Ben Choi from Next Legacy joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on 3 GPs at VC funds to ask 3 different questions.
Gilgamesh Ventures’ Miguel Armaza, also host of the incredible Fintech Leaders podcast, asks Ben what is the timing of when a GP should consider raising a Fund III.
Similarly, but not the same, Strange Ventures’ Tara Tan asks when an LP backs a Fund I, how do they know that this Fund I GP will last till Fund III.
Arkane Capital’s Arkady Kulik asks how one should think about building an LP community, especially as he brings in new and different LP archetypes into Arkane’s ecosystem.
Ben manages over $3.5B investments with premier venture capital firms as well as directly in early stage startups. He brings to Next Legacy a distinguished track record spanning three decades in the technology ecosystem.
Ben’s love for technology products formed the basis for his successful venture track record, including pre-PMF investments in Marketo (acquired for $4.75B) and CourseHero (last valued at $3.6B). He previously ran product for Adobe’s Creative Cloud offerings and founded CoffeeTable, where he raised venture capital financing, built a team, and ultimately sold the company.
Ben is an alum and Board Member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows (venture capital leadership) and has also served his community on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Chinese Culture Center, Children’s Health Council, Church of the Pioneers Foundation, and IVCF.
Ben studied Computer Science at Harvard University before Mark Zuckerberg made it cool and received his MBA from Columbia Business School. Born in Peoria, raised in San Francisco, and educated in Cambridge, Ben now lives in Los Altos with his wife, Lydia, three very active sons, and a ball python.
You can find Ben on his socials here:
X / Twitter: https://x.com/benjichoi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bchoi/
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[05:05] Ben’s 2025 Halloween costume
[06:44] Jensen Huang’s leather jackets
[07:24] Jensen Huang’s answer to Ben’s one question
[10:05] Enter Miguel, Gilgamesh Ventures, Fintech Leaders
[14:43] What are good signals an LP looks for before a GP raises a Fund III?
[22:35] Why does Ben say ‘established’ starts at Fund IV?
[25:08] Who’s the audience for Miguel’s podcast?
[27:52] In case you want more like this…
[28:32] Enter Tara and Strange Ventures
[32:46] How does Ben know a Fund I will become a Fund III?
[36:53] How does Ben know if a GP will want to build an enduring career?
[40:58] How does Tara share a future GP she’d like to work with to Ben?
[42:43] Marriage and divorce rates in America
[43:34] What should a Fund I do to institutionalize?
[46:28] Should you share LP updates to current or prospective LPs?
[48:57] Enter Arkady and Arkane Capital
[51:09] How does one think through LP-community fit?
[1:01:31] What’s Arkady’s favorite board game?
[1:03:08] Ben’s last piece of advice to GPs
[1:09:50] My favorite Ben moment on Superclusters
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Next Legacy
- FII9
- Kauffman Fellows
- Kauffman Fellows Summit
- Jensen Huang
- NVIDIA
- Denny’s
- Miguel Armaza
- Gilgamesh Ventures
- Fintech Leaders Podcast
- Jason Demant
- Foundation Capital
- René Lacerte
- Bill.com
- “How René Lacerte Built Bill.com into a Multi-Billion Fintech Powerhouse” with Miguel Armaza
- Ramp
- Brex
- SoFi
- Figure
- Nubank
- Kaspi
- Qonto
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- Tara Tan
- Strange Ventures
- Harvard University
- IDEO
- IDEO CoLab Ventures
- QuantumBlack
- McKinsey & Co
- Nightline
- ABC Nightline – IDEO Shopping Cart
- Chris Douvos
- “Venture Capital is DEAD!” with Chris Douvos
- Arkady Kulik
- RPV Global
- Terraforming Mars
- Kurt Vonnegut
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“The dance of fundraising is when you do have [your thesis], the LP has to figure out is this a rationalization of the past or is it actually what happened? Was this known at the time? Because if it was, we can have some confidence in the future going forward. But if it was just a rationalization of some randomness, then it’s hard to know if Fund IV or V or VI will benefit from the same pattern.” — Ben Choi
On solo GPs bringing in future partners by Fund III… “The future unidentified partner is the largest risk that we have to decide to accept. So there actually isn’t a moment where we decide this GP is going to be around for Fund III. It’s actually the dominating risk we look at and we get there, but it’s a preponderance of other things that we need to build our conviction so high that we’re willing to take that risk.” — Ben Choi
“It’s brutal. It’s a 30-year journey. For any GP who raises a single dollar from external LPs, it’s a 30-year journey.” — Tara Tan
“I don’t think anyone goes into this business to raise capital, but your ability to raise capital is ultimately what allows you to be in this business.” — Ben Choi
On community… “Your core question is how much diversity—in the technical term of diversity—can you tolerate before you lose the sense of community.” — Ben Choi
“Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice.” — Kurt Vonnegut
“Fundraising is a journey of finding investors who want what you have to offer; it’s not convincing somebody to do something.” — Ben Choi