web 124

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 4, 2010

Learn about the hottest trends and the mistakes NOT to make. Moderators: Stephen Hughes, Senior Relationship Manager, Silicon Valley Bank; Scott Alderton, Partner, Stubbs Alderton, and Markiles LLP. Meet the top VCs who are investing in Southern California. Find out what they are looking to invest in. See [link] (more).

LAVA 100

LAVA Venture Capital Palomar GRP Partners 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

There's been a lot of talk about the boom in Southern California's startup world. This is data that is not easy to come about, and which the free and crowdsourced information on the Internet is severely lacking. GRP Partners. In this special report, we've mined our extensive database of venture capital. being funded.

Dollar Shave Club 170

Dollar Shave Club Report Southern California Funding 170

socalTECH

OCTOBER 16, 2009

The round came from GRP Partners. GRP's Mark Suster sits on the firm's board. comes as the firm begins talking to VC investors about Series A round. Los Angeles-based Ad.ly , which is developing an in-stream, advertising platform for Twitter, has raised $500,000 in a funding round. is lead by Sean Rad. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners Funding 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

According to Lehmbeck, in an interview with socalTECH, the company's software takes key specifications from products such as televisions and other consumer electronics, and applies them to ads automatically, so that instead of just advertising a big screen television an ad might contain key terms and information about those products.

Yahoo 145

Yahoo Paid Search GRP Partners SoCalTech 145

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

I myself recently covered the topic when I spoke about why GRP Partners invested in Ad.ly. People feel angst about advertising in any form – I feel the same feeling about advertising as most consumers. GRP Partners invested in GoTo.com which rebranded as Overture. Who decides?

Advertising 277

Advertising Technical Review GRP Partners Google 277

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2013

Mark Suster of GRP Partners and Launchpad was confirmed to keynote along with Nely Galan of Galan Entertainment, the first Latina president of Telemundo. Media Partners. Current media partners include Los Angeles Times, PandoDaily, TechZulu, SoCalTech and VentureBeat. Companies represented include: Disney, Warner Bros.,

GRP Partners 88

GRP Partners MyLife Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 88

socalTECH

APRIL 18, 2012

Mark Suster, a venture capitalist at GRP Partners, and frequent blogger and host of This Week In Venture Capital, added his own thoughts, which we're reprinting here (with his permission). Somebody asked the question, "What do you think about the term Silicon Beach? Brad Feld visited Los Angeles this past week.

GRP Partners 147

GRP Partners Startup Blogging Los Angeles 147

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) I’ve been very public about my seed strategy but when I saw Nivi’s Tweet I realized that it is not laid out simply in one consolidated space. Short summary of my posts: 1.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

SoCal CTO

MAY 17, 2011

I told them that I had recently seen several posts/articles talking about how vibrant the community has become. I was just talking with someone who's new to Los Angeles and wanting to connect into the Los Angeles Startup Community. As is usual, I couldn't remember where I had seen those posts.

Los Angeles 196

Los Angeles Southern California Startup Angel 196

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2013

However, one, longtime local fund-- GRP Partners --appears to have found the right formula for venture success, and has just raised a brand new, $200 million fund. Tell us about the new fund? Obviously, we feel great about that. GRP stood for Global Retail Partners. Mark Suster: It''s a $200M fund.

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2013

We caught up with Michael to learn more about what Gradient X is doing, and why the three have teamed up at the company. Gradient X is backed by Rincon Venture Partners, GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures), CrossCut Ventures, Founder Collective, Siemer Ventures, Baroda Ventures, and Double M Partners.

Advertising 253

Advertising Mobile OpenX Software Review 253

SoCal CTO

MAY 17, 2011

I told them that I had recently seen several posts/articles talking about how vibrant the community has become. I was just talking with someone who's new to Los Angeles and wanting to connect into the Los Angeles Startup Community. As is usual, I couldn't remember where I had seen those posts.

Los Angeles 188

Los Angeles Southern California Startup Angel 188

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. A caller dialed in to ask us questions about his startup. About a year ago I had lunch with a guy who I believe is an amazing entrepreneur. What about VC’s and Risk? He wanted to raise angel money.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

First, I’d like to quote (paraphrase) Brad Feld speaking at Twiistup in LA in 2009, “I keep hearing people in LA talking with a chip on their shoulders about building a tech business here relative to Silicon Valley. my firm, GRP Partners, was an investor). I will talk more about LaunchPad in my next post.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million. What’s up with that?

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Jason Nazar

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Last month’s startups uncensored was about “Building Bigger Businesses the Second Time Around.”

Causecast 73

Causecast GRP Partners Legalzoom Startup 73

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. Wait a second, what’s this CAA logo all about? It’s often a combination of luck, relationships & timing.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

This hot list is based on various social signals of what people are writing about, reading, bookmarking, searching, etc. Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. You can go to the Hot List post to see what was hot then.

Layoffs 159

Layoffs Woodland Hills Southern California Orange County 159

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

There were regular events where experts talked about: fund raising, term sheets, constructing a team, product development, establishing biz dev partners, M&A, dealing with the press, etc. Pose – Raises $5 million in 2 rounds from GRP Partners, True Ventures, Mousse Partners & Founder Collective.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Funding Startup GRP Partners 287

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have a piece from GRP Partners' Mark Suster , who--after watching and judging pitches at last week's Twiistup event--gives some hints and tips about how not to suck at presentations. I spoke about this yesterday on Fox Business News. Show some energy! 

Twiistup 124

Twiistup GRP Partners Tips UCLA 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

In that post I talked about how to select a law-firm for a startup. Not that I’ll take credit for what I’m about to announce, but I knew that if somebody could commit to building out LA and making the investments required to kick ass in this market it would be Cooley. It was very widely read. Startup-focused.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 14, 2014

His new post comes on the tail end of the company changing their name from GRP Partners, and announcing a new, $200 million fund which allows them to now take the reigns as LA’s largest venture fund.

GRP Partners 87

GRP Partners Startup Incubator Venture Capital 87

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5 I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds. What IS relevant about the size of a VC’s fund?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

socalTECH

JULY 15, 2010

In terms of venture firms, the most active firms from Southern California, nationally, were Redpoint Ventures (9 investments), Steamboat Ventures (5 investments), and GRP Partners , Rustic Canyon Partners , Blade Ventures , Avalon Ventures , and Angeleno Group , with four investments each.

Southern California 174

Southern California Orange County Rustic Canyon SoCal 174

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

It is the key to “customer development” that Steve Blank talks about. Example: great discussions about recruiting tips, similar problems with Amazon AWS, ad agencies stretching payments, etc. And for a guy who could teach us all about entrepreneurship [if you don’t know him read this and you’ll be impressed ] he was ever the student.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 20, 2010

Noted entrepreneurial blogger and respected Venture Capitalist, Mark Suster , who is also a Partner at GRP Partners, recently published a great post related to influence and persuasion, which is excerpted below: ———————————————-.

Southern California 113

Southern California GRP Partners Blogging SoCal 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Strangely, the best I’ve ever heard this exemplified is in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential - which is really a book about startups as told through kitchen stories. How about asking, “If we hired Susan could you imagine considering coming with her?” In many ways that can be way more telling.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. He was polite about it. At coffee he told me he had shut down his startup and was thinking about “what next.” Just kidding.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2010

We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. Yesterday, we spoke with Mark Suster of GRP Partners. What was the biggest news for you/your firm this year?

Clearstone 133

Clearstone Southern California High Tech GRP Partners 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# One of the things that I’m loving about this side of the people is that it really satisfies my intellectual curiosity. We have debates about how the industries will change / evolve.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2010

We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. Below, we collect the thoughts of Jim Andelman , a venture capitalist at Rincon Venture Partners. Living by "The Golden Rule (do unto others.)"

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Southern California Cloud Computing Venture Capital 160