Mark Suster

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• Where's the future for FourSquare?

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    Audience is growing large. They need to continue to innovate on the game mechanics beyond “check ins” and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with merchants.

    For this stage in the game – they’ve executed beautifully.

• @havasd from Primal Skill again : Does a VC even look at a company whit out sales ?

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    Yes, most early-stage, seed deals have little or no sales.

• Mark - you've mentioned the importance of founders building relationships with potential investors - but how do you do that as a founder with no connections? How can I ask investors to meet with me when I'm not raising?

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    Start by getting to know other early-stage startup companies. Earn their trust & respect. Over time they’ll intro you to their investors. Ditto lawyers.

• Say your sole tech guy isn't executing and is instead splitting their focus to more business related activities. What would you advise?

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    Get a lawyer. If an option, divorce early.

    See: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/08/18/founders-ownership-and-stock-options/ and: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/08/17/most-common-early-start-up-mistakes/

• I'm in the midst of my first startup. It's an online wish list (www.giftee.me). What ethics, precautions, and/or guidelines should I follow when marketing to children?

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    Um – sooo hard to answer without context. Other than to say, with children you have only one thing – your reputation. Lose that with parents and your dead. So be extra careful. With more specific questions I would be happy to get more granular in my answer. Sorry.

• Julian Waters , communico: I don't have an exit plan. Love the idea of building a company that endures, but also expect this might change over time. Do I need an exit plan before talking to angels or VC's?

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    People have widely different views on this topic. Mine is … investors will debate the following when you leave their office – did we love the team? – did we love the product?

    If yes, – how big can the market be? – who would buy this thing? or can it be big enough to IPO one day?

    They can say otherwise but nearly every investor discusses. My view – don’t leave it up to their pure imagination. Plant positive ideas in their brains.

    Good luck!

• Is it possible for a tech entrepreneur to create something that is the next Facebook?

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    Of course! FB is 5 years old. Before that people said Google couldn’t be unseated. Before that AOL was a monopolist – laughable now. Before that Microsoft controlled everything.

    Dream big.

• Now that the Bin 38 scandal has died down can you share your thoughts on the situation and the response from investors like Ron Conway?

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    Michael over reacted in his original story. Dave over reacted in his response. Ron should have shared his views verbally. Sacca was spot on but a bit long / hard to digest.

    In the end? No collusion. No way. Will be a blip on things.

    I wrote in greater detail here: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/09/23/what-entrepreneurs-should-do-about-price-fixing/

• It seems there's a lot of appetite for acquisition right now - does that mean we can expect a parallel bump in early stage investments to follow shortly?

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    Bump started 12 months ago. More like BOOM! Much will end in tears. Both over investments in early stage plus acceleration of M&A.

• What do you think of the Dropio acquisition? Was it really just Facebook acquiring dev talent? Seems expensive!

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    I don’t know for sure but it seems that way to me. Expensive depends. What I don’t know is equity vs. cash. If more equity then it depends on what value Facebook used for its valuation.