Episode 15 of the Trading Places Pod featuring Ben Black of Akkadian Ventures is out now!Welcome to Trading Places, the extremely terrible, very bad podcast on VC secondaries. Hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down the biggest news in venture secondaries, late-stage funding rounds, and this week's exclusive interview with Ben Black, founder and Managing Partner of Akkadian Ventures and creator of the legendary RAISE Conference for emerging managers.Ben shares his wild journey from losing his biggest LP in the 2008 crisis to building one of the most successful secondary funds in venture. He reveals how a green Ferrari purchase taught him about dealing with sellers, why he rejected 200 LPs last year for not being "real enough," and the secret to managing LPs (spoiler: it's way more important than picking deals).In Market News, we cover SpaceX's insane $800B valuation (doubling in months), Anthropic's potential $300B raise, OpenAI's code red, Netflix acquiring Warner Brothers for $83B, and why prediction markets (Kalshi $11B, Polymarket $15B) are coming for DraftKings' lunch money.In Valuation Corner, Professor Verjee analyzes Vercel's explosive growth to a $9B valuation—200M+ ARR growing 70-100% YoY with their AI cloud platform setting industry benchmarks.[ timestamps ]00:00 - cold open[ tech & vc news ]00:56 -⁠ ⁠SpaceX @ $800B leapfrogs OpenAI @ $500B 🐸05:35 -⁠ ⁠Anthropic hires IPO attorneys 💰⚖️08:23 - ⁠OpenAI code RED 🚨10:35 - ⁠Netflix offers $83B for Warner Brothers 🎥20:00 -⁠ ⁠Hasset new Fed Chair @ 75% 🪑📊23:12 -⁠ ⁠Kalshi $11B valuation 🤯25:00 -⁠ ⁠Harvey AI @ $3B… $5B… $8B 📈👨🏽‍⚖️27:00 -⁠ ⁠Databricks @ $134B val 🧱28:47 -⁠ ⁠Meta VR ashes 💸30:56 - [ intvw: ben black / akkadian ]31:05 -⁠ ⁠Ben Black 2ndry pioneer 🏁33:26 -⁠ ⁠Akkadian fund history 6️⃣45:30 -⁠ ⁠how VCs raise funds 🙏52:00 - ⁠how to manage LPs 🗣️57:47 -⁠ ⁠magic of RAISE summit 🪄1:10:20 [ val corner: vercel @ $9.3B ] 1:13:19 -⁠ ⁠ai-powered app dev platform 🤖1:14:38 - ⁠due diligence details 🔍1:13:19 -⁠ ⁠Vercel vs Digital Ocean 🆚1:14:54 -⁠ ⁠Vercel vs Replit 🥊1:18:14 - second takes (outtakes)links:[ trading places podcast = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ][ ben black = https://www.linkedin.com/in/benblack | https://x.com/benblackvc ][ akkadian ventures = https://akkadian.vc/ ][ raise conference = https://www.raisevc.com ][ aman verjee = https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee | https://x.com/amanverjee ][ dave mcclure = https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure | https://x.com/davemcclure]Pod Highlights This Week:Ben Black reveals brutal truth: "Managing your LPs is such an important part of your job and people think this job is about investing"—quarterly updates, annual in-person visits, and personal calls matter more than picking unicornsRAISE Conference origin story: Started with 140 people in 2015, now 1,000+ applications from emerging managers competing for 124 stage spots—and Ben rejects 200+ LPs annually for not being "real enough, big enough"Market concentration in secondaries: Top 5 companies = 54.7% of all secondary trading volume; top 20 = 80.4%. If you're not OpenAI, SpaceX, or Databricks, good luck finding buyersSpaceX valuation insanity: From $400B to $800B in months—is this Elon's ego competing with Sam Altman's $500B OpenAI? Dave's skeptical of 50x revenue multiplesBen's emerging manager advice: "What is your competitive advantage? How are you going to build a community around yourself?" Differentiation is better than "I know people and I'm smart"#davemcclure #amanverjee #tradingplacespod #benblack #akkadianventures #raiseconference #vcsecondaries #secondarymarket #emergingmanagers #vercel #spacex #netflix #warnerbrothers #anthropic #openai #polymarket #kalshi #predictionmarkets #databricks #harvey #IPOs #DPI #LPmanagement #venturecapital