Mark Suster of GRP Partners #279

Tuesday

Jul312012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 05:31PM

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Today on This Week in Startups, we had a very special guest from the TWI family: Mark Suster, the host of This Week in Venture Capital! Mark discussed the state of capital markets, the latest on his company, GRP Partners--as well as his plans for his own show. You have to watch to get the scoop!

1:30 Welcome everyone to today’s episode of This Week in Startups!
2:00 Mark Suster, host of This Week in Venture Capital, welcome to the show.
2:45 Thank you to GoToMeeting for supporting the show! Everyone use the promo code “START” to get a free 30 day trial of the service. And, when you love it, thank @GoToMeeting!
5:15 Mark, welcome back to the program. Are you allowed to talk about what’s going on at GRP Partners?
5:45 Why is it against the rules to solicit for your fund?
9:30 Discussing the right to information that investors have.
11:15 But all these new crowdfunding sites will have limitations and safeguards, correct?
12:00 Mark discusses investment platforms in London.
15:30 If I’m an educated consumer, can I invest safely?
16:30 How does this change venture investing?
19:30 The normal progression is you invest for several years, and then start making exits in year 5+.
21:15 Thank you so much to Squarespace for supporting the show! Everyone go check out their new v6 and use the code TWiST7 to sae 10% when you sign up.
24:15 So you have a big announcement about This Week in Venture Capital... what is it?
28:45 Mark discusses the evolution of his writing style on his blog.
30:30 Jason discusses a piece he wrote on Skout that he didn’t publish.
33:30 Jason says that, if he was the founder of Skout, he would have shut the company down.
35:00 Mark gives his take on the Skout incident.
38:00 Mark discusses another expose about a game company that was grooming players for rape.
41:00 The widespread availability of mature content on the web.
42:15 Mark outlines his problem with Instagram.
43:45 Question from the audience: How does Mark manage his time with regards to networking?
46:45 What do you do when you have a portfolio company that wants an intro to 10 important people?
49:15 Question from the audience: What are your thoughts on having junior employees pound the pavements for deals?
50:45 Question from the audience: Why haven’t there been any real communication innovations for decades now?
52:30 Mark: Why do you follow people on Twitter who you don’t know?
54:00 What’s the magic of Path?
57:30 What does Mark use Path for?
58:00 How would Mark rate himself as a VC? (http://www.quora.com/Mark-Suster-1/Is-Mark-Suster-a-successful-venture-capitalist)
1:01:30 How many Launchpad LA classes have you done?
1:05:30 Jason: I think we could use a few less accelerators.
1:08:00 We’re very excited about TWiVC coming back.
1:11:00 Mark, thank you so much for joining us today! And thank you to Squarespace and GoToMeeting for supporting the show!

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