In the world of venture capital, success stories often mask the complexity behind the scenes. Ben Black’s journey, however, is one that embraces the hard lessons, unexpected pivots, and quiet revolutions that have helped shape the future of liquidity in private markets.
Ben is the co-founder and Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures, a venture firm focused on secondary investments in high-growth tech companies. He’s also the creator of the Raise Global Summit, the premier platform for connecting LPs with emerging venture managers.
In a recent episode of the Ignite Podcast, Ben shared a rare, behind-the-scenes look into how he built Akkadian from a series of scrappy SPVs into a $300 million fund, his hard-won lessons from LP defaults, and why secondaries are becoming a vital tool for both fund managers and founders.
Here are the key takeaways from the conversation:
The Origin Story: From Seed to Secondaries
Ben’s venture journey started in the early 2000s, when he joined Rosewood Capital just as the dot-com bubble burst. After stints at Maveron and launching his own seed fund, New Cycle Capital, he raised one of the earliest triple-bottom-line impact funds—focused on people, planet, and profit.
But when a key LP defaulted during the 2008 credit crisis, Ben had to navigate a brutal restructuring. With $15M of $26M in committed capital pulled overnight, most funds would have folded. Instead, he turned the fund into a win, leveraging tax loss provisions and riding a 70x return on a company called Power to generate a 2x DPI — without a single taxable gain.
Discovering the Power of Secondaries
The experience left Ben wary of seed investing — and more intrigued by secondary transactions. After helping a real estate investor sell a large private position, Ben realized the opportunity: help founders and early employees get liquidity, while buying into proven companies at discounted prices.
Deals followed in companies like DocuSign (at $1.50/share) and Splunk — early wins that helped build the foundation for what became Akkadian Ventures. Today, the firm specializes in small secondary deals at scale, offering companies a white-glove experience and founders a trusted counterparty.
Rethinking Fund Strategy and Liquidity
Ben breaks down the core of Akkadian’s thesis:
Concentrated bets: In their latest $300M fund, the top 4 companies make up 50% of the portfolio.
Disciplined pricing: They target companies doing $100M+ in revenue, growing 30–50%, and aim to buy in at 5–7x revenue — a value-oriented approach in VC.
Faster DPI: Unlike early-stage funds with 10–15 year time horizons, secondaries can return capital in 3–5 years — a timeline LPs love.
Advice for GPs: Sell Earlier, Return Capital, and Learn the Secondary Playbook
Ben shares tactical insights for emerging fund managers navigating late-stage portfolio management:
Return capital early. “If you can return half your fund by year five, do it,” Ben advises. LPs notice — and remember — DPI.
Don’t wait for perfection. The best time to sell is often when everything feels great — but that's also when you’re most vulnerable to downside.
Understand your rights. Knowing when rofers (right of first refusal) apply — and how to structure clean secondary deals — can make or break a transaction.
Raise: The Demo Day for VCs
In 2013, Ben launched Raise as a side project to help other GPs navigate fund formation. Over the years, it evolved into the go-to gathering for LPs and emerging managers, with over 1,000 funds applying annually and a rigorous selection committee made up of top allocators.
Ben’s goal? Create the most LP-friendly day in venture — one where GPs pitch publicly, decks are held to professional standards, and top performers get discovered.
Why Emerging Managers Matter
Ben believes small, focused managers are where the real alpha lives. With rising dissatisfaction among LPs toward mega-funds, and with secondaries becoming more mainstream, the field is ripe for managers who are:
Sharpened by survival
Thoughtful about liquidity
Creative about building fund structures that work in today’s market
Final Takeaway: Liquidity Is a Skill
Whether you’re a seed-stage fund manager or a founder holding paper gains, liquidity isn’t just an outcome — it’s a capability. Ben’s playbook shows how to think ahead, act rationally, and turn even the toughest setbacks into long-term wins.
“I’ve never regretted selling early. But I’ve regretted selling too late.” — Ben Black
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Chapters:
00:01 Welcome and introduction to Ben Black
00:55 Ben’s early VC journey and Round Zero origins
03:28 Breaking into venture at Rosewood Capital
04:45 Launching New Cycle Capital and early seed fund challenges
06:55 LP default during the credit crisis—and how he turned it into a win
08:22 Why Ben left seed investing and turned to secondaries
10:46 The first secondary deals: DocuSign, Splunk, and a 6.5x DPI
12:16 Building Akkadian Ventures to scale small secondary deals
14:06 The evolution from SPVs to a $300M fund
17:06 How Akkadian works with founders, CFOs, and companies
20:22 The profile of companies Akkadian invests in
22:42 Advice for fund managers: liquidity, DPI, and when to sell
26:03 How to sell positions: rofers, timing, and GP strategies
29:35 Navigating company permissions and secondary deal mechanics
33:01 What’s happening in the secondary market today
35:10 Pricing discipline vs. hype in AI and SaaS
36:56 The MongoDB deal Ben regrets passing on
40:12 Portfolio theory: betting on trends vs. picking winners
42:44 Liquidity discipline: Ben’s 5x rule and early DPI
47:45 The power of recycling in fund strategy
51:01 Fund admin mechanics and returning capital to LPs
55:06 The story behind Raise Global Summit
57:30 How Raise grew into the leading LP-GP platform
59:57 What makes a great deck—and what LPs ignore
01:07:57 What GPs get wrong about LPs (and vice versa)
01:12:35 The future of Raise and the shift away from mega-funds
01:13:42 Closing thoughts and where to find Ben
