#96 Benjamin Ling

Benjamin Ling #96 Founder and general partner, Bling Capital Before he became an investor, Benjamin Ling worked at Big Tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and YouTube. Then he started investing in his colleagues’ and friends’ companies. “This gave me an opportunity to test out the skills before working in venture directly,” he said. Now, with eight years of experience and after founding his own firm, he invests in early-stage startups in these areas: consumer, internet, mobile, marketplace, data, financial tech, software, and automation. In 2021, this included the fintech Capitalize and the digital-memories site GoodTrust. In May, he had an exit with Naver’s $600 million acquisition of the storytelling platform Wattpad. And in October, he had another with Udemy’s $420.5 million IPO. Ling says he looks for founders who are quick learners, adding, “This advantage compounds over time and is a key factor in the growth of the company.” Source: businessInsider