Naval Ravikant
Co-founder and Chairman, AngelList. On 3 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorauthorexecutive@naval ↗nav.al ↗Wikipedia ↗
Naval Ravikant co-founded AngelList in 2010 following earlier ventures Epinions and Vast.com, becoming an angel investor with early bets on Twitter and Uber. His aphorisms and essays on wealth creation and decision-making formed the basis of the compilation The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
3shows
3appearances
112statements
5resolved
3supported
1contradicted
60%fully supported
137said about them ↓ Everything Naval Ravikant said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Naval: Incumbents overplay AI safety risks to pull up the ladder
“In the case of AI, it's really been overplayed by incentive bias, you know, motivated reasoning by the companies who are ahead and they want to pull up the ladder behind them.”
Naval Ravikant: We do not currently know how to build AGI
“I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this, but I don't think we know how to build AGI”
Naval: US would likely lose a war without domestic drone supply
“If we have a kinetic conflict right now, and we don't have good drone supply chain internally in the US, We're probably going to lose because those things are autonomous bullets. That's the future of all warfare.”
Naval: AI models trained on open web data should be open source
“I think if you trained on the open web, your model should be open source.”
Naval Ravikant: New York Times content is worthless to an LLM
“I think the New York Times content is worthless to an LLM, but that's a different story.”
Naval: Paying AI copyright holders fails; open-sourcing models is the solution
“So there's only one of two stable solutions. Either you pay the copyright holders, which I actually think doesn't work, And the reason is because someone in China will crawl it, and they just dump the weights, right? So they can just crawl and dump the compres…”
Ravikant: No one reaches enlightenment or does serious internal work in groups
“Nobody reaches enlightenment or internal happiness or does serious internal work in group settings. It is a very lonely kind of task. And so to some extent, I think that people who are constantly looking for social affirmation in their internal work, aren't th…”
Naval Ravikant dismisses macroeconomics as corrupted politics lacking scientific falsifiable predictions.
“Macroeconomics is a combination of voodoo complex systems and politics. And you can find macroeconomists to take every side of every argument. So I think that discipline, because it doesn't make falsifiable predictions, which is the hallmark of science, becaus…”
Naval Ravikant: Belief in the technological Singularity is a religion for nerds.
“I think it's religion for nerds. You know, it's got all the same characteristics. It's unfalsifiable until it happens. It basically says the chosen ones will be saved. The world's gonna end. You know, we will be immortal. It's very hard to tell apart from a
Ex…”
Naval: Humanity is no closer to general AI than 20 years ago
“We are no closer to creating a general AI. I think that we were 20 years ago.”
Naval Ravikant: Sand Hill Road Series A firms actually invest at Series B/C
“And the Sand Hill Road investors stopped doing this, and even though they called themselves As being in a series A business, they really aren't probably in a series B or the series C.”
Naval Ravikant: Drones will replace every weapon system on the planet
“I think drones are going to replace every single weapon system on the planet. They're going to replace Everything from aircraft carriers to airplanes, to infantrymen, soldiers. Once drones get small enough and effective enough, no other form of character will …”
Naval Ravikant: Founders should take technical risk over market risk
“I want to take on more technical risk and less market risk. This is the classic VC learning, right? Which is you want to build something that if people Get it. If you can deliver it, you know, people will want it. And it's just hard to build as opposed to you …”
Naval requires his kids to do daily math, coding, and reading
“My rules are, they gotta do one hour of math or programming, plus two hours of reading every single day. And the moment they've done that, they're free creatures.”
Naval: AI model training naturally favors centralized compute clusters
“The problem is that the nature of training these models is highly centralized. They benefit from supercomputer clustered compute. So it's not clear how any decentralized model can compete.”
Naval: Real threat of AI is centralized control by a small elite
“I'm not scared of AI. I'm scared of what a very small number of people who control AI do to the rest of us for our own good, because that's how it always works.”
Naval Ravikant: US policy should prioritize legal high-skilled immigration and assimilation
“So I think that legal high skill immigration with room and time for assimilation makes sense. You want to have a brain drain on the best and brightest coming to the freest country in the world to build technology and to help civilization move forward.”
Naval Ravikant: Economic power, military power, and culture are downstream of technology
“Economic power and military power is downstream of technology. In fact, even culture is downstream of technology.”
Naval: US lost DeepSeek researchers because we sent foreign students home
“You could even argue deep seek. Part of the reason why we lost that is because a bunch of those kids, they studied in the US, but then we sent them back home.”
Naval Ravikant: AI job creation will equal or outpace job destruction
“I think we will see job creation by AI that will be as fast or faster than job destruction.”
Naval: DeepSeek gave China the best open-source AI model
“They sent us back the best open source model when our guys were staying closed source for safety reasons.”
Naval: Single-company control slows AI innovation compared to open systems
“If this all ends up in the control of one company, They're actually going to be slower to innovate than if there's a dynamic system, and that dynamic system by its nature will be open.”
Naval: Open technology creators capture dominant value via network effects
“Almost all technology has network effects underneath, and so even if you are open, you're still going to win, and you're still going to control all the most of it.”
Naval: DJI is likely the world's largest defense contractor today
“If you look at it today, probably the largest defense contractor in the world is DJI. They got all the drones. Even in Ukraine, both sides are getting all their drone parts from DJI. Now they're getting it through different supply chains and so on, but Ukraini…”
The other half of the tape: Naval Ravikant's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 131 times in 64 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 43Matt Mochary 10Sahil Lavingia 9Brian Norgard 8Jason Calacanis 7Avlok Kohli 6Shane Parrish 5Tyler Willis 4
Statements about Naval Ravikant, by other people (6)
Pishevar: Benchmark Hired Private Investigators Against Naval Ravikant
“There's a history of VCs who have done this type of thing and in Benchmark's case, they did it against Naval. They hired private investigators and Naval Ravikant. He had a company called eGroups, and he got thrown out of it.”
Marini: Angels must make 30 investments before they know what they're doing
“If you're serious about becoming an angel investor, you're going to need to do probably 30 investments before you really know what you're doing.”
Gil: The happiest elite founders evolve from mercenaries into craft artists
“The people that I see who do the most interesting big things over time fall into that latter category where always there was some mercenary piece. Of course you want to have money to survive and all this stuff, and then that morphs into your, you become more m…”
Destin: Naval Ravikant Created AngelList to Decouple VC Capital From Advice
“AngelList, the original vision of AngelList, because Naval hates VCs, was why don't I separate the skill set here between people who are good at investing and people who would be good advisors, and I'll break it open through a network.”
Gumroad raised $10M from Kleiner Perkins, Levchin, Ravikant, and Sacca
“Raised ten million bucks from Kleiner Perkins, Max Lefgen, Naval, Chris Saka, the wonder kind of story, college dropout, everything like that.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 103
the Knowledge Project 21
All-In 7
2026 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2025 12 mentions in 7 episodes 2 per episode
- Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Elad Gil: How to Spot a Billion-Dollar Startup Before the Rest of the World
- Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan: Turning Ambitious Misfits into Founders
- Estée Lauder: A Success Story
- Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- LA's Wildfire Disaster, Zuck Flips on Free Speech, Why Trump Wants Greenland
- Codie Sanchez: Your Blueprint to Financial Freedom
- every mention in 2025, scene by scene →
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2023 4 mentions in 1 episode
2022 7 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
- Neil Pasricha: Simple Rules for Happiness
- E100: Reflecting on the first 100 shows, fan questions, nuclear threat, markets, Amazon & more
- E99: Cheating scandals, Twitter updates, rapid AI advancements, Biden's pardon, Section 230 & more
- Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations
- 20VC: Why Crypto is Software Eating Money, Why Crypto Firms Will Outcompete Traditional Venture Firms, How To Price Tokens and When To Have Them, DAOs: How Are They Structured and What Makes One Successful with Avichal Garg, Co-Founder @ Electric Capital
- #128 Ryan Holiday: A Stoic Life
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Breaking News: Ankur Nagpal Raises $70M for Vibe Capital, What The Next Decade For Venture Will Look Like, Do VCs Actually Add Any Value & Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Take Them and When To Reject Them
- 20VC: Bill Gurley and Michael Eisenberg on The First Signs of an Impending Bust, What Happens with a Market Crash, How Do Public Markets Impact Private Valuations & The Biggest Lessons from 20 Years Investing in Venture
- E36: New FTC Chair, breaking up big tech, government silent spying, Jon Stewart, wildfires & more
- #109 Angela Duckworth: Grit and Human Behavior
- E21: Media misalignment, subjects controlling narratives & more with bestie guestie Draymond Green
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2020 36 mentions in 10 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: Matt Mochary, Coach To Silicon Valley's Leading VCs & Founders on How To Deal with Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt, How To Manage Fear and Anger & Why Board Seats Are The Death of Investors
- 20VC: Sahil Lavingia on Rolling Funds and Their Impact on The Future of Venture, How To Evaluate Market, Team and Product, The Value of Party Rounds & The Pros and Cons of Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed
- 20VC: Lessons from 150 Angel Investments into the likes of Carta, Gusto, Airtable and Superhuman, Creating Algorithms and Models For Investing At Seed & Why Younger Investors Have An Advantage When It Comes To Finding Deals Early with Jude Gomila, Angel I
- 20VC: Why the Theory of Pro-Rata is Often False, How Rolling Funds Impact Both Pricing and Competition & The Biggest Lessons from Working with Jack Dorsey with Avlok Kohli, CEO @ AngelList Venture
- #98 Sahil Lavingia: Observing the Present
- 20VC: Cyan Banister on Her Relationship To Money, Risk, Her Investment Decision-Making Process, Why We Will See A Reckoning in the Early Stage Market, Her Biggest Takeaways from HQ Trivia & The Future of Silicon Valley
- #94 Chamath Palihapitiya: Understanding Yourself
- 20VC: Craft Ventures' David Sacks on How To Assess Founder Psychology, How To Accurately Evaluate CAC, Burn and Churn & What Makes The Very Best Startup Boards
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2020 →
2019 19 mentions in 10 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Former Tinder CPO Brian Norgard on His Biggest Product Takeaways from Launching the Top Grossing App in the World, The Top 10 Reasons Why Products Fail Today & How The Best Founders Assess Risk and Use It
- 20VC: Ash Fontana on The 5 Core Characteristics That Make Data Valuable, What VCs Can Learn From Italian Craftsmen and Howard Marks & The Importance of Vertical Integration In Scaling Today
- 20VC: Why Portfolio Construction Is Inefficient, Why The Only Thing That Matters In Venture Is Pricing & The Future of Venture; Bundled or Unbundled with Zach Coelius
- #70 Scott Adams: Avoiding Loserthink
- 20VC: Mercury Founder Immad Akhund on Why Angel Investing Makes Founders Better Operators, The Right Way For Founders To Discuss and Present Competition To Investors & How To Think About Your Initial Wedge Into The Market and How It Expands Over Time
- 20VC: Clearbit Founder Alex MacCaw on How To Successfully Negotiate with Investors, What Value-Add Do VCs Really Bring & Why You Should Only Have Operators on Your Board
- 20VC: Zoom From Series A to IPO, How VCs Can Provide CEOs with Additional Leverage and Why The Negative Effects of Signalling Are Very Real with Santi Subotovsky, General Partner @ Emergence Capital
- 20VC: Why You Must Have A Customer Acquisition Strategy From Day 1, How To Test and Validate Ideas At Speed & Why You Should Speak To Investors Before Starting Work On Your Idea with Kulveer Taggar, Founder @ CEO @ Zeus Living
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2019 →
2018 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Phil Libin on Why The Concept of A Silicon Valley Style Startup Is Made To Benefit VCs, Why The Very Structure of Companies Is Outdated and Inefficient & What It Means To Build The Netflix of Product
- 20VC: The Commonalities In The Makings Of Truly Great People, How Silicon Valley Will Become The Home For Crypto and Frontier Tech Once Again & Why Games Are Such A Good Tool To Understand Human Motivation with Daniel Gross, Founder & Pioneer, Head of AI
- 20VC: Why Partners Are There To Save Each Other From Themselves, Why Effective Reserve Allocation Is The Hardest Question In Venture & What Makes The Truly Special Board Members with Jeff Fagnan, Founding Partner @ Accomplice
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
2017 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: YC's Daniel Gross on How YC Can Democratise AI & Reduce Incumbency Advantages, Why ML Enabled Software Will Eat The Software That Ate The World & Whether AI Will Produce Independent Companies or Be Technology within Incumbents
- 20VC: Why We Will See A Big Series B Crunch? Why Proprietary Data Pools & AI Talent Will Be The New Limited Natural Resources? Why Now Is The Closest Thing To A New Normal with Tim Chang, Managing Director @ Mayfield Fund
- 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
- 20VC: Nuzzel's Jonathan Abrams on Why The Top VCs Do Not Have A PlayBook For Startup Success, Why Most Boards Are Not Successful & Why He Is Bored Of Hearing "I Fell Into VC"
- 20VC: Elad Gil on Becoming One of Silicon Valleys Top Angels, Why Most People Get Market Sizing Wrong & Should VC Services Always Be Bundled Together?
- 20VC: Kevin Rose on Putting The Entire Fund Into Uber, The Future For Mobile & Whether Angels Should Have Super Pro-Rata Rights?
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
2016 26 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: Rick Marini on Lessons Leant From Naval Ravikant, Why You Need To Make 30 Investments Before You Know What You Are Doing & Why You Have To Earn The Right To Good Dealflow
- 20VC: Investing Lessons From Fred Wilson & Brad Feld and Why Fundraising Is An Art & Not Everyone Can Be An Artist with Howard Lindzon Founder @ Stocktwits & Managing Partner @ Social Leverage
- 20VC: Tyler Willis on How To Be Innovative With Customer Acquisition and The Future Of Innovation
- 20VC: 500 Startups' Dave McClure on Whether Unicorns Are Necessary For Venture Returns & Why Ownership Is Not The Math To Think About When Investing
- 20VC: Why The Whole Industry Is Backward Looking, The Best Funds Are Entrepreneur Led and Venture Is All About Access with Alex Bangash, Founder @ Trusted Insight
- Immediately's Branko Cerny on The Rise Of Bottoms Up Sales and The Importance of Branding For Enterprise SaaS Companies
- 20VC: AngelList's Parker Thompson on How He Evaluates Startup Founders & Why The Move To Series A Is Harder Than Ever?
- 20VC: a16z's Balaji Srinivasan on Why There Is A Financial Incentive For Truth In VC & Why The Best VCs Invest In Founder To Make Them Richer Than Themselves
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2016 →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Naval's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KNOWLEDGE PROJECTLEDGER | Co-founder and Chairman, AngelList | 1 | 63 | — | full record on the Knowledge Project → |
| ALL-INLEDGER | Co-founder and Chairman, AngelList | 1 | 29 | 33% 1/3 | full record on All-In → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-founder and Chairman, AngelList | 1 | 20 | 100% 2/2 | full record on 20VC → |