Inside King Lerer’s Media Kingdom

When Mic co-founder Chris Altchek met Ken Lerer in 2011, he asked the prolific media investor to back his news site. Mr. Lerer demurred. Show us some traction, Mr. Lerer told him, and he’d consider it.

A year and a half later, Mr. Altchek returned to Mr. Lerer with data showing a big uptick in traffic and asked him to invest in Mic as part of the company’s seed round. This time, Mr. Lerer agreed.