Everything Ben Narasin said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Narasin remains underwater on Surf Air after a cram-down by 'bad people'
“I was in their first investment round, and I'm still underwater on the public company. It's ridiculous. Because of a bad round done by bad people, in my view that crammed me down even though it was an upfront.”
A major incubator overemphasizes game theory to maximize valuations, Narasin says
“There's a large incubator out there that spends, I believe, too much time, and I've funded a bunch of their companies, too much time on game theory and how to maximize your valuation.”
Shady venture capital firms often build the most polished websites
“If you're a scammer bank, your bank's going to be the most beautiful bank in town. And if you're a scammer VC, wow. Are you going to have a nice website?”
Venture capitalists who fund one percent of pitches are weak investors
“So some investors will say, we invest only in the top one percent. I immediately think those are weak investors. Because clearly I invest in like the top one dip. It is hard in the current economy to find. If you invested in one out of every hundred pitches yo…”
Narasin passed on Oura Ring because Will Smith and Prince Andrew led
“I almost invested in the first round. Interestingly, it was the round that ended up being led by Prince Andrew and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will Smith, and I was like, I'm not paying Prince prices. These people are amateurs. I don't know what they're doing…”
Narasin's first institutional investment, LendingClub, was the decade's largest tech IPO
“The first institutional investment I ever made was a company called Lending Club, which when it went public was the largest tech IPO of the decade.”
Parker Conrad's Rippling is worth $17.8B after his Zenefits peaked at $5.5B
“Xenefits was worth about five and a half billion at peak when he got fired. And his next company, Rippling, which I invested in, is currently worth 17.8 billion dollars.”
Founders should reference check VCs by calling their unlisted portfolio founders
“Why don't you call their founders and find out and not the ones they tell you to call. Here's the trick I tell my founders. You have a VC like, okay, great. Give me some references. Great. Here you go. Okay. Now give me the list of the founders you funded, or …”
Narasin passed on 2,500 startup pitches and funded only one last year
“Last year I passed on 2500 pitches. I only funded one.”
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