Ben Sun

Who they are

Ben Sun is Co-Founder & General Partner at Primary Venture Partners — he previously built Community Connect Inc., one of the internet's first large-scale social networks (AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, MiGente), which was acquired by Radio One.

Person

Ben Sun took a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan, then cut his teeth as an analyst in Merrill Lynch's Technology Investment Banking Group — a classic finance-to-founder pipeline. In the late 1990s he co-founded Community Connect Inc., which published AsianAvenue.com, BlackPlanet.com, and MiGente.com and became one of the top 25 highest-trafficked internet properties before being acquired by Radio One. After the exit he ran LaunchTime LLC, an incubator and early-stage investor focused on e-commerce and digital media, where he made early bets on Coupang (on whose board he's sat since 2010) and Jet.com, the latter acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion. In 2015 he co-founded Primary Venture Partners with Brad Svrluga — a seed-stage fund anchored in New York City that has grown to $1.6 billion AUM. Alongside Primary he also founded Altis, a venture-intelligence company building research infrastructure for the VC market. He writes on LinkedIn and at TechCrunch on AI-native CRM, emerging AI categories, and the future of professional services (legal, accounting, insurance), and in 2026 he appeared on a podcast with Nihal Mehta discussing AI strategy and on a panel covering GTM strategies in the AI age. The through-line is a founder who built the social web before most VCs knew what it was, then systematically moved upstream — from operator to incubator to institutional fund.

Network

Ben's most durable professional relationship is with Brad Svrluga, his co-founder and co-GP at Primary, with whom he has shared Forbes Midas List recognition. Within the Primary orbit he works closely with Tess Gutt (Marketing & Networks) and Cassie Young, both connected through NYC marketing and network events tied to the firm. Harrison Kratter is also listed on the Primary leadership team.

Brad Svrluga· Co-Founder & General Partner, Primary Venture Partners
Tess Gutt· Marketing & Networks, Primary Venture Partners
Cassie Young· Collaborator, NYC marketing/network events, Primary Venture Partners
Harrison Kratter· Team member, Primary Venture Partners
Nihal Mehta· Podcast co-participant, AI strategy discussion (2026)

How they likely show up

Founded Community Connect in the late 1990s, then LaunchTime, then Primary, then Altis — serial company-builder across three decades → likely gets restless without a creation project running in parallel to the main role.
Early board seat at Coupang (since 2010) and early investment in Jet.com → prefers long-hold, high-conviction bets over portfolio velocity; patient capital mindset.
Active on LinkedIn writing about AI-native CRM and emerging AI categories, and contributor at TechCrunch → comfortable shaping market narrative publicly, probably responds well to people who've read his takes before the meeting.
Hybrid role_type pattern (operator-turned-investor, still founding companies) → unlikely to be purely thesis-driven; will want to understand the founder's execution instincts, not just the market size.
Panels in 2026 on GTM strategies in the AI age → currently focused on how AI changes go-to-market motions, not just product — a practitioner frame, not a futurist one.
Built Community Connect for underrepresented online communities in the 1990s, well before that was a mainstream investment thesis → tends to see a market others are discounting.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific LinkedIn post or TechCrunch piece he wrote — on AI-native CRM or emerging AI categories — to signal you've done more than a quick Google.
→ Ask about the Community Connect era with genuine curiosity, not just as throat-clearing — he's discussed it on The Consumer VC podcast and it's foundational to how he thinks about network effects and community.
→ If you're pitching or discussing a company, come with a GTM angle, not just a product vision — his 2026 panel focus and public writing both signal he's thinking hard about how AI changes distribution.
→ Coupang and Jet.com are points of pride — they show his operator instincts as an investor; mentioning them in context (not as flattery) will resonate.
→ He co-founded Altis to build research infrastructure for VC — if your work touches venture intelligence or AI applied to professional services, that's a live interest, not a historical one.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Altis — he's building a venture-intelligence company on top of his GP role at Primary, which signals he thinks the research infrastructure layer of VC is broken. Ask what gap he's solving.
Reference his 2026 AI strategy podcast with Nihal Mehta or the GTM-in-the-AI-age panel — he's actively working through how AI rewires go-to-market, and leading with that shows you're tracking his current thinking, not his 2015 bio.
Bring up Community Connect: AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente were top-25 internet properties in the late 1990s, built for communities that mainstream platforms ignored. That founding instinct — seeing a real user base others miss — is the lens he still applies.

Discovery questions

You built Community Connect before 'social network' was even a category — what did you get wrong about how those communities would evolve, and what did that teach you about picking consumer bets at Primary?
With Altis running alongside Primary, what does venture-intelligence infrastructure actually look like in practice — are you building it for your own research, or do you see it as a standalone market?
Your LinkedIn writing frames AI-native CRM and AI in legal/accounting/insurance as distinct emerging categories — what's the signal you look for that tells you an AI wedge in a professional-services vertical is real, versus a feature for an incumbent?

Avoid

Don't treat him primarily as a check-writer and pitch in a one-way mode — he's a three-time founder with a decade of board experience at companies like Coupang, and he'll engage far more if the conversation is a genuine exchange about market dynamics than a standard investor pitch.

Make it yours