Naval Ravikant (born November 5, 1974) is an Indian-born American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and chairman of AngelList, a platform for startups, investors, and job seekers.
Early life and education
Ravikant was born in
New Delhi in 1974. He moved to New York City with his mother and his brother, Kamal, when he was 9 years old. He attended Stuyvesant High School and graduated in 1991.
In 1995, he graduated from Dartmouth College with degrees in
Computer science and Economics.
During college, he interned at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Career
After graduating, Ravikant briefly worked at Boston Consulting Group before moving to
Silicon Valley.
Epinions
In 1999, Ravikant co-founded the consumer product review site
Epinions. The company raised $45 million in venture capital from firms including Benchmark Capital and
August Capital.
In 2003, Epinions merged with the comparison pricing site
Dealtime to become Shopping.com, which held an Initial public offering (IPO) in October 2004.
In January 2005, Ravikant and three of his co-founders filed a lawsuit against Benchmark Capital, August Capital, and co-founder Nirav Tolia, alleging they were misled into approving the merger under the pretense that the company was worth less than the capital raised, making their shares worthless.
Hit Forge
Around 2007, Ravikant started a $20 million early-stage venture capital fund named
The Hit Forge. The fund invested in startups including
Twitter,
Uber, and
Stack Overflow.
AngelList
In 2007, Ravikant began co-writing a blog called
Venture Hacks, which offered detailed advice on negotiating term sheets.
That blog evolved into
AngelList, which Ravikant co-founded in 2010 as a platform for startups to connect with angel investors.
AngelList also operates the product discovery platform
Product Hunt. In 2022, AngelList Venture raised funds at a $4 billion valuation.
MetaStable Capital
In 2014, Ravikant co-founded MetaStable Capital, a
cryptocurrency hedge fund.
A June 2017 regulatory filing reported the fund's assets as $69 million, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and
Sequoia Capital.
Spearhead.co investment fund
In 2017, Ravikant launched Spearhead, an investment fund that provides capital to founders to enable them to invest in technology startups as angel investors.
The fund's third cohort raised $100 million for 15 founders.
Companies backed by Spearhead founders include
Neuralink,
Opendoor, and
Rippling.
Podcasting and writing
Ravikant hosts a podcast, Nav.al, where he discusses topics including philosophy and investing. He has also been a guest on podcasts such as
The Joe Rogan Experience and
The Tim Ferriss Show.
With Ravikant's permission, Eric Jorgenson curated his tweets, essays, and interviews into a book titled The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness.
Airchat
In 2023, Ravikant co-founded Airchat, a social media application that uses voice notes and AI-powered transcription.
