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I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.  And I feel that this skill is invaluable in both building a start-up company and in being a VC. This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons .” 8221;

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. Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs,. It

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?” 8221;  I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now.  Since I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.” But let’s Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post.  I 8221; That’s true.  Here’s

Here’s an interesting lesson in how VC works, demonstrated by local venture capital firm GRP Partners, which highlights the highs and lows venture investors see all the time: Looking at the Venture Investor’s behind eBay’s Latest Deal (WSJ) - GRP is an early investor in BillMeLater — just bought by eBay for $945M — and scored 5x to 6x its investment. Teleflip Assets Sold, Says Creditor - GRP was seed investor in Teleflip, which just went out of business. If you’re a smart/good/lucky

Add one more Southern California venture capitalist to the list of VC bloggers: Mark Suster, a venture capitalist at GRP Partners, is the latest SoCal venture capitalist writing on a regular basis on his blog. Mark just started posting in early June, but so far has racked up more than a dozen insightful posts into the venture industry… ...Tags: You can read more at bothsidesofthetable.com . Mark’s latest post is Twitter Observations .

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

The latest numbers from the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters, were released this morning, finding that there was $587.8M However, nationally, venture capital numbers were much worse, with venture investments dropping to the lowest level in more than a decade. invested in Southern California in Q4. Those numbers were up from both Q3, when $506.9M

Today, Mark is a venture capitalist who works with passionate entrepreneurs who will probably see a bit of their own determination as they listen to some of the stories Mark told. Mark Suster is an entrepreneur who turned venture capitalist. He's currently a Partner with GRP Partners . Before If you've been to Mixergy before and I've earned your trust, then don't waste your time reading anything I wrote on this post. Just listen to my interview with Mark Suster and get fired up by his stories and his lessons for entrepreneurs.

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