{"podcast":{"title":"Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers","slug":"venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261","podcast_index_feed_id":2990261,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/73172.rss","website_url":"https://ventureunlocked.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/73172/f198d8343a19d4654fb4c4b0f92c9a4d.jpg","author":"Samir Kaji","episode_count":159,"summary":"Venture Unlocked offers unique insider insights into venture capital through our Podcast and writings.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-05T00:20:47.002881+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261"},"episode":{"title":"Saga Ventures on key lessons on raising a Fund I, building healthy partnerships, and winning in a competitive seed market","slug":"saga-ventures-on-key-lessons-on-raising-a-fund-i-building-healthy-partnerships-and-winning-in-a-competitive-seed-market","published_at":"2024-09-26T13:58:58+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261/saga-ventures-on-key-lessons-on-raising-a-fund-i-building-healthy-partnerships-and-winning-in-a-competitive-seed-market","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261","url":"https://ventureunlocked.substack.com/p/saga-ventures-on-key-lessons-on-raising","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/149151990/fc61243153eca0cb9d3ab7d8a2c77535.mp3","summary":"Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This week we welcome the three co-founders of Saga Ventures : Ben Braverman, Thomson Nguyen, and Max Altman. Saga Ventures is a seed-stage investment firm that recently closed its first fund of $125M. The conversation dives into their experiences in raising their first fund, building a team, and navigating a competitive seed-stage market. The co-founders bring unique skill sets from their previous roles in operating and investing, and this episode sheds light on how they strategically combine those skills to differentiate themselves from other firms. About Ben Braverman Ben Braverman is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, a $125M venture capital fund he co-launched in March 2024 alongside Max Altman and Thomson Nguyen. At Saga, Ben focuses on early-stage investments, working with pre-seed and seed-stage companies across various sectors. His background in scaling companies' go-to-market strategies provides valuable insight into helping startups grow efficiently and sustainably. Before founding Saga Ventures, Ben spent nearly nine years at Flexport, a major player in the logistics space. Starting as Chief Revenue Officer in 2014, he was instrumental in building and scaling Flexport’s global sales and go-to-market teams. Later, as Chief Customer Officer, Ben oversaw customer relationships and corporate development, ensuring the company's growth aligned with customer needs. His final role at Flexport saw him leading Flexport Ventures and Corporate Development, where he focused on the company's strategic investments. Earlier in his career, Ben held growth and sales leadership positions at startups like URX, which was acquired by Pinterest,…","meta_description":"Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This week we welcome the three co…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2856,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261/episodes/saga-ventures-on-key-lessons-on-raising-a-fund-i-building-healthy-partnerships-and-winning-in-a-competitive-seed-market/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/venture-unlocked-the-playbook-for-venture-capital-managers-2990261/saga-ventures-on-key-lessons-on-raising-a-fund-i-building-healthy-partnerships-and-winning-in-a-competitive-seed-market.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}