Ben Lerer—Lerer Hippeau

06/13/23 • 56 min

Ben Lerer, Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau, is a former founder (credits include Thrillist) turned investor and native New Yorker. Ben built Lerer Hippeau to bridge a gap he personally faced as a startup founder: 15 years ago it was nearly impossible to find venture capital funding in New York City. Today, New York City's startup ecosystem rivals that of Silicon Valley and Lerer Hippeau's portfolio contains more than 400 leading consumer and enterprise companies, including Guideline, MIRROR, Blockdaemon, K Health, Allbirds, ZenBusiness, and Palmetto, among others. In this episode of The Deal, Ben shares what he's learned from launching startups, how the Lerer Hippeau team supports its portfolio companies, his thoughts on the evolution of venture capital, and why the most important question you can ask early-stage founders is: "why now?"

Follow Lerer Hippeau on LinkedIn, Twitter @LererHippeau, and Instagram.

You can find Ben on Twitter @BenjLerer and LinkedIn.

To build a company with Antler, come check us out and apply directly to one of our studios in Austin, Boulder, and NYC.

Follow Lerer Hippeau on LinkedIn, Twitter @LererHippeau, and Instagram.

You can find Ben on Twitter @BenjLerer and LinkedIn.

To build a company with Antler, come check us out and apply directly to one of our studios in Austin, Boulder, and NYC.

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Melody Koh—NextView Ventures

Melody Koh is a Partner at NextView Ventures, a high conviction, hands-on seed stage investor that backs founders building technology companies to redesign the everyday economy. Before joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron. She'd joined as Blue Apron's first product hire and then scaled the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and IPO. In this episode of The Deal, Melody shares what led her back to venture after her time at Blue Apron, launching her own startup while pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School, how she evaluates prospective investments at NextView, and how founders can stand out in a sea of deal flow.

Stay up to date with NextView Ventures on LinkedIn and Twitter @NextViewVC.

Follow Melody on Twitter @melodykoh and LinkedIn.

To build a company with Antler, come check us out and apply directly to one of our studios.

Next Episode

Arjun Kapur—Forecast Labs

Arjun Kapur is the Managing Partner and Founder of Forecast Labs, a one-of-a-kind venture group - part of Comcast NBCUniversal - that earns equity into its investments by driving paid customer acquisition via TV advertising. Prior to launching Forecast Labs, Arjun helped build some of the most prominent NYC startups like Aaptiv, HelloFresh, Tictail, Shutterstock, Squarespace, and Ladders. He's also served as an advisor to Chewy, Calm, and Ollie.

In this episode of The Deal, Arjun discusses how Forecast Labs analyzes potential investments (the fund invests in consumer businesses from seed to Series D). He also provides practical advice on how startups can build cross-functional teams that align goals, promoting a culture of shared ownership and customer-centric focus. This is a must-listen for any founders scaling and structuring a growing startup.

Follow Forecast Labs on LinkedIn and Twitter @ForecastLabs.

You can find Arjun on Twitter @arjunkapur and LinkedIn. (Or drop him an email at [email protected].)

To build a company with Antler, come check us out and apply directly to one of our studios in Austin, Boulder, and NYC.