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Ben Narasin

Founder & General Partner, Tenacity Venture Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderauthor@BNarasin ↗LinkedIn ↗tenacity.vc ↗

Ben Narasin is a veteran early-stage investor who launched Tenacity Venture Capital in 2021 after serving as a partner at NEA and Canvas Ventures. He previously founded fashionmall.com before backing companies such as LendingClub, Dropcam, Kabbage, Rippling, and Omada Health.

9statements → 2claims → 2claims resolved → 3.89/5average certainty → 2.22/5average debate potential →

0 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 assertions · 2 opinions · 2 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ben argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 1:12 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ben Narasin on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ben Narasin said on We Live to Build that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Disclosure
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.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 2:47 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Opinion
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.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 3:11 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Insight
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?”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 10:16 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Opinion
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…”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 18:26 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Disclosure
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…”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 30:01 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 1:12 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Assertion Partly supported
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.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 2:17 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Insight
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 …”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 6:41 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM
Disclosure
Narasin passed on 2,500 startup pitches and funded only one last year
“Last year I passed on 2500 pitches. I only funded one.”
Ben Narasin Jul 14, 2026 ▶ 0:32 Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Happiness Found Him Through a Crappy Movie at 2AM Jul 14, 2026 27m
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