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This morning's interview is with Mark Suster , a venture capitalist at GRP Partners (www.grpvc.com). GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in recent months. We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. It Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs,. It

Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has a funding round of undisclosed size. Apparently, the company was a victim of TechCrunch's Arrington's crusade against PR embargoes, and disclosed the funding based on preliminary discussions with the firm. A spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round, saying that earlier disclosures by TechCrunch were incorrect.

Million in funding led by GRP Partners. Tags: News funding gumgum mike jones santa monic Image licensing startup  GumGum has secured an additional 2.6 The service, which offers high quality images for publishers, stands to reinvent the image license model with an innovative offering. Instead of paying the usual ridiculous image costs, publishers can pay under an affordable CPM model or with a free ad supported

But when I’m looking to invest the dollars that my Limited Partners have entrusted my firm with I’m going with my view. This return won’t be enough for me to justify for me partners.”  I In 2006, Steven Dietz, a partner at my firm, GRP Partners, had given me $500,000 in a seed in convertible debt when I started my second company, Koral.  GRP I was going to save this post for a while but the Patzer Problem meme has forced my hand. I

in a funding round. Apparently, the company was a victim of TechCrunch's Arrington's crusade against PR embargoes, and disclosed the funding based on an embargoed draft. Zag is venture backed by Anthem Ventures, Arcturus Capital, Capital One, Capricorn Management, GRP Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels, along with USAA. Tags: automobile auto venture funding Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has raised around $32.4M A

If your idea is so amazing that it warrants my hard-earned angel money or the money of my LP investors from our fund then why should I take a risk on you if you won’t take a risk on yourself? He and his partner told me about this new idea over the course of nearly a year. Partners in VC funds only wanted to fund entrepreneurs who had a certain percentage of their net worth tied up This is part of my series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on  VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

Los Angeles-based Ad.ly , which is developing an in-stream, advertising platform for Twitter, has raised $500,000 in a funding round. The round came from GRP Partners. GRP's Mark Suster sits on the firm's board. "Ad.ly Ad.ly has performed very well," Suster told socalTECH, saying that the round was a seed round. Suster said that

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 -- The Workshop: Get Funded in One Day (Dealmaker LA). Brought to you by the team who produces Startonomics and Dealmaker LA, this hands-on "workshop-style" event will allow entrepreneurs to drill down on the key issues we face when laying the foundation to build and fund their company. MENTORS INCLUDE: Charles Halloran, Attorney, KPPB Dan Gould, VP Technology, Fox Interactive Media Dave McClure, Founders Fund Daniel C. Burnham, Partner, Strategic Law Partners Frank Addante, CEO, Rubicon Project Jason Nazar, CEO, DocStoc John Babcock, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners John Suh, CEO, Legal Zoom Kent Goldman, Principal, First Round Capital Jeff Tinsley, CEO, Mylife Mark Suster, Partner, GRP Partners Richard Wolpert, Partner, The Mailroom Fund Seth Sternberg, CEO, meebo William Quigley, Partner, Clearstone Ventures.

I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.  And if it’s not I’m generally not that interested in funding it. But there are plenty of partners and successful entrepreneurs who don’t have MBAs.  This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons .” 8221;