Our Team

Adam Zeplain

Co-Founder + Managing Partner

Adam Zeplain is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of mark vc, based in Austin. He specializes in early-stage investments in areas such as security & defense, healthcare technology, consumer technology, and enterprise SaaS.

Adam has been investing in startups for over a decade. He is known for adding value to his portfolio companies and serving on numerous advisory boards, including Andela, Ostro (formerly RxDefine) data.world, Prima, and Soma Capital.

Adam strives to be the most valuable investor on the cap tables of his portfolio companies. Some of his most notable deals include: Crowdstrike, Anduril, Andela, Dragos, Reddit, Ring, ZenBusiness, and Sana Benefits.

Andy Bursten

Co-Founder

Andy Bursten has had a long career building and operating technology companies. From inception in 2000, he served as Chairman of CyrusOne, an outsourced data center service provider. In 2007, he helped lead the successful sale of the company to a ABRY Partners, a private equity firm.

Prior to CyrusOne, he co-founded and served as the President of Coastal Telephone Company, a long-distance telecommunications company in 1985. Through his leadership, Coastal Telephone Company expanded from a Texas based company to servicing over 100,000 customers in 19 states. In 1999, Coastal Telephone Company was successfully sold to Eclipse Telecommunications, a subsidiary of IXC Communications (Nasdaq: IIXC).

Andy has close to 20 years of experience in private investing, executing investments across a wide range of industries for both public and private companies.

Since 2013, Andy has served as an Independent Director of Summer Energy Holdings. Additionally, he has served in leadership roles on the Board of Directors for a variety of non-profit organizations.

  • He is a Past President, former Executive Committee and life time member of the Board of Trustees for The Emery Weiner School.

  • He is a former Executive Committee member and Advisory Board member for the Holocaust Museum Houston.

  • He has also served on the Boards of The Alley Theater, Bellaire Little League, The Fay School, Congregation Emanu El and The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center.

As a community leader, he has had the following leadership roles:

  • Co-Chairperson for the 2012 ERJCC Maccabi Games and was Co-Chair of Athletics for the 2007 ERJCC Maccabi Games

  • Honorary Chair for the 2012 AAU Junior Olympics held in Houston

  • Co-Chair for the 2012 Inaugural & 2013 Galas for Friends of the IDF

  • Co-Chair of Jewish Federation’s 2011 Men’s Nite Out

Mr. Bursten attended Tulane University and later received his law degree from The Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He currently resides in Bellaire, TX with his wife Vicki.