Ben Ehrlich is the founder and General Partner of First Momentum Capital, where he helps seed a new generation of venture capital firms. He is also the Director of Strategy at the Long Term Stock Exhange. Previously Ben worked across the venture ecosystem supporting companies in the Canadian Technology Accelerator, OutCast Communications and Cribspot (YC 15). In his free time Ben takes his Irish setter doodle hiking and enjoys watching the University of Michigan football team (mostly) win.
You can find Ben on his socials here:
Twitter: https://x.com/benjaminehrlich
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-ehrlich-43b75498/
And huge thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
Brought to you by Alchemist Accelerator.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[03:43] The origins of the Out of the Crisis podcast
[06:54] Ben’s advice for rookie podcasters
[08:35] How did Ben first meet Eric Ries?
[11:46] The play-by-play for Ben’s interview with LTSE
[13:36] What do decisions and conversations look like at LTSE?
[16:23] Building trust among team members
[18:29] How does Ben build trust with GPs?
[25:14] How did First Momentum Capital start?
[30:42] What was the pitch to close First Momentum’s first fund?
[33:54] How does Ben underwrite Fund I managers?
[36:42] How does Ben measure a GP’s future deal flow (as opposed to today’s)?
[45:40] What does a “No” from Ben look like?
[57:50] Thoughts on fund governance
[1:05:57] What is the role of serendipity in Ben’s life?
[1:08:17] Commisso Bakery in Toronto
[1:10:35] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!
[1:11:35] If you enjoyed the episode, I’d appreciate it if you could share it with one friend!
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- First Momentum Capital
- Long Term Stock Exchange
- Eric Ries
- Bruce Springsteen
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Airbnb
- Turbotax
- University of Michigan
- Out of the Crisis (podcast)
- Sam Altman
- Erik Berlin
- Twitter acquiring Breaker
- OutCast
- Columbia University
- Steve Goldstein
- McKinsey & Company
- Jeff Bezos
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Arkady Kulik
- rpv
- How Arkady thinks about investing in deep tech
- Technology Readiness Levels
- Cambridge Associates
- Seneca the Younger
- Joe Wilson
- Undeterred Capital
- Ben Ehrlich on emerging manager edges
- Tom White
- White Noise (newsletter)
- “Tetris with Word and Phrase” by Tom White
- “What I look for in the funds I back (and my commitments as an LP)” by Ben Ehrlich
- Tweet by Josh Wolfe: Intentions vs Incentives
- Reframing Finance: New Models of Long-Term Investment Management by Ashby Monk
- Ashby Monk
- OpenAI
- Sequoia Capital
- Benchmark
- Bessemer Venture Partners
- Samir Kaul
- Khosla Ventures
- Samir Kaul on Venture Unlocked
- Samir Kaji
- Commisso Brothers (bakery)
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Make sure to pay the government, doctors, and podcast producers on time.” – Ben Ehrlich
“If you want to build trust with someone [on your team], if they screw up, you have to be okay with them screwing up because you put them in the situation.” – Ben Ehrlich
“We’re looking for concentrated, non-correlated bets.” – Ben Ehrlich
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