Naval Ravikant

Today, we are covering Naval Ravikant’s journey to becoming one of the most influential thinkers in startups, investing, and personal wealth. Naval’s success is built on clarity, leverage, and a deep understanding of wealth creation. Beyond business, his philosophy on happiness and self-education has inspired millions to rethink how they work and live.

March 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

What you will learn:

  • From Investor to Philosopher – How Naval Ravikant blended startup success with timeless wisdom on wealth and happiness.

  • The Power of Leverage – How Naval used technology, capital, and media to amplify his impact and build game-changing companies.

  • Learning as a Superpower – Why Naval believes reading, curiosity, and self-education are the keys to long-term success.

I hope you enjoy it.

Naval Ravikant, the billionaire former CEO of AngelList, is a well-known investor and thinker who has played a key role in the success of many major startups. Over the years, he has founded multiple companies, including Epinions and Hit Forge, and has been involved with major brands like Uber, Twitter, Poshmark, and Postmates. His influence extends beyond investing—his widely shared insights on wealth and personal growth have made him a respected mentor in the tech world.

Despite his success, Naval’s early years were far from glamorous. Growing up in Queens in the 1970s, he was raised by a single mother who worked during the day and took classes at night. With little parental supervision, Naval and his brother had to be independent from a young age. He didn’t have many friends and spent most of his time immersed in books. Comics, sci-fi, history, psychology, and technology shaped his thinking and later influenced his career.

A scholarship to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan changed Naval’s trajectory. While his wealthy classmates enjoyed privileged lives, he worked various jobs, including food delivery and restaurant service. One particularly humbling moment—working as a server at a classmate’s birthday party—sparked his determination to build wealth.

Naval later attended Dartmouth University, initially planning to become a lawyer. However, after a disappointing internship at a top law firm, he changed course. He shifted his focus to computer science, teaching himself to code on a Mac Classic he bought with a loan.

After graduating in 1996, Naval took a job at Boston Consulting Group but quickly became disillusioned with the corporate world. He found the environment rigid and full of unnecessary jargon. Believing in simplicity, he moved to Silicon Valley and joined @Home, where he boldly declared he would start his own company. That determination pushed him to follow through, and in 1999, he co-founded Epinions, a product review site.

Epinions raised $45 million in venture funding but failed to deliver financial returns for Naval after a problematic merger with Shopping.com. Feeling betrayed, he and his co-founders sued Benchmark Capital, accusing them of manipulating the company’s value. The lawsuit damaged Naval’s reputation, and some investors labeled him “radioactive mud.” However, the experience gave him deep insights into the inefficiencies of the venture capital industry.

In 2007, Naval made a fresh start. He launched Hit Forge, an early-stage investment fund that backed Twitter and Uber, and co-founded Venture Hacks, a blog that helped entrepreneurs navigate term sheets and funding. This work led to his next big idea: AngelList. Seeing a gap between investors and startups, he created a platform that streamlined the funding process. Launched in 2010, AngelList made it easier for founders and investors to connect, and today, it facilitates millions of dollars in startup funding every month.

Naval’s interest in emerging technology led him to cryptocurrency in 2014, when he founded MetaStable Capital, a crypto hedge fund. Over the years, his influence in tech investing continued to grow, and his third investment fund, Spearhead, has helped startups reach a combined value of over $10 billion. More recently, he co-founded Airchat, an AI-driven communication platform.

Naval Ravikant’s journey is a testament to the power of self-reliance, continuous learning, and bold thinking. His life offers valuable lessons on developing skills, pursuing passions, and creating wealth through innovation.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Solve problems you suffer from yourself, and don’t let failure define you.

Problems plagued Nava’s early years in Silicon Valley. In 1999, he founded Epinions, a wildly successful firm valued at $750 million in 2004. Trouble hit after a merger with Shopping.com, and he and his co-founders saw none of the money. He called the ordeal “horrific,” but instead of accepting defeat, he saw an opportunity to leverage the insight he learned into a new firm. AngelList elucidates the complicated venture capital process, helping startup founders escape the very problems Naval faced. Failure became Naval’s unique value proposition: He demonstrated resilience to it more than many of his peers. He says, “Success is the enemy of learning. It can deprive you of the time and the incentive to start over. Beginner’s mind also needs beginner’s time.” In other words, success breeds complacency, which is the antithesis of success. Naval accepts failure and leverages it to his success.

Lesson 2: Cultivate a well-rounded skillset

Naval says, “Technology is applied science. Science is the study of nature. Mathematics is the language of nature. Philosophy is the root of mathematics. All tightly interrelated.”Naval, like many early twentysomethings, was unsure of what to do with his life. He seriously considered studying English and History and becoming a lawyer for a brief time. A jack of all trades, Naval Ravikant eventually fell into computer science, talking his way into a TA position that introduced him to coding. Coding was his true passion, and though he abandoned his dream of becoming a lawyer, the storytelling skills he gained contributed to his ethos: the best story wins. He says, “Information is everywhere, but its meaning is created by the observer that interprets it.” To interpret information, one has to be able to tell a damn good story. All of the skills and interests he’s cultivated, partially by reading, solidify one of his core philosophies—you can’t just be the best. You have to be the only one. More importantly, diverse skills keep Naval on his toes, allowing him to engage his curiosities in whatever idea he has next. It’s also the reason behind his insane network: Curious people engage other curious people. Because he’s so well-rounded, Naval can talk to anyone about anything—it’s a key unique sales proposition.

Lesson 3: Read and learn constantly.

As Naval says, “Read enough, and you become a connoisseur.” Naval, more than other venture capital giants, prioritizes reading everything he can get his hands on. Before Naval moved to the U.S., he sat on the floor of his family’s home in India, reading his grandfather’s old copies of Reader’s Digest. He “started with comic books and sci-fi at a young age.” As he grew older, he “was into history and news. Then into psychology, popular science, technology.” He advises others to “read what you like. Eventually, you will read what you ‘should.’” Today, Naval Ravikant reads Matt Ridley’ and Nassim Taleb’s work, but he occasionally finds himself invested in Richard Feynman’s physics books. Reading paved the way for Naval’s ‘most important skill,’ learning. Reading is crucial to learning and cultivating a wide range of skills. For Naval, it bred a curiosity that pervades his career, setting him apart from others. Learning—and enjoying it—took him to prestigious schools and later Dartmouth University, where he developed the network and acumen to become a financial giant.

Lesson 4: Self-reliance breeds a growth mindset.

Growing up as a “latchkey kid,” Naval had few friends and spent most of his time alone. “As far as I recall being conscious, I think I’ve been pretty self-sufficient, he says. Naval didn’t “have any concept of someone older in your life telling you what to do.” Self-reliance taught Naval the value of accountability, a key feature of his current philosophy: “Ego is false confidence, self-respect is true confidence.” Self-respect is paramount to accountability: Naval actively reflects on his past mistakes, acknowledging where he went wrong. Better yet, he shifts direction moving forward, harnessing the strongest components of a growth mindset. He says, “I would rather be a failed entrepreneur than someone who never tried. Because even a failed entrepreneur has the skill set to make it on their own.”

Lesson 5: Turn constraints into strengths.

Buffett famously avoids investing in tech stocks because he doesn’t fully understand them. Rather than a weakness, this discipline is one of his greatest strengths. By sticking to his “circle of competence,” he sidesteps costly missteps. In business, you don’t need to be everything to everyone. Focus on what you do best, and let your limitations shape your success.

On competition: “Don’t debate people in the media when you can debate them in the marketplace.”

On wealth creation: “Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game. Status is an old zero-sum game. Those attacking wealth creation are often just seeking status.”

On learning: “Even today, what to study and how to study it are more important than where to study it and for how long. The best teachers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best peers are on the Internet. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

On resilience: “A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.”

On living in the moment: “I don’t plan. I’m not a planner. I prefer to live in the moment and be free and to flow and to be happy.”

On outsourcing: “If you can outsource something or not do something for less than your hourly rate, outsource it or don’t do it.

Speeches and Interviews

Book Recommendations

Further readings