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- 🤝 Ben Lang: Head of Community @ Notion (first 15 employee) → Angel Investor in 40+ Companies
🤝 Ben Lang: Head of Community @ Notion (first 15 employee) → Angel Investor in 40+ Companies
a newsletter about VC syndicates
Alex Pattis & Zachary Ginsburg
June 09, 2024
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🤝 Ben Lang: Head of Community @ Notion (first 15 employee) → Angel Investor in 40+ Companies
Ben Lang is an angel investor, former founder and operator at high-growth startups. He served in the military and went on to co-found Mapme. Later, he joined Spoke, which was acquired by Okta. In 2019, he joined Notion, where he saw the team grow from 15 to 600+ over five years. Today, Ben actively makes angel investments and advises a few startups. He is building the next play community to help people discover what’s next with curated opportunities, gatherings, and content.
We’re really excited to share this interview with Ben as it highlights the path from early stage operator to angel investor with an apprenticeship type role to help learn VC and be well positioned to get into competitive deals now as an angel. He also shares a bit on Notion almost failing before growing into the amazing product that we all know and use today.
Our Interview with Ben below:
Tell us about joining Notion and your role there?
I joined Notion in early 2019 to lead community efforts. How I ended up there is actually a great story. I was a Notion super fan prior to joining. I had come across Notion on Product Hunt, fell in love with it and started to build a website about Notion as a side project. I got so into it that I bought more domains with Notion in them, started a Facebook group about Notion and basically spent all my free time teaching and spreading Notion. That's how I got in touch with the team and ended up joining.
Coming from an operator role, what got you interested in Venture Capital?
I always loved helping out startups on the side. I was very involved in Product Hunt early on, so I'd help a bunch of startups with their launches. I also enjoy helping people find new roles, so I'd also help founders with recruiting. I didn't realize I could actually get something from that, I never charged any money, until I learned about venture capital. I realized that was the best way for both sides to be aligned and keep doing what I love.
How did you actually start to break into VC without VC experience?
I was lucky enough to start off as an "apprentice" to break into VC. I became close with a founder who was actively angel investing. He was busy with his company but wanted to keep angel investing, so he asked me to take care of sourcing, pipeline, outreach, etc. for him. I did that for a few years and got to see the ins and outs of how this worked, without actually risking my own capital.
How did the apprenticeship work?
I spent most of my time looking for companies to reach out, talking to founders, and closing deals. Ultimately he would decide if he wanted to invest in whatever company we were talking to, which was great because I got to see his thinking behind all of his investments.
Did you get economics for the support and value you were adding here?
I did this part time and wasn't paid a salary, I did get some upside though.
Can you talk more about this apprenticeship and how you think others can go about breaking into VC via this route?
Find a founder, or someone who might have the brand and network access to be angel investing. If they have the capital and are already investing, reach out, ask them if they need any help. Usually their biggest constraint will be time. They already have so much going on. Offering to help could be a huge win for both sides.
What advice would you give to people who work at startups but want to leverage that experience to enter venture capital?
Start by investing in friends. Could be folks you went to college with, met at work, alumni networks at companies you worked at. Keep tabs on your smartest friends and make sure to be there when they're starting a new company. You don't need to be a proper VC to do that, anyone could.
Once someone starts to “break into venture” and gets exposure to early stage founders, what are the different routes one can take (i.e. angel investing, doing a traditional fund, running a syndicate etc)?
A few options a) either you invest your own money b) you join a scout program c) you set up a syndicate d) you set up an SPV each time e) you raise a proper fund.
I've experimented with a bunch of these over the years. At the end of the day, I think it depends on what resources are available to you. The best option is to be investing your own capital if you can. You get all the upside and don't have to answer to anyone. That being said, you're taking all the risk and if you don't have enough liquidity that can be too much. I think scout programs are great, because they're fairly low lift as the investor. The fund organizing the scout program takes care of most of the heavy lifting and you get to share in the upside without risking your own capital. The thing is, the only way to join one of these programs is to get invited. You can't ask to join a scout program, it simply doesn't work that way.
What are some of the investments you’ve made that you are excited about?
I'm excited about all of them! I have a list on my site benlang.me towards the bottom. I'm missing a few of the latest ones. I don't like to play favorites though, I'm a huge fan of all of these founders.
What is one thing people don’t know about Notion?
Notion almost failed and ran out of money. The founders had to fire everyone and restart from scratch. They moved to Kyoto for a few months and built a new version which is ultimately what caught on. Such an incredible story of perseverance, this post from Figma does a great job telling the story.
What does success look like for you 10-20-30 years from now?
I'd love to continue working on products that people love, supporting amazing founders and enjoy the work I do every day. If I can have all three of those, I'll be very happy!
Check out Ben’s newsletter & Notion templates:
If you enjoyed this article, feel free to view some of our other prior VC interviews:
Last Money in is Powered by Sydecar
Sydecar empowers syndicate leads to manage their investments more effectively. Organize, manage, and engage your investor network effortlessly with Sydecar’s management and communication tools. Their platform also automates banking, compliance, contracts, tax, and reporting, freeing up syndicate leads to focus on securing deals and strengthening investor relations. Elevate your syndicate operations with Sydecar.
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