On this episode of Invested, Michael hosts Ben Lang, an early employee at Notion and serial builder. 

Ben is an angel investor, former founder and operator at high-growth startups. He served in IDF Intelligence and went on to co-found Mapme. Later, he joined Spoke, which was acquired by Okta. In 2019, he joined Notion, where he saw the team grow from 15 to 600+. He helped scale the team, build out their Ambassador program, influencer function, Consultants program, user conference, education program, template gallery, and more. Today, he actively makes angel investments (50+ investments so far) and advises a few startups. He is building the next play community to help people discover what’s next with curated opportunities, gatherings, and content. 

Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! 

KEY TOPICS 

• [00:00] Intro 
• [03:50] How Michael and Ben Met
• [05:05] Creating International Hummus Day
• [11:05] Starting at Notion and Building the Community
• [23:50] Why is Notion Different? 
• [25:54] How to Create a Unique Community
• [30:15] Getting into Angel Investing
• [35:50] Going from Building to Advising 
• [37:47] Pitching Yourself as an Investor 
• [44:00] The Best Place to Build a Startup 
• [47:08] Post Oct 7th: Why Live in Israel? 
• [49:50] Creating CoronaCrush 
• [53:09] Rapid Fire

RESOURCES

Follow Ben Lang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmlang/ 

Follow Ben Lang on X: https://x.com/benln 

Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested

Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc 

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For the transcript of this episode, go to content.aleph.vc/podcast-episodes/ben-lang---episode-20

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CREDITS

Executive Producer: Erica Marom 

Producer: Sofi Levak

Video and Editing: Ron Baranov

Music and Art: Uri Ar 

Design: Rony Karadi