$5B Crowdfunding Success Story | Ben Miller, Co-Founder & CEO of Fundrise

This is for Ben Miller, founder of Fundrise, and the strongest angle is how Fundrise built a platform that opened private markets to everyday investors, reaching 2M+ investors and managing billions across real estate, credit, and venture/private tech.

In this episode of The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership, Jess sits down with Ben Miller, founder of Fundrise, for a deep conversation on private markets, real estate, venture investing, and what it really takes to build a platform that gives everyday investors access to opportunities once reserved for institutions.

Ben shares the story behind Fundrise’s mission to democratize private markets, how the company grew to more than 2 million investors, and why building this kind of business required far more than a clever fintech idea. From real estate and private credit to venture capital and AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, and Canva, Ben explains how Fundrise evolved into a multi-asset platform built for long-term access and scale.

Jess and Ben also explore the painful reality behind compounding success. Ben talks about regulation, fundraising, public offerings, investor education, criticism, persistence, and why most people underestimate how much suffering and repetition it takes to build something that lasts.

This is a sharp, honest conversation about democratizing investing, surviving the long game, finding opportunities across cycles, and building a private markets platform in a world being reshaped by AI, technology, and constant change.

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