Mark Suster


Latest from Mark Suster

The Toxic Nature of Email

I haven’t written a blog post in a week.  I travelled for a couple of days for work and decided to get some sleep on those days rather than staying up into the wee hours as I often do when I travel.  I closed one deal (I’ll talk about that soon) and issued one term ...

App is Crap: APPsolute Power Corrupts

I was living in Europe in 2000 when the first WAP phones (Wireless Access Protocol) were introduced.  These phones were so over hyped.  They were going to bring the Internet to your mobile phones ushering in the era of “m-commerce.”  Gag. I had just returned from living in Japan where I witnessed the hugely successful ...

New Nielsen Study Shows 75.6% of All Statistics are Fake

The headlines in the media are filled with that latest stats.  Stats sell.  The stats are often quoted from the latest reports.  People then parrot them around like they’re fact when most of them are complete bullsh*t.  People throw them around at cocktail parties.  Often when they do I throw out my favorite statistic:  73.6% ...

Bad Sales Tactics: Crocodile Salesman

When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies.  I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California.  Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic.  I also loved learning all of their sayings. My favorite was when a guy told me to beware ...

Winning the Muggles: Designing for the Mainstream

Chris Dixon wrote a blog post last week titled, “Techies and Normals” in which he defined “Techies” as people who are not just “early adopters” but also have more of a geeky, technical, product bent.  Normals (or “Muggles” as Catarina Fake called them) are people who, unlike Techies, don’t just use products simply because they’re ...

4 Steps to Becoming Healthy with Digital Assistance

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe.  That’s always stuck with me. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets.  But when I ...

Productivity Hacks: Three Simple Tricks

I would love to say that I’m the productivity guru.  Unfortunately my wife reads my blog and she’d log in and add comments to dispel this rumor (she keeps me honest).  Like many of you, though, I’m always struggling with productivity drains and in search of improvements.  I’d like to offer you two “life hacks” ...

Establishing Social Media Friending Etiquette on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

I sometimes think that certain advice is BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) and doesn’t warrant mentioning.  But then people’s actions tell me otherwise. I wrote recently about etiquette when you meet people at conferences or events so now that I have this done I feel I need to say some words about connecting on ...

LeWeb09 Advice: How To Re-Introduce Yourself

Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences.  If you haven’t read it, I’ll give you the summary version: When approaching somebody at a show be polite / respectful of time, try to be introduced if possible and never assume the person remembers who you ...

What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI.  (In case it’s not obvious, it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”)  I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done.  You are constantly faced ...