THE Most Entrepreneurial LP Out There | Narayan Chowdhury | Superclusters | S5E7

Jun 2, 2025

Narayan Chowdhury, Co-founder and Managing Director at Franklin Park, dives into the evolving landscape of venture capital. He discusses the pitfalls of analyst training and the need for restructuring to boost productivity. Narayan shares insights from his early coding days and stresses the importance of networking, famously advising to 'never sit alone at lunch.' He also challenges the reliability of founder-reported metrics and explores how collective intelligence can enhance decision-making in investments.

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ADVICE

Delay Opinions To Build Analyst Rigor

Train analysts to master data hygiene and speed before asking for opinions or investment views.
Delay soliciting analysis for months to force factual rigor and prevent invented rationales.

ADVICE

Reinvent Processes Relentlessly

Constantly reevaluate tools and processes to eliminate duplicative or low-value work.
Use AI and automation to reinvent workflows and maximize every person's time.

ANECDOTE

Learned Mobile Dev By Night

Narayan learned Android front-end JavaScript from a friend and built early mobile apps at night.
Those side projects evolved into products like Eventcast and early voice apps.

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“This is one of the big issues of a bunch of data work on venture is insights from some periods don’t mean anything or are not translatable to present time. It’s really frustrating. So we go back to people, reputations, and experience.” – Narayan Chowdhury

Ritujoy Narayan Chowdhury is the co-founder and Managing Director at Franklin Park, where he focuses on private equity investment opportunities, monitoring clients’ portfolios and conducting industry research. He also plays a key role in the development and implementation of Franklin Park’s technology platform, and regularly interacts with clients on investment and portfolio matters.

Prior to Franklin Park, Narayan worked with Hamilton Lane and Public Financial Management. He is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute. Narayan received a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Bucknell University.

You can find Narayan on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/narayan-chowdhury/X / Twitter: https://x.com/RNC76

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro[02:27] Why my parents moved to the US[03:43] Narayan's dad[08:54] The friction that Narayan has with his team[11:59] Why current analyst training creates bad habits[15:00] What Narayan does when his family goes to bed[16:37] When did Narayan first start playing with code?[17:34] Narayan's entrepreneurial origins and how much he got paid[19:54] "Never sit alone at lunch"[22:54] The Mike Maples story[25:48] When Narayan realized VC is very different from PE[30:05] The difference between underwriting VC and buyout[34:28] What do you do when you've pigeonholed yourself in one industry?[37:02] How do you know if a GP is a core part of an alumni network?[38:32] A 2025 micro trend of misleading operating metrics[43:40] How has VC changed in the past few decades?[53:58] What do most people underappreciate about hockey?

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