Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Career[edit]
Epinions[edit]
Main article: Epinions
[8]
In 1999, Ravikant co-founded consumer product review site Epinions. They raised $45 million
[8]
in venture capital from Benchmark Capital and August Capital. In 2003, Epinions merged with
comparison pricing site Dealtime with the approval of Ravikant and the other co-founders that
[8]
had left the company—even though it meant valuing their shares at zero.
[8]
The merged company became Shopping.com which held an IPO in October 2004. After its first
[8]
day of trading, it was worth $750 million. In January 2005, Ravikant and three of his
co-founders filed a lawsuit against Benchmark, August Capital, their co-founder Nirav Tolia who
remained at Epinions after his co-founders' departures claiming that—to get their approval for the
merger—they were misled to believe that at the time of the merger, the company was worth "$23
million to $38 million", less than the $45 million that they had raised in outside capital, making
their shares worthless. The lawsuit was settled in December 2005.
Hit Forge[edit]
Around 2007, Ravikant started a $20 million early stage venture capital fund named "The Hit
[9]
Forge". Hit Forge invested in prominent startups including Twitter, Uber and Stack
[10][11][12]
Overflow.
AngelList[edit]
Main article: AngelList
In 2007, Ravikant began co-writing a blog called Venture Hacks, which "offered detailed advice
on negotiating term sheets, explained which sections mattered, and which provisions were
[13]
bogus." That blog evolved into AngelList, which Ravikant co-founded in 2010, as a fundraising
platform for startups to raise money from angel investors. AngelList also operates Product Hunt.
[14]
In 2022, AngelList reached a $4 billion valuation. Naval is the co-founder, chairman and
[2]
former CEO of AngelList.
MetaStable Capital[edit]
In 2014, Ravikant co-founded MetaStable Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that owned
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and a number of other cryptocurrencies. A June 2017 regulatory filing
[15]
reported its assets as $69 million. Investors in the fund include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia
Capital, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners.