Mark Fernandes

Managing Director, Sierra Ventures

Mark Fernandes is a Managing Director at Sierra Ventures and focuses on software investments in the consumer internet and enterprise areas. His investments include Frontbridge Technologies (acquired by Microsoft), Sourcefire (NASD: FIRE) and Opalis Software (acquired by Microsoft). He was also a board observer at Net6 (acquired by Citrix Systems) and Permeo (acquired by Blue Coat Systems). He serves on the boards of Ooyala, Spotzer Media, DynamicOps and ThisMoment. Mark started his career in engineering at Seagate Technology and was then a product manager at Cisco Systems. After business school, Mark was an equity research analyst covering software companies, first at Robertson Stephens and then as a Director at Merrill Lynch. He joined Sierra Ventures in 2002. Mark has a MS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a MBA from Harvard.

Articles by Mark Fernandes

2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions

Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...

How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov

Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...

Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers

Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...

Unblocking Startup Growth: Best Practices for Sales Discovery & Qualification with Richard Harris

Startups are in a constant race against time and resources, navigating complex sales environments with lean teams and limited margins for error. In a recent session from the Mucker Growth...

The LinkedIn Playbook: How Startup Founders Can Stand Out & Scale

This LinkedIn Playbook is based on insights from a recent one-time Mucker Growth Session webinar featuring LinkedIn growth experts Alec Paul (Founder of SalesBrand) and Kyle Williams (Founder of Brickstack)....

DeepSeek vs OpenAI: Comparison Breakdown and What It Means For Your Tech Startup With Dan Cleary

In this recent webinar of our Mucker Growth Series, we discussed the evolving AI landscape with Dan Cleary, founder of PromptHub. He provided an in-depth breakdown of DeepSeek vs. OpenAI,...