Episode Details

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Ben Miller, CEO and Co-Founder at Fundrise, joins NEW ECONOMIES to explore the future of investing in an AI-driven world. From democratizing private markets to backing the next generation of technology companies, Ben explains why software is entering a new era of disruption, and how AI could reshape everything from work and housing to healthcare and human longevity.

About Fundrise:

Fundrise is the largest direct-to-consumer alternative asset manager with more than 385,000 active investors, 2.1 million platform users, and $3.3 billion in assets across real estate, venture, and private credit.

In this episode, we explore why Fundrise expanded beyond real estate into venture investing, how Ben thinks about building with conviction instead of institutional consensus, and why some of the best investment decisions come from waiting rather than deploying capital on schedule.

We also go deep on how AI is reshaping software, venture, and the broader economy — from why application-layer businesses may become harder to sustain, to why capital is increasingly concentrating around models, compute, and infrastructure.

If that’s not enough, we also discuss why venture is far more relationship-driven than most people realize, why investors often overstate their impact relative to founders, and why Ben believes the next great opportunities won’t come from another consumer app — but from applying AI to the physical world through biology, materials, energy, and longevity.

Watch or listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify

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Timestamps

(0:00) Ben Miller (1:42) Democratizing Access To Private Markets (9:50) Venture vs. Real Estate (12:48) Getting Access To Companies (15:07) Venture Is Changing (20:10) What Happens Next? (22:10) Companies Going Public (28:16) Where Are The Next Opportunities? (31:22) The Impact of Longevity (33:30) Tough Categories Right Now (35:15) Thoughts On Vibe Coding Tools (36:12) Ollie Joining As Chief of Staff (37:35) How Ben Uses AI (40:53) The Next Big Act For Fundrise (

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