WAGMI Ventures Podcast

Simplifying and Securing On-Chain Operations, with Ittai Svidler and Jonah Erlich (Den) Oct 30, 2024

Ittai Svidler and Jonah Erlich are Co-CEOs and Co-Founders of Den (https://www.onchainden.com), a self-custodial, multi-signature wallet for on-chain organizations managing protocols, DeFi and on-chain operations. The duo share behind the scenes takes on their viral hit project, ConstitutionDAO, and how it led them to the journey of building Den's suite of multi-signature tools that make it easier for crypto projects to move their operations fully on-chain, addressing key coordination challenges.

The Future of Business Banking Powered by Crypto, with Ryan Bozarth (Dakota) Oct 26, 2024

Ryan Bozarth is CEO and Co-Founder of Dakota (https://www.dakota.xyz) a modern, crypto-native banking platform allowing companies to easily accept and make payments in USD or crypto, operate globally, and generate yield automatically. Ryan shares his journey in crypto, from working as Head of Product at Anchorage, CEO of Coinbase Custody, to founding Dakota – building a stellar team across fintech, traditional finance, and crypto security to deliver modern business banking powered by crypto.

Reconstructing the Legacy Monetary Stack, with Luca Prosperi (M^0 Labs) Oct 22, 2024

Luca Prosperi is CEO and Co-Founder of M^0 Labs (https://www.m0.org) Backed by Bain Crypto, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Ventures, SCB 10X and others, M^0 democratizes access to money issuance infrastructure, with a decentralized architecture and best-in-class collateral design, allowing institutions to issue fungible cryptodollars. Luca shares his journey from traditional finance to innovating in crypto, the evolution of stablecoin assets, and building an open, decentralized and interoperable money middleware disrupting legacy monetary infrastructure.

Revolutionizing Distributed Data Processing (Compute Over Data), with David Aronchick (Expanso) Oct 05, 2024

David Aronchick is CEO and Co-Founder of Expanso (https://www.expanso.io). Backed by General Catalyst, Hetz Ventures, and Array Ventures, Expanso, simplifies data governance with an architecture that streamlines management and control of data flows without losing functionality, delivering compute over data. David discusses his journey from big tech firms to co-founding Kubeflow at Google, leading innovative startups and now building Expanso, where they are revolutionizing distributed data processing, enabling edge computing to help organizations innovate and scale quickly.

Building the Future of On-Chain Governance, with Yitong Zhang (Agora) Sep 27, 2024

Yitong Zhang is CEO and Co-Founder of Agora (https://www.agora.xyz). Backed by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Consensys Ventures, among others, Agora is a cross-chain platform that offers a new standard of on-chain governance for protocols. Yitong discusses how Agora is simplifying on-chain governance and developing tooling for the future state of token-backed voting and collective governance.

Solving Blockchain Interoperability, with Sergey Gorbunov (Axelar Network) Sep 20, 2024

Sergey Gorbunov is CEO and Co-Founder of Axelar Network (https://www.axelar.network). Axelar is a programmable interoperability platform that unifies web3 across chains. Sergey joined us to chat about his work building Axelar, solving blockchain interoperability and the security challenges along the way, and insights into shaping the future of open interoperability.

Scaling the Modular Blockchain Ecosystem on Ethereum, with Matt Katz (Caldera) Sep 12, 2024

Matt Katz is CEO and Co-Founder of Caldera (http://caldera.xyz). Caldera specializes in building high-performance, customizable, and application-specific layer-two and layer-three blockchains. In this episode, Matt shares his thoughts on the modular blockchain ecosystem, how Caldera is enabling the growth and development of modular blockchains, and the Metalayer: Caldera's innovative interoperability ecosystem.

Unlocking the Economic Security of Bitcoin for a Decentralized World, with Fisher Yu (Babylon Labs) Sep 06, 2024

Fisher Mingchao Yu is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Babylon Labs (http://babylonchain.io). Babylon is an innovative project designed to improve the security of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains by enabling Bitcoin holders to earn yield by putting their idle Bitcoins to work to bolster the economic security of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains and dApps. In this episode, we chat with Fisher as he breaks down in systematic detail, the unique challenges of building staking infrastructure on the Bitcoin blockchain, Babylon's trustless and decentralized approach to enabling the scaling of bitcoin to secure PoS chains and dApps, and the innovation journey of the protocol.

Building Infrastructure that Enhances Security and Efficiency of Solana, with Jason Li (Solayer) Aug 29, 2024

Jason Li is Co-Founder of Solayer. Backed by Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Binance Labs, Big Brain Holdings, ABCDE and others, Solayer is the restaking protocol on Solana, securing both endogenous AVS (dApps) through stake-weighted quality of service and exogenous AVS via Solana-based POS primitives. In this episode, Jason unpacks why (re)staking is one of the strongest narratives in crypto today, it's importance to the development of crypto, and how Solayer is leveraging the economic principles of staking with its unique innovative network bandwidth optimization approach, and how it can extend security beyond Solana.

Investing in Consumer Crypto with Stephen McKeon (Collab+Currency) Jun 19, 2024

Stephen McKeon is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Collab+Currency (https://www.collabcurrency.com). Collab+Currency is a crypto-focused venture firm and one of the most prolific venture investors in Web3. Their investments in companies, DAO’s, and protocols include AllianceDAO, Arbitrum, Polygon, Seed Club, Sound.xyz, Superrare, & more. In this episode we discuss Collab+Currency’s latest thesis (including thoughts on AI/Crypto intersection), his most accurate predictions and his past narrative misses, founder advice (from the other side of the table) for surviving and thriving in crypto, & much more.
Recorded Thursday June 13, 2024.

Building the Programmable IP Layer, with Jason Zhao (Story Protocol) May 25, 2024

Jason Zhao is the Co-Founder & Head of Product @ Story Protocol. Backed by a16z crypto, Endeavor, Hashed, Samsung Next, dao5, Insignia Venture Partners, Alliance DAO, Balaji Srinivasan, and more. Story Protocol is building the Programmable IP layer that is democratizing IP creation through a global and extensible IP repository. In this episode, Jason discusses his background and journey into Crypto, his vision for what Story Protocol is creating, challenges the team has faced, and the opportunities that excite him moving forward.

Connecting Liquidity Across DeFi, with MacBrennan Peet (marginfi) May 08, 2024

MacBrennan Peet is the Co-Founder @ marginfi. Backed by Multicoin, Pantera, Sino Global Capital, & Solana Ventures, marginfi is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Solana. In this episode we discuss the latest leadership adjustment at marginfi, all the interesting work they’re shipping over the coming year (and what it means for the ecosystem), challenges (from past, in present) and how their team thinks about solving those obstacles, and much more.
Recorded Monday April 29, 2024.

Building the Verifiable Compute Layer for AI x Crypto, with Scott Dykstra (Space and Time) May 06, 2024

Scott Dykstra is the Co-Founder & CTO @ Space and Time (https://www.spaceandtime.io). Backed by M12, Framework, & more, Space and Time is the first decentralized data warehouse that delivers sub-second ZK proofs against onchain and offchain data to power the future of AI x blockchain. In this episode we talk about why trust in analytics through cryptographic verification matters, possible surprises or future trajectories for the intersection of AI x crypto, insights from his founder journey that may be useful for new founders in the space, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday April 24, 2024.

Inventing the Universal Yield Marketplace, with Alex Cort (Superform) Apr 24, 2024

Alex Cort is the Co-Founder @ Superform (https://www.superform.xyz). Backed by Polychain, Maven 11 Capital, CMT Digital, & more, Superform is a universal yield marketplace—enabling users to access any vault, on any chain, using any token, as well as distribute your vaults instantly across chains. In this episode we chat through exciting trajectories for what they’re building (and expected second-order effects), common failure modes for building in crypto, how crypto’s changed since Alex’s beginnings in the space, & much more.
Recorded Thursday April 11, 2024.

Creating the Modular Access Layer for Web3, with Yair Cleper (Lava) Apr 23, 2024

Yair Cleper is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Lava (https://www.lavanet.xyz). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Jump, Tribe Capital, & more, Lava is a modular network which rollups use to bootstrap a performant network of infrastructure providers. RPC requests are routed to the best available provider, giving developers and users optimal service. In this episode we talk about most exciting trajectories for the product vision, mistakes teams often make when building in crypto, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, his best advice for building infra in crypto, & much more.
Recorded Thursday April 11, 2024.

Building The Definitive Bitcoin-Based Shopping Rewards Venture, with Alex Adelman (Lolli) Apr 10, 2024

Alex Adelman is the Founder & CEO @ Lolli (https://www.lolli.com). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Founders Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Alexis Ohanian/776, Mr. Beast’s Night Ventures, & more, Lolli enables shoppers to get up to 30% back in cash or bitcoin across 25,000+ top stores with the free Lolli browser extension & mobile app. With partners like Nike, Chewy, Microsoft, Sephora, & Lowe’s, Lolli is building the category-defining company for bitcoin rewards. In this episode we talk about how to get partnerships right (in such a partnership-driven model), earliest challenges and earliest surprises that shaped the DNA of Lolli, how to avoid common mistakes of building in crypto (hint: survive!), what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, and much more.

Creating the Most Powerful Web3 Wallet Infrastructure, with Clarisse Hagège (DFNS) Apr 09, 2024

Clarisse Hagège is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Dfns (https://www.dfns.co). Backed by Coinbase, 6MV, Figment, & more, Dfns is the WaaS (wallets-as-a-service) platform chosen by leading organizations to streamline digital asset operations and onboard users into crypto, safely. With >1M wallets created, 0 wallets hacked, and >$500M transactions secured, Dfns makes it easy to deploy feature-rich web3 wallets directly into your stack. In this episode we talk about how Dfns thinks about getting security right, what’s most exciting about their current trajectory, how the space has changed since Clarisse’s beginnings in web3, best advice for web3 founders, & much more.
Recorded Monday April 1, 2024.

Building Critical Infrastructure to Enable a More Decentralized Internet, with Adeniyi Abiodun (Mysten Labs) Apr 04, 2024

Adeniyi Abiodun is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer @ Mysten Labs (https://mystenlabs.com). Backed by a16z Crypto, Jump Capital, Binance Labs, Electric Capital, & more, Mysten Labs is all about building critical infrastructure to enable a more decentralized internet. They’re perhaps best known as the creators of Sui, a decentralized, proof of stake blockchain with horizontally scalable throughput and storage. In this episode we discuss Adeniyi’s crypto journey (with a focus on the jump from Meta to creating Mysten Labs), what Mysten Labs gets uniquely right as a team, early challenges (and solves) as well as exciting possibilities for the future, thoughts on the current moment in crypto (from a technology and maturation perspective), & much more.
Recorded Thursday March 28, 2024.

Reinventing Virtual World Design with 3D Generative AI, with Ben James (Atlas) Apr 03, 2024

Ben James is the Founder @ Atlas (https://atlas.design). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Square Enix, a16z Scout Fund, & Collab+Currency, Atlas’ vision is to become the market leader of 3D Generative AI for the next generation of immersive virtual worlds across gaming, web3, and entertainment. In this episode we talk about how virtual world design currently takes place, how what Atlas is building is such a stepwise change from status quo, what Atlas enables (now and in the future), how to build the right team to create something so remarkable, thoughts on the future of generative AI writ large, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday March 27, 2024.

Self-Sovereign Identity: User Data Made Portable and Actionable, with Chris Were (Verida) Apr 02, 2024

Chris Were is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Verida (https://www.verida.io). Backed by Launchub, Gate Labs, Qwerty Fund, & more, Verida is creating a new era of hyper-personalization, where user data is privately and consensually used to create new products and services. In this episode we discuss what becomes possible as Verida scales, thoughts on self-sovereign identity, Verida’s experience launching the first mobile crypto wallet supporting zero-knowledge credentials issued through Polygon ID, & much more.
Recorded Monday March 25, 2024.

Expanding the Frontier of Blockchains x AI, with Mike Hanono (Talus) Mar 18, 2024

Mike Hanono is the Founder & CEO @ Talus (https://twitter.com/TalusNetwork). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Polychain, dao5, & more, Talus is building at the intersection of crypto & AI. In this episode we discuss the current state of AI and blockchain technology, smart agents (and the corresponding usefulness of blockchains), Mike’s perspective on what wastes time during the early stages of a startup, what future possible trajectories could look like, & much more.
Recorded Thursday March 7, 2024.

Building the Definitive Crypto Infrastructure Platform, with Michael Shaulov (Fireblocks) Mar 17, 2024

Michael Shaulov is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Fireblocks (https://www.fireblocks.com). Backed by Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Paradigm, & more, Fireblocks is a digital asset infrastructure provider, with thousands of crypto businesses building on top of its products, 170M+ wallets created, $4T+ transactions secured. In this episode we discuss the Michael’s journey to creating Fireblocks, a unified view of the various products and services Fireblocks provides, how Fireblocks navigated the bear market, a deep-dive on stablecoins (present, future), how the future of crypto might look (from Michael’s vantage point), best advice for new crypto founders, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday March 5, 2024.

Building Engaging Web3 Experiences, with Jess Houlgrave (WalletConnect) Mar 13, 2024

Jess Houlgrave is the CEO @ WalletConnect (https://walletconnect.com). Backed by Union Square Ventures, 1kx, & more, WalletConnect gives developers the tools to build secure, interactive, and powerful experiences that users everywhere can enjoy. In this episode we discuss Jess’ remarkable journey to the CEO role, most exciting possibilities at WalletConnect, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, what mistakes she most often sees from others building similar products, & much more.
Recorded Monday March 4, 2024.

Enabling Further Creativity on Farcaster, with David Furlong (Openframes) Mar 12, 2024

David Furlong is the Founder @ Openframes (https://www.modprotocol.org). Backed by a16z Startup School & Dan Romero, Openframes is enabling developers to build mini-apps that are open, interoperable, and permissionless, now available for Farcaster. In this episode we discuss the nature of pivoting (what makes pivot good vs. bad), how to adapt in the fast-moving world of blockchain technology, why what’s happening within decentralized social matters so much, how to stick with your principles (in an especially tricky field to do so), & much more.
Recorded Friday March 1, 2024.

How to Think About Marketing in Crypto, with Jay Kurahashi-Sofue (Ava Labs) Mar 11, 2024

Jay Kurahashi-Sofue is the VP Marketing @ Ava Labs (https://www.avalabs.org). Backed by Polychain Capital, a16z, & more, Ava Labs is the creator of Avalanche, the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality. Avalanche is blazingly fast, low cost, and eco-friendly. In this episode we discuss Jay’s advice on biggest marketing pitfalls to avoid for protocols, what it will take for crypto to move past the bad actors into new frontiers, what Ava Labs is focused on right now, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday February 27, 2024.

Smart Contract Access Management Done Correctly, with Austin Green (Llama) Mar 05, 2024

Austin Green is the Co-Founder @ Llama (https://llama.xyz). Backed by Founders Fund, Electric Capital, Elad Gil, & more, Llama is a full-stack platform for on-chain access control and governance, where users can securely take action using on-chain policies and custom execution strategies. In this episode we discuss Austin’s path to conviction around the problem space, his perspective on progressive decentralization (and how Llama fits into that perspective), how crypto’s changed since his introduction to the space, best advice for crypto founders in 2024, & much more.
Recorded Thursday February 22, 2024.

An API to Securely Manage Private Keys At-Scale, with Bryce Ferguson & Jack Kearney (Turnkey) Mar 04, 2024

Bryce Ferguson & Jack Kearney are the Co-Founders of Turnkey (https://www.turnkey.com). Backed by Sequoia, Variant, Coinbase, & Exponent, Turnkey enables developers to spin-up thousands of wallets and sign millions of transactions, all without compromising on security. In this episode we discuss the preceding steps to launching Turnkey (and how they reached conviction on the opportunity), earliest challenges and surprises (and how their team navigated both), how crypto’s changed in the intervening years since their entrance to the space, & much more.
Recorded Friday February 16, 2024.

Building The Marketplace for Data + Analytics, with Dave Balter (Flipside Crypto) Mar 02, 2024

Dave Balter is the Founder & CEO @ Flipside Crypto (https://flipsidecrypto.xyz). Backed by HashKey Capital, Dapper Labs, M13, & more, Flipside Crypto offers decoded blockchain data for querying and building in its Studio. Users can also earn as an analyst by making dashboards and boards for various Web3 projects and networks. In this episode we talk about their journey through the bear market (as told via his open Medium letter to his team), what’s been different building Flipside Crypto (relative to other companies he’s founded), what we’re getting right (and wrong) in crypto here in 2024, and much more.
Recorded Monday February 12, 2024.

Seamless Interaction Between Chains, with Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh (Lagrange Labs) Mar 01, 2024

Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Lagrange Labs (https://lagrange.dev). Backed by 1kx, Daedalus, Maven 11 Capital, & more, Lagrange Labs enables seamless interaction between chains with cryptographically secure state proofs, not opaque intermediaries. Developers can now run expressive and dynamic distributed ZK computation at a Big Data scale on top of multi-chain contract states. In this episode we chat through what they’re building (in its fullness), their recent collaboration with EigenLayer, biggest surprises thus far in creating Lagrange Labs, best advice for crypto founders, & much more.
Recorded Monday February 5, 2024.

All Things Policy + Crypto, with Tyler Williams (Galaxy Digital) Feb 17, 2024

Tyler Williams is the Head of Policy @ Galaxy Digital (https://www.galaxy.com). Galaxy Digital is a company that offers solutions to the digital asset and blockchain industry, such as global markets, asset management, and digital infrastructure. In this episode, we discuss the posture of market regulators and the executive branch toward crypto, key legislative battles on the horizon (and how crypto fits), whether crypto self-defeats in policy discussions, what material progress could look like for policy related to the crypto space, and much more.
Recorded Friday February 9, 2024.

Rebuilding Broken Systems of Ownership with Burnt Banksy (Burnt) Feb 14, 2024

Burnt Banksy is the Founder of Burnt (https://burnt.com). Backed by Animoca, Circle, Multicoin, Spartan, HashKey, & more, Burnt is a web3 foundry, on a mission to advance society’s financial and creative freedom, by any means necessary. Burnt is currently building XION, the first blockchain built to make crypto, human, by empowering developers & brands to create frictionless Web3 experiences with a toolkit that removes technical barriers for any user, anywhere. In this episode we discuss the genesis of Burnt Banksy’s journey in crypto, what it means to “rebuild broken systems of ownership by any means necessary,” some interesting ways XION is seeing adoption, how to build the right team for a studio model, what’s changed in crypto since 2021, his unreal plans for XION's mainnet launch, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday February 6, 2024.

Building Multi-Chain Interconnectivity with Yubo Ruan (Parallel) Feb 06, 2024

Yubo Ruan is the Founder @ Parallel (https://parallel.fi). Backed by Sequoia, Founders Fund, Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, & more, Parallel is both a lending protocol and a Layer 2. In this episode we discuss his path to conviction as a founder, what’s exciting about Parallel’s trajectory and roadmap, what happens to the space writ large if Parallel’s adoption continues to grow, an analysis of the future of crypto, & much more.
Recorded Monday January 29, 2024.

Creating 3D Worlds From Text & Images, with Tejas Kulkarni (CSM) Feb 05, 2024

Tejas Kulkarni is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Common Sense Machines (https://csm.ai). Backed by Intel Capital, Toyota Ventures, & more, Common Sense Machines (CSM) is an end-to-end generative AI platform that creates game-engine ready content – enabling users to generate 3D Worlds from images & text. In this episode we discuss Tejas’ fascinating journey through MIT and Google Deep Mind, the remarkable bet on the pace of technological advancement, what CSM gets uniquely right about approaching their problem set, how gaming and entertainment could change because CSM exists, his best advice for early-stage founders, and much more.
Recorded Thursday January 25, 2024.

Web2 Convenience Alongside Web3 Guarantees, with Henri Stern (Privy) Jan 25, 2024

Henri Stern is the Co-Founder of Privy (https://www.privy.io/). Backed by Paradigm, Sequoia, Electric Capital, & more, Privy’s created one simple library to add beautiful authentication flows and powerful embedded wallets to your app. In this episode we talk about two things they’ve had to get right for Privy to work (and the insights behind that thinking), how web3 has changed since his beginnings in the space, Privy’s earliest challenges and opportunities, the ultimate vision of what Privy’s building toward, & much more.
Recorded Thursday January 11, 2024.

How To Create A Multiplayer Digital Economy for Creative Industries (FORMLESS) Jan 06, 2024

Brandon Thorpe is the Founder of FORMLESS (https://www.formless.xyz). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, a16z Crypto CSS, & more, FORMLESS is a decentralized network and digital space that empowers individuals to connect, create, collaborate and share in a multiplayer digital economy. In this episode we talk about Brandon’s background across music (signed artist) and technology (Apple, Google), his experience navigating the legacy music industry (and how lessons there flowed into creating FORMLESS), how to shift the natural processes of distribution in a creator-friendly way, interesting FORMLESS use cases thus far, advice for founders at the intersection of Web3 + creative industries, & much more.
Recorded Thursday December 21, 2023.

Investing in the Future of Web3 (Chapter One) Jan 01, 2024

Jeff Morris Jr. is the Founder & Managing Partner @ Chapter One (https://www.chapterone.com). Backed by Sequoia & Marc Andreessen, Chapter One is an early-stage fund seeking protagonists - those who are eager to embark on the formidable task of inching the world forward. With 50+ investments across web3 verticals, Chapter One is a significant force in venture. In this episode we chat about his past work as VP Product, Revenue at Tinder, what it means to build the new Internet, his outlook on consumer applications in web3, the earliest challenges (and solves) at Chapter One, advice for founders new to web3, how to think about the present inflection point in market sentiment, his best advice for founders from the investor side of the table, & much more.
Recorded Friday December 8, 2023.

Creating The First Perps DEX for Real World Assets (Ostium) Dec 22, 2023

Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio are the Co-Founders of Ostium (https://www.ostium.io). Backed by General Catalyst, WAGMI Ventures, LocalGlobe, & Alliance DAO, Ostium is building the first perpetuals decentralized exchange for real world assets. In this episode we chat through what it means to create a DEX built for RWA assets, what Ostium’s success ultimately could mean for the broader crypto space, the story behind their fascinating macro research, how to think about our current moment in crypto, Ostium’s progress thus far and upcoming launch timeline, & much more.
Recorded Monday December 11, 2023.

The $3.2B Fund Investing in Crypto (Initialized) Dec 15, 2023

Brett Gibson is the Managing Partner at Initialized Capital (https://initialized.com). Initialized Capital is an early-stage venture firm that champions some of today’s most inspired and obsessive builders and thinkers, with 27+ unicorns (like Coinbase, Instacart, & Flexport), $3.2b in assets under management, and 175+ portfolio companies. In this episode we discuss Brett’s fascinating journey from software engineer to early YC founder to Managing Partner at Initialized Capital, the investment thesis for crypto at Initialized, what’s most exciting these days across the crypto landscape from Brett’s unique vantage point, how to interpret the present moment in crypto, his most generalizable advice for crypto founders (from an investor perspective), and much, much more.
Recorded Tuesday December 12, 2023.

Life Insurance, Now In Bitcoin (Meanwhile) Dec 07, 2023

Zac Townsend is the Co-Founder & CEO at Meanwhile (https://meanwhile.bm). Backed by Sam Altman, Lachy Groom, 6th Man Ventures, Gradient Ventures, & more, Meanwhile is creating the first and only life insurance company denominated in Bitcoin. Before building Meanwhile, Zac was an Associate Partner at McKinsey, Chief Data Officer of the State of California, Co-Founder & Head of Product at Standard Treasury, & CTO of the City of Newark. In this episode we discuss his path to conviction for launching Meanwhile, the various archetypes of who’s attracted to what they’re building, why they’re presently focused on Bitcoin, how they think about eventual differentiation as a first-mover, the interesting trajectories Meanwhile could take, & much more.
Recorded Monday November 27th, 2023.

How To Create An Eternal Game (Playmint) Dec 01, 2023

David Amor is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Playmint (https://playmint.com). Backed by Bitkraft, 1KX, Cherry Ventures, & more, Playmint is composed of games industry veterans building fully on-chain games (currently working on Downstream, a fully on-chain MMO). In this episode we chat about creating a game world that lives forever and emphasizes digital ownership and composability, early challenges and future possibilities, where games on the blockchain are headed, state-of-the-union thoughts on gaming and Web3, best advice for gaming founders, & much more.
Recorded Friday November 24, 2023.

Building The Future of Digital Assets (Amber Group) Nov 30, 2023

Annabelle Huang is a Managing Partner at Amber Group (https://www.ambergroup.io). Backed by Sequoia, Dragonfly, Paradigm, Pantera, & more, Amber Group is building the future of digital assets—with $1 trillion in traded volume, 150+ countries supported, 1k institutional clients, and $500m in returns generated for investors worldwide. In this episode we chat through Annabelle’s journey from TradFi into digital assets, how Amber adapted to the bear market, what gets her most excited about the future of Amber Group, her perspective on the evolution of crypto over time, her most generalizable advice for crypto executives, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday November 22, 2023.

Enabling the Simplest UX Possible for Web3 (Biconomy) Nov 29, 2023

Aniket Jindal is the Co-Founder at Biconomy (https://www.biconomy.io/). Backed by Binance, Coinbase Ventures, NFX, Bain Capital Ventures, & more, Biconomy is creating an Account Abstraction toolkit to enable the simplest UX on your dapp or wallet. In this episode we talk about Aniket’s journey from starting the first weekly crypto podcast in the Middle-East to launching Biconomy in 2019, what happens to crypto if UX improves 10x, exciting trajectories for the future of Biconomy, how to think about this current moment in crypto, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday November 21, 2023.

Creating Primitives That Shape That Future, with Benny Giang (Future Primitive) Nov 21, 2023

Benny Giang is the Co-Founder & Partner @ Future Primitive (https://futureprimitive.xyz). Future Primitive is a venture studio that builds startups, projects, and technologies for decentralized communities—including projects like token bound accounts (ERC 6551), a new primitive that will give every NFT its own account/wallet address. In this episode we chat through his work as a founding member of CryptoKitties and Dapper Labs, how he determines which projects to back as an angel investor or advisor, the genesis and possibilities of token bound accounts, how to think about learning about your community, his view on the near-term future of crypto, & much more.
Recorded Monday November 13, 2023.

Creating the Defining Security Engine for Web3, with Fabio Berger (Blowfish) Nov 20, 2023

Fabio Berger is the Co-Founder & CEO at Blowfish (https://blowfish.xyz). Backed by Paradigm, Uniswap, Dragonfly, & Hypersphere, Blowfish enables proactive defense for web3 wallets: making it easy to identify & stop fraud before it happens, with 10+ chains supported. In this episode we talk about his journey into crypto, what got Fabio to conviction on the Blowfish concept, their product evolution over time, what piques his interest/curiosity the most right now across web3, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday November 7, 2023.

Building The Web3 Cloud Platform, with Luis Schliesske (Gelato) Nov 18, 2023

Luis Schliesske is the Co-Founder @ Gelato (https://www.gelato.network). Backed by Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, IDEO CoLab Ventures, & more, Gelato is web3’s cloud platform, enabling developers to deploy custom chains with cutting-edge web2 UX, while also facilitating seamless integrations with all your favorite web3 tools & services. In this episode we talk about their Rollup-as-a-Service capabilities, how they think about differentiation in the market, how to think about team composition for creating a technical vision from scratch, the state of crypto these days, and much more.
Recorded Monday November 6, 2023.

Creating the Uniswap for Bridges, with Jon Kol (Hyperlane) Nov 11, 2023

Jon Kol is the Co-Founder @ Hyperlane (https://hyperlane.xyz). Backed by Variant, Galaxy Digital, Circle, & more, Hyperlane is the first interoperability layer that enables you to permissionlessly connect any blockchain, out-of-the-box. In this episode we discuss how his past work as an investor at Galaxy Digital helped him reach conviction on the Hyperlane opportunity, why permissionless interoperability is valuable and what it unlocks when widely distributed, how to think about team composition for a complex build, his state-of-the-union on the crypto space these days, and much more.
Recorded November 3, 2023.

The Original Web3 Security Team, with Richard Ma (Quantstamp) Nov 02, 2023

Richard Ma is the Founder & CEO @ Quantstamp (https://quantstamp.com). With clients like Binance, SuperRare, Compound, Visa, Ethereum 2.0, & more, Quantstamp’s mission is to secure the decentralized internet, and has protected over $200B in digital asset risk from hackers. More than 500 startups, foundations, and enterprises work with Quantstamp to keep their innovative products safe. In this episode we chat about Richard’s path into crypto, what it’s like working with crypto-native projects vs. less crypto-native ones, what crypto looks like if it gets safer to engage with, the advice he wishes he could impart to his earlier self, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday October 25, 2023.

Building the Economic Engine of Tomorrow, with Alex Kahn (Econia Labs) Nov 01, 2023

Alex Kahn is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Econia Labs (https://www.econialabs.com). Backed by Dragonfly, Faction, Lightspeed, & more, Econia is a high-performance on-chain order book for the Aptos blockchain. Built for equitable, global market access and engineered for composability, Econia provides trading infrastructure for Aptos DeFi. In this episode we talk about their Aptos selection process, obstacles to mass crypto adoption, what crypto is getting right (and wrong) in 2023, the advice he most wishes he’d received early-on, and much more.
Recorded Friday October 27, 2023.

The Web3 Login For Everyone, with Itai Turbahn (Dynamic) Oct 31, 2023

Itai Turbahn is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Dynamic (https://www.dynamic.xyz). Backed by a16z Crypto, First Round Capital, Chapter One, & more, Dynamic is a web3-first authentication and authorization platform that lets developers harness the magic of wallet-based interactions in minutes. In this episode we discuss downstream possibilities from Dynamic for crypto at large, reaching early conviction on the authentication and authorization problems they’re tackling, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2023, & much more.
Recorded Monday October 23rd, 2023.

Thinking About Growth + Web3 in a New Way, with Justin Vogel (Safary) Oct 27, 2023

Justin Vogel is the Co-Founder of Safary (https://www.safary.club). Safary is a web3 growth community & marketing analytics platform. In this episode we chat about how Safary was created, key early moments in Safary’s existence (along with challenges and “good surprises”), why you can think about content and product and community all with a similar framework, the value prop of Safary’s marketing attribution platform, how AI is intersecting with his work as a content creator, & much more.
Recorded Friday October 20th, 2023.

Reinventing the Music Industry via Rare Music, with Nigel Eccles (Vault) Oct 26, 2023

Nigel Eccles is the Co-Founder & CEO of Vault (https://vault.fan). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Placeholder VC, & more, Vault uses web3 technology to help artists launch limited runs of singles, albums and exclusive Box Set collections. In this episode we talk about Nigel’s professional journey (including the creation of FanDuel), the intersection of web3 and creative industries like music, what’s wrong with existing models for musicians, the theory and praxis of how Vault is solving deep issues in the music industry, & much more.
Recorded Thursday October 19th, 2023.

Building the Wallet-as-a-Service for Enterprises, with Jaemin Jin (Magic) Oct 25, 2023

Jaemin Jin is the Co-Founder & CPO @ Magic (https://magic.link). Backed by PayPal Ventures, Lightspeed, Social Capital, SV Angel, as well as angels like Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Scott Belsky, Ryan Hoover, & more, Magic provides the leading wallet-as-a-service (plus essential NFT capabilities)—enabling all the benefits of web3, and none of the stress, for brands like Mattel, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, & more. In this episode we chat about how Magic began, what their market is like, the earliest surprises and challenges in building Magic, working with big brands like Macy’s or 7-11 (and how to think about solving for their needs), how crypto has changed since his start in the space, his most generalizable advice for crypto founders, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday October 17th, 2023.

Generative Art as Our Artistic and Technological Movement, with Paul Schmidt (fxhash) Oct 20, 2023

Paul Schmidt is the COO of fxhash (https://www.fxhash.xyz). Backed by 1kx, Fabric Ventures, Union Square Ventures, & more, fxhash is the open platform for artists and collectors to live out their passion for generative art. In this episode we discuss why generative art is the artistic movement of our era, fxhash’s recent evolution to become multi-chain (in supporting Ethereum), the most exciting possibilities in web3 from his present vantage point, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday October 10th, 2023.

Superscalar Pipelining for the EVM, with Keone Hon (Monad) Oct 19, 2023

Keone Hon is the Co-Founder & CEO of Monad (https://www.monad.xyz). Backed by Dragonfly, Monad is a decentralized, developer-forward Layer 1 smart contract platform that ushers in a new paradigm of possibility through pipelined execution of Ethereum transactions—crafted for productivity, fundamentally optimized. In this episode we discuss Keone’s perspective on where applications will find most traction, how they raised funds during the present market cycle, his thoughts on the future of crypto, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday October 11th, 2023.

Building a Hyperperformant Rollup Network for Financial Applications, with Dima, David, & Patricia (Layer N) Oct 18, 2023

Dima Romanov & David Cao are the Co-Founders of Layer N, and Patricia Xiang is the Head of Growth at Layer N (https://www.layern.com/). Backed by Founders Fund, Amber Group, Kraken Ventures, & more, Layer N is a hyperperformant rollup network designed to scale financial applications on Ethereum. In this episode we chat about why blockchain scalability is so important, the market dynamics of their particular space, earliest challenges and surprises in building Layer N, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2023, & much more.

Recorded Thursday October 12th, 2023.

Web3 Messaging (For Artists) Done Right, with Helena Gagern (Salsa) Oct 17, 2023

Helena Gagern is the Co-Founder of Salsa (https://salsa.me). Backed by IDEO CoLab VC, Inflection.xyz, Dan Romero, Balaji Srinivasan, & more, Salsa is a web3 native messaging platform currently focused on creating community tools for musicians. In this episode we discuss the origin story of Salsa (and the story of how the co-founders met), earliest challenges and surprising opportunities, what kind of impact Salsa could make if they continue to execute, best advice for navigating web3 as a crypto founder, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday October 4th, 2023.

How Crypto Has Already Won with Bryan Pellegrino (LayerZero Labs) Oct 13, 2023

Bryan Pellegrino is the Co-Founder & CEO of LayerZero Labs (https://layerzero.network). Backed by Sequoia, a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Labs, & more, LayerZero is a user application (UA) configurable on-chain endpoint that runs a ULN. In this episode we discuss interesting second-orders / downstream effects if their work continues to gain traction, Bryan’s fascinating perspective on the history and future of crypto, advice for crypto founders working on hard technical problems, & much, much more.
Recorded Tuesday October 3rd, 2023.

Speed is the Name of the Game, with Uri Klarman (BloXroute Labs) Oct 12, 2023

Uri Klarman is the Co-Founder & CEO of BloXroute Labs (https://bloxroute.com). Backed by Dragonfly, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank, & more, BloXroute Labs has created the first and fastest blockchain distribution network—across transaction propagation (400-1000ms faster), block propagation (up to 2 seconds faster), mempool service (50-400 ms faster), and more. In this episode we discuss Uri’s journey into crypto from a Northwestern PhD program, how the future changes because of bloXroute’s work, what crypto is getting right and getting wrong in 2023, & much more.
Recorded Monday October 2nd, 2023.

Unlocking the Potential of Staked Ethereum for DeFi, with Guy Young (Ethena Labs) Oct 11, 2023

Guy Young is the Founder & CEO of Ethena Labs (www.ethena.fi). Backed by Huobi, Arthur Hayes, & more, Ethena Labs is all about unlocking the potential of staked Ethereum. Their main offerings are a delta-neutral stablecoin with embedded yield (called USDe), globally accessible floating & fixed rate USD-denominated bonds, and capital efficient and composable leverage. In this episode we discuss Guy’s journey to crypto from a $50b fund in TradFi, the mechanism and philosophy behind USDe (and why it works), most interesting trajectories for DeFi in 2023, the attitude of major TradFi institutions toward DeFi right now (despite the ETF excitement), and much more.
Recorded Wednesday September 27th, 2023.

Why Private Rollups Will Inflect Web3’s Trajectory, with Temoc Weber & Igor Mandrigin (Gateway) Sep 29, 2023

Temoc Weber & Igor Mandrigin are the Co-Founders of Gateway (https://gateway.fm).
Backed by Lemniscap, Unstoppable Domains, & more, Gateway is building the next generation of web3 infrastructure and tooling products—offering RPC, staking, and instant private zk-rollups. In this episode we discuss private rollups and app-chain development, building during the bear market, what keeps them excited about building in crypto (despite macro adversity), their best advice for founders in web3, & much more.
Recorded Friday September 22nd, 2023.

The Market Maker's Role in Crypto, with Julia Zhou (AlphaLab Capital) Sep 22, 2023

Julia Zhou is a Partner—Venture & Market-Making at AlphaLab Capital (www.alphalab.capital).
AlphaLab Capital Group is a technology-driven trading group that transacts over $2B daily in cryptoassets on 40+ exchanges, both centralized and decentralized. They were one of the first movers in quantitative trading on the blockchain, and today they operate thousands of algorithms 24/7 on a globally distributed network of trading servers. In this episode we chat about whether market makers are necessary for every token project, DEX vs. CEX for different types of token projects, best tools to monitor liquidity during launch and trading, the various business models of market makers, and much more.
Recorded Tuesday August 15th, 2023.

The Future of Rollups-as-a-Service with Amrit Kumar (AltLayer) Sep 04, 2023

Amrit Kumar is the COO at AltLayer (https://www.altlayer.io).
Backed by Polychain, Binance Labs, Balaji Srinivasan, & more, AltLayer offers Rollups-as-a-Service products that accelerate web3 projects. In this episode we discuss the original insights that led to the creation of AltLayer, the remarkable traction of their testnet, Amrit’s advice for building and scaling teams, his outlook on the crypto space writ large, & much more.
Recorded Wednesday August 30, 2023.

Ethereum as The World’s Economic Testnet, with Tim Beiko (Ethereum Foundation) Sep 02, 2023

Tim Beiko is part of the Protocol Team at the Ethereum Foundation (https://ethereum.org/en/foundation). In this role Tim orchestrates development teams focused on the core protocol—most notably for The Merge. In this episode we discuss Tim’s origin story in crypto, how Ethereum can serve as an economic testnet for new types of coordination in the world (and why that’s a valuable proposition), what he’s most excited about for the future of Ethereum, his advice for developers new to the crypto space, and much more.
Recorded Thursday August 31, 2023.

Playing Defense Against Nation-States with J.M Porup (CISO @ Ava Labs) Aug 29, 2023

J.M. Porup is the Chief Information Security Officer of Ava Labs (here in a personal capacity to talk security and web3). In this episode we discuss security differences within web2 vs. web3, how to think about security in web3 as an individual and as an institution, why being a CISO is about risk reduction (not risk elimination), and why security in crypto right now is like “fighting Mike Tyson with a blindfold on” (hint: it has to do with playing defense against actual nation-states—without governmental support).

Recorded Tuesday August 22nd, 2023.

The Art of the Possible with Foobar (Delegate) Aug 26, 2023

Foobar is the Founder & CEO of Delegate (https://delegate.xyz).
Delegate is all about securing your on-chain identity—enabling you to keep your vaulted NFTs and ERC20s safe by linking wallets together, plus claim airdrops, prove token ownership, and more from your hot wallet. In this episode we talk about unexpected challenges of semi-pseudonymity on the internet, Foobar’s present outlook on the crypto space writ large, the interesting product evolution of Delegate (formerly Delegate Cash), Foobar’s thoughts and work around Friend.tech, and much, much more.
Recorded Monday August 24th, 2023.

The Practical Uses of Privacy with Zac Williamson (Aztec) Aug 23, 2023

Zac Williamson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aztec (https://aztec.network). Backed by Variant, a16z, & more, Aztec is a first-of-its-kind hybrid zkRollup supporting both public and private smart contract execution. In this episode we learn how Zac got into crypto from his past life as an Oxford researcher in particle physics, his perspective on the practical uses of privacy (and the implications for the future of the internet), the limitations of blockchains today (compared to the past), the advice he would impart to his earlier self from his present self, & much, much more.

Recorded Tuesday August 8th, 2023.

Your Personal Data Backpack with Evin McMullen (Disco) Aug 21, 2023

Evin McMullen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Disco (https://www.disco.xyz/).
Backed by Polychain Capital, Winklevoss Capital, WAGMI Ventures, & more, Disco is your own personal data backpack—where you own yourself, and control what you share. In this episode we hear about Evin’s fascinating educational journey, her formative experiences with Napster early-on, how decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials work in Disco, some upcoming exciting news for the Disco community, & much, much more.
Recorded Tuesday August 1st, 2023.

T Minus Zero Days Till Mainnet with Jay Jog (Sei Labs) Aug 15, 2023

Jay Jog is the Co-Founder of Sei Labs (https://www.sei.io/). Backed by Multicoin Capital, Coinbase, WAGMI Ventures, & more, Sei is the fastest Layer 1 blockchain, designed to scale with the industry. In this episode we discuss Jay’s experience at Robinhood (and how it inspired the creation of Sei Labs), how speed unlocks new building possibilities, Sei’s evolution from the “DeFi-focused chain” to a “general-purpose permissionless chain,” and of course–today’s mainnet launch (plus much, much more).

Recorded Monday August 14th, 2023.

Quality Data, Quality Results with Max Galka (Elementus) Aug 08, 2023

Max Galka is the Founder and CEO of Elementus (https://www.elementus.io/). Backed by Gemini, Lightspeed, & more, Elementus puts the democratization of quality blockchain data at the forefront of everything we do in order to transform industries at web3 scale. In this episode we chat about his tradfi experience during the financial crisis, the quest for enabling quality data at-scale, what’s got Max excited at Elementus these days (and looking toward the future), and much more.
Recorded Monday July 31st, 2023.

Making Web3 Legible with Antonio Garcia-Martinez (Spindl) Aug 04, 2023

Antonio Garcia-Martinez is the Founder and CEO of Spindl (https://www.spindl.xyz). Backed by Dragonfly, Chapter One, Balaji Srinivasan, & more, Spindl is creating Web3's first real attribution system—so you can know where your users came from, what they're doing, and why. In this episode we chat about what attribution enables for analytics, communicating the value of marketing to crypto-natives, differences between building in web2 vs. web3 (and why web3 is simply more interesting), predictions for the future of crypto, reflections on which of his writings impacted him most (as a writer), and much, much more.

Recorded Monday July 31st, 2023.

Brew’s creator talks how blockchains enable remunerating open-source contributions, with Max Howell (Tea) Jul 21, 2023

Max Howell is the Founder and CEO of Tea (https://tea.xyz). Backed by Acuitas Group Holdings, Betaworks Ventures, & more, Tea is unified packaging infrastructure—and through that packaging infrastructure, they have plans of leveraging blockchain to help remunerate devs for their contributions to OSS. In this episode we discuss Max’s illustrious history within the open-source movement as creator of Homebrew, how blockchains uniquely enable what web2 technologies can’t in the quest to remunerate open source contributors, Max’s best and most generalizable advice for building in web3, and much, much more.
Recorded Thursday July 20th, 2023.

EigenLayer: Exploring the Frontier's Horizon with Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer) Jul 12, 2023

Sreeram Kannan is the Founder and CEO of EigenLayer (https://www.eigenlayer.xyz/).

Backed by Blockchain Capital, Figment Capital, WAGMI Ventures, & more, EigenLayer is the first market for decentralized trust—creating an ecosystem for restaking, which enables staked ETH to be used as cryptoeconomic security for protocols other than Ethereum, in exchange for protocol fees and rewards. In this episode we discuss Sreeram’s journey through academia, the key insights that produced EigenLayer, the many use cases enabled by EigenLayer, the importance of focus for early-stage projects, and much more.
Recorded Monday July 10th, 2023.

Opening Your Platform To Web3 with Raj Parekh (Portal) Jul 07, 2023

Raj Parekh is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Portal (www.portalhq.io). Backed by Haun Ventures, Chapter One, Slow Ventures, & more, Portal enables you to launch a powerful and secure offering with a single integration for all of Web3 that gives your users direct access to the world of DeFi, NFTs, blockchain-based gaming, and more. In this episode we discuss Raj’s perspective on user experience in web3 given his background at Visa, his thoughts on the future of multi-party-computation and account abstraction, commentary on TradFi adoption and movement toward web3, interesting frontiers within the crypto space from his vantage point, and much more.
Recorded Wednesday June 28th, 2023.

Making Governance, Risk, and Compliance Simple with Michael Hiles (10XTS) Jul 03, 2023

Michael Hiles is the Founder & CEO of 10XTS (https://10xts.com/). Backed by LOUD Capital, 10XTS builds compliant, programmable digital securities and interoperable web3-powered capital markets infra solutions. In this episode we discuss a law-centric approach for the blockchain industry, the importance of a solid legal regime for global capital markets (and integrating well), the state of crypto regulation in the US and abroad, & much more.
Recorded Monday June 26th, 2023.

NFT Valuation Unleashed: Journeying into the Uncharted Territory of Digital Asset Pricing, with Timur Csillik & Diederik Kruijssen (Nabu) Jul 01, 2023

Timur Csillik (Co-Founder & CEO @ Nabu) and Diederik Kruijssen (Chief Data Officer @ Nabu) join us on today’s episode.
Backed by Founders Factory, Nabu (nabu.xyz) is building the most trusted NFT valuation engine, to increase transparency in Web3 and enable the universal adoption of NFTs as an asset class. In this episode we discuss Nabu’s approach of leveraging machine learning and AI to ascertain NFT prices, perspectives on upcoming growth drivers within web3, the frontier space of NFTs in particular and web3 in general, and much, much more.
Recorded Thursday June 22nd, 2023.

The SuperRare Story and the Future of Cryptoart with John Crain (SuperRare) Jun 25, 2023

John Crain is the Co-Founder and CEO of SuperRare Labs (https://superrare.com). Backed by Sound Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and angels like Naval Ravikant and Mark Cuban, SuperRare is an NFT marketplace for curated cryptoart—a new art market for artists, collectors, and curators. In this episode we discuss the fascinating origin of SuperRare, $RARE and their progressive decentralization into a DAO, interesting recent collabs and how those come to exist, the exciting future of cryptoart (and SuperRare’s unique position to enable that future), and much more.
Recorded Monday June 19th, 2023.

NFTs + DeFi = A Whole New World, with Nick Emmons (Upshot) Jun 17, 2023

Nick Emmons is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Upshot (https://upshot.xyz).

Backed by Polychain and Blockchain Capital, Upshot is building financial infrastructure for NFTs, including industry-leading NFT appraisals and other financial tools that provide deep insight into NFT markets and unlock a wave of new DeFi possibilities. Upshot is currently providing accurate, real-time appraisals for 104M+ NFTs from over 87k collections. In this episode we discuss Nick’s narration of the NFT space’s history and future trajectories, the intersection of NFTs and DeFi, the frontier space of NFTs, his take on the outlook for crypto in the medium-term, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday June 13th, 2023.

$1b in Loans Facilitated (and Counting): Data-Driven Lending with Darshan Vaidya (Credora) Jun 16, 2023

Darshan Vaidya is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Credora (http://credora.io).
Backed by Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, WAGMI Ventures, & more, Credora is building infrastructure for institutional credit—with its complete lending platform, counterparty credit ratings, & more. In this episode we discuss the advantages of data-driven lending relative to relationship-driven lending, the early challenges to adoption (and how they’ve successfully solved for those challenges), the promise of crypto’s potential for disintermediation (rather than decentralization), and much more.
Recorded Monday June 12th, 2023.

The Wallet of the Future, with Ivo Georgiev (Ambire) Jun 09, 2023

Ivo Georgiev is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Ambire (https://www.ambire.com/).

Backed by LAUNCHub Ventures, MetaCartel Ventures, & more, Ambire is the Web3 wallet that makes self-custody easy and secure for everyone (built on account abstraction). Ambire Wallet is available on mobile and allows registering using email (while keeping full custody). In this episode we discuss the journey from AdEx to Ambire, the wallet market when they originally launched Wallet, the two distinct types of account abstraction, their process of progressive decentralization, the need for a return to the more anti-establishment roots of crypto, and much more.
Recorded Wednesday June 7th, 2023.

Open Source and Progressive Decentralization Done Right with Michael Feng (Hummingbot) Jun 02, 2023

Michael Feng is the Co-Founder @ Hummingbot (https://hummingbot.org/). Backed by Initialized Capital, Slow Ventures, & more, Hummingbot is open source software that helps you build high-frequency crypto trading bots that specialize in market making and arbitrage strategies. They average $100M+ 24H volume, have 1M+ all-time downloads, and support 13+ HFT strategies. In this episode we dive deep on recently decentralizing their operations to HBOT token holders, why they restructured as a not-for-profit organization, the key differences between TradFi and crypto markets for traders, & much more.

Recorded Tuesday May 30th, 2023.

zkSync and the Future of Crypto, with Omar Yehia (Matter Labs) May 26, 2023

Omar Yehia is the Head of Investments at Matter Labs, creators of zkSync (https://matter-labs.io/).

Backed by a16z, Variant, Dragonfly, & more, Matter Labs is scaling Ethereum with zero-knowledge proofs to accelerate public blockchain adoption. In this episode we discuss zkSync’s evolution from testnet to mainnet alpha, the breadth of their ecosystem (and Omar’s opinion on most exciting directions), how he thinks about capital allocation on behalf of Matter Labs, and his predictions for the various possible futures of the crypto space.

Recorded Monday May 22nd, 2023.

SHOW NOTES:
1. https://zksync.io/
2. Omar's twitter: @0xomaryehia
3. zkSync's twitter: @zksync
4. Omar's content page: https://omaryehia.notion.site/omaryehia/A-collection-of-talks-podcasts-writing-and-so-on-0b6b31ccb0b44d5b847653d6bea6969e

Powering Crypto with Matt Cutler (Blocknative) May 24, 2023

Matt Cutler is the Co-Founder & CEO of Blocknative (https://www.blocknative.com/). Backed by Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Ryan Sean Adams & David Hoffman, & more, Blocknative is powering the crypto space—building for validators, for dApps, for wallets, and for traders. In this episode we discuss Blocknative’s product evolution (from their beginnings to their now-expansive product offerings), rogue Ethereum validators, the possibilities & implications of ERC 4337, lessons learned from scaling Blocknative, and Matt’s thoughts on the future of crypto.
Recorded Friday May 19th, 2023.

Getting Web3 Social Right, with Abhinav Gaur (urFeed) May 23, 2023

Abhinav Gaur is the Founder & COO @ urFeed (https://urfeed.xyz). urFeed is a social video & streaming platform, co-owned by creators and their community. In this episode we discuss problems with traditional web2 social platforms, why their feed experience is better than the usual algorithmic feeds, migrating users from web2, the road of progressive decentralization, and much more.

Recorded Tuesday May 16th, 2023.

Social Tokens: or, How We'll All Use Tokens Soon, with Bradley Miles (Roll) May 22, 2023

Bradley Miles is the Co-Founder & CEO of Roll (https://tryroll.com/).
Backed by Techstars, Arthur Hayes, Balaji Srinivasan, & more, Roll is enabling a world where the future of social tokens belongs to you. In this episode we discuss Bradley’s background in venture capital, what Roll is building toward (and soon launching!), and the incredible experience they’re designing for users that will broaden adoption and usability for tokens across the space.
Recorded Monday May 15th, 2023.
SHOW NOTES:
Book – #BreakIntoVC: How to Break Into Venture Capital and Think Like an Investor Whether You're a Student, Entrepreneur or Working Professional, by Bradley Miles

A New Type Of Crypto Lender with Himanshu Sahay & Dhruv Patel (Arch) May 18, 2023

Himanshu Sahay & Dhruv Patel are the Co-Founders of Arch (www.archlending.com). Backed by Tribe Capital, Picus Capital, & more, Arch is the most secure way to borrow against alternative assets. Users can access instant credit without selling your crypto or equity stake, on the platform with best-in-class security and a regulatory-first approach. In this episode we discuss their policy to not “touch or reloan customer funds for any reason,” their state-by-state approach to getting regulatory compliance right, their thoughts on how to best approach building in crypto right now, and much more.
Recorded Monday May 8th, 2023.

Tooling the New Investment Landscape with Ben Su (Capita) May 16, 2023

Ben Su is the Co-Founder & COO of Capita (https://www.percapita.io/).
Capita allows you to easily design, launch, and operate the investment group you want, on a platform made for you. End-to-end. No-code—whether syndicates, incubators, funds, or DAOs. In this episode we discuss their interesting path from working as lawyers to landing on the present iteration of Capita, the missing ingredients in tooling they've stepped in to solve, the future of the crypto space in general, and much more.
Recorded on Tuesday May 2nd, 2023.

The Future of the NFT Space with Alex Salnikov (Rarible) May 15, 2023

Alex Salnikov is the Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Rarible (https://rarible.com/). Backed by Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, & more, Rarible is a leading blue-chip NFT company that powers both established and emerging brands and creators. Through a multi-chain, aggregated marketplace for NFTs, a self-serve marketplace builder tool, and a white-glove service for custom marketplaces, their products help brands and creators achieve success at every stage of their NFT journey. In this episode, we cover the verticalization of NFT marketplaces, their experience decentralizing Rarible, the NFT royalties debate, & much, much more.

Recorded Tuesday May 9th, 2023.

Beyond the DAO Status Quo with Chad Lynch (Loreum) May 12, 2023

Chad Lynch is the Co-Founder of Loreum (https://www.loreum.org/). Previously engineer #1 at Maple Finance, Chad is creating Loreum to explore the frontier of human coordination. Right now Loreum is building a DAO Governance protocol for EVM chains, DAO capital formation tooling, and DAO labor market and productivity tooling. In this episode we discuss why Loreum is necessary given the current state of DAO’s, what ingredients have been missing to bring web3 into the next inning, and much, much more.

Recorded Tuesday April 25th, 2023.

Building the crypto-native messaging protocol with Shane Mac (XMTP) May 11, 2023

Shane Mac is the Founder & CEO of XMTP (http://xmtp.org). Backed by a16z, Sound Ventures, Alexis Ohanian, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, & many more, XMTP is building the communication network & protocol for web3. In this episode we discuss the remarkable people who’ve come alongside XMTP’s purpose (with emphasis on the developers), the nature of value accrual for a network like XMTP, what the earliest days of XMTP were like, and much more.

Recorded Monday April 17th, 2023.

Finally, On-Chain Privacy! with Elena Nadolinski (Iron Fish) May 05, 2023

Elena Nadolinski is the Founder & CEO of Iron Fish (www.ironfish.network).
Backed by Sequoia, a16z, Electric Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, & more, Iron Fish encrypts every transaction, shielding your sensitive asset information from public view. With read-only view keys, you remain compliant and in control. In this episode, we discuss Elena’s journey up to the creation of Iron Fish, the use cases and second-order possibilities of Iron Fish, the biggest early surprises and challenges (and how their team navigated them), advice to crypto founders about productive dialogue with regulators, and why the future is bright for crypto.
Recorded Monday May 1st, 2023.

Building An Egalitarian Blockchain with Tomer Afek (Spacemesh) Apr 25, 2023

Tomer Afek is the Co-Founder & CEO of Spacemesh (www.spacemesh.io). Backed by Paradigm, Spacemesh is a L1 blockchain protocol, focused on the qualitative aspects of permissionless decentralization. In this episode, we discuss Tomer’s philosophical journey that led to the creation of Spacemesh, why they’ve spent so long working on Spacemesh, a deep-dive on some of the technical aspects of the protocol, and his most generalizable advice for founders in the web3 space.
Recorded Tuesday April 18th, 2023.

Rethinking Everything with Fabian Vogelsteller (LUKSO, and creator of the Mist Browser, Ethereum Wallet, web3.js, and author of ERC 20 and ERC 725) Apr 14, 2023

Fabian Vogelsteller is the Founder and Chief Architect at LUKSO, plus the creator of the Mist Browser, Ethereum Wallet, web3.js, and author of ERC 20 and ERC 725. LUKSO is a multiverse blockchain network where the worlds of fashion, gaming, design, and social media intersect. LUKSO allows brands, creatives and developers to dictate the distribution of wealth and influence from lifestyle activities, by having Universal Public Profiles, creating Digital Identities and Certificates, and by building Tokenized Communities. In this episode we cover Fabian’s extensive and exemplary history in the blockchain space, the exciting advancements that LUKSO represents, and the state-of-play for the space as a whole (including thoughts on what’s missing, important trajectories, and much more).
Recorded Wednesday April 12th, 2023

An RPG To Remember with Vincent Ghossoub (NiftyCraft) Apr 12, 2023

Vincent Ghossoub is the Founder and CEO of NiftyCraft (www.niftycraft.io).
NiftyCraft is a blockchain RPG with a player-driven economy. In this episode, we cover Vincent’s work building up the gaming industry in the Middle-East, the intricacies of game design in web3, the ultimate trajectories they’re building toward (technologically-speaking), and much more.
Recorded Tuesday March 28th, 2023.

The Man of Many Talents with Trevor Koverko (Polymath) Apr 03, 2023

Trevor Koverko is the Co-Founder of Polymath (https://polymath.network).
As the founder of several notable 9 and 10 figure businesses in both the private and public markets (like Polymath, Tokens.com, First Carbon and Matador), Trevor brings a unique perspective to investing in web3 (he’s invested in 58 companies as of publication here). In this episode we discuss the similarities between being a founder and being a professional athlete (Trevor played professional hockey), the hardest lesson learned (and proudest professional contributions) in his entrepreneurial journey, the source of his passion behind doubling-down on web3 during the past couple years, and much more.
Recorded Wednesday February 15th, 2023.

Horror and Blockchain: Scaring The Masses with Toby Saunders (Cathedral Studios) Apr 03, 2023

Toby Saunders is the Co-Founder & CEO at Cathedral Studios, creators of The Bornless.

Backed by Hartmann Capital, Cathedral Studios is a next-generation web3 game studio and creators of The Bornless, a first- person PvP/PvE horror-themed game. In this episode we discuss what makes a game great (and how to think about creating great games as a team), why it may take longer than commonly expected for web3 to fully deliver within gaming, what the future of gaming (and especially gaming within web3) looks like, and his insights into what building a remarkable game studio looks like in 2023.

Recorded Monday February 27th, 2023.

Building a Crypto Market Index from Scratch with Austin Diamond (Alongside) Feb 28, 2023

Austin Diamond is the Co-Founder & CEO of Alongside (www.alongside.xyz). Backed by a16z Crypto, Coinbase, Franklin Templeton, & more, Alongside has created the first fully backed on-chain broad-based crypto market index. In this episode we discuss the history of index funds, earliest insights that led to their unique methodology of token selection for AMKT, the biggest mistakes institutions make when broadening their exposure to digital asset markets, and much more. WAGMI Ventures is an investor in Alongside.
Recorded Friday February 24th, 2023.

Getting Taxes For Crypto Enterprises Right with Antoine Scalia (Cryptio) Feb 20, 2023

Antoine Scalia is the Founder & CEO of Cryptio (www.cryptio.co). Backed by Draper Associates, Point Nine, & more, Cryptio offers enterprise-grade accounting, audit, and tax software for your digital assets. They work with top organizations like Metamask, Sorare, 1inch, Bankless & more. In this episode, we discuss the importance of their work for broader institutional adoption, what insights made the biggest product difference, what they’re excited about in the pipeline, and much more.
Recorded Tuesday February 14th, 2023.

What Blockchains Enable for Fine Art, with Nanne Dekking (Artory) Feb 17, 2023

Nanne Dekking is the Founder & CEO of Artory (www.artory.com). Artory is unlocking art & collectibles as a credible asset class—providing the expertise, tech, network, and data to deliver institutional-grade liquidity and financial products to the art market. Artory was the first company to tokenize an art auction, holds one of the largest databases of transaction data for art (which powers Art Basel’s yearly art report), and has worked with art powerhouses like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Winston Art Group, & more. In this episode we discuss being an early mover in web3 from within the traditional art market, the impact of transparency (via technology) on an opaque market like fine art, some drivers of valuation in the art world (and how Artory’s work assists credible valuation), the art funds they’re creating alongside the Winston Art Group, & much more.
Recorded Monday February 13th, 2023.

How Token Communities Will Level Up with Alex Poon (CharmVerse) Feb 16, 2023

Alex Poon is the Co-Founder & CEO of CharmVerse (www.charmverse.io). Backed by Orange DAO, BitDAO, GSRV, Alliance, & more, CharmVerse is building the solution for token communities to build relationships, work together, and vote. In this episode we discuss entering and learning web3 as an already-successful founder, current challenges with governance and community management for token communities, possibilities for the future enabled by CharmVerse, what they’re looking for in potential partners, and much more.

Recorded Wednesday February 8th, 2023.

$150m TVL on Day One: Amit Gajjala & Antonio Morales (Stader Labs) Feb 15, 2023

Today’s episode is with Amit Gajjala (Founder & CEO) and Antonio Morales (Head of Ecosystem + Community) at Stader Labs (www.staderlabs.com). Backed by Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, Accel, & more, Stader Labs is a multichain liquid staking platform. In this episode we discuss their earliest insights about the market that led to Stader Labs, their product roadmap (and how they continue to evolve), what it was like getting $150m TVL on day one of launch, the Terra/Luna collapse (and how they worked past it), comments on Coinbase’s recently-announced liquidity staking derivative cbETH, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday February 7th, 2023.

What If The NFT Space Was Entirely Safe? with Vijay Pravin (bitsCrunch) Feb 09, 2023

Vijay Pravin is the Founder & CEO at bitsCrunch (www.bitscrunch.com). Backed by Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Polygon, & more, bitsCrunch is forensic and AI-powered NFT analytics that fights wash trading, fraud, and gives accurate value for digital assets. In this episode we discuss how bitsCrunch fits into the current NFT space, his insights into the space driving their unique product strategy in 2023, his recent time in web3 circles at the World Economic Forum, and much more.

Recorded Tuesday January 31st, 2023.

Good Causes, Good Design, Good Engineering, with Chris Georgen (Topl) Feb 06, 2023

Chris Georgen is the Founder & Managing Director of Topl (www.topl.co). Backed by Mercury Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures, & more, Topl is building an impact technology economy that enables digital and sustainable transformation across value chains and empowers the monetization of impact verified on the Topl Blockchain. In this episode we discuss the impact space (broadly construed), how blockchain technology can enable a greater impact on causes people care about, Topl’s unique discoveries about impact-driven blockchain building in 2023, and the possibilities for Topl over the next several years (plus much more).

Check out more about Topl’s work below:

Discord: https://discord.gg/ZqKC6k8pcJ

Topl's Twitter: https://twitter.com/topl_protocol

Chris’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/c_georgen

Recorded Monday January 30th, 2023.

The Possibilities of Blockchain Gaming with Joseph Cooper (Earn Alliance) Feb 02, 2023

Joseph Cooper is the Founder of Earn Alliance (www.earnalliance.com). Backed by Animoca Brands, CoinFund, Fabric Ventures, & more, Earn Alliance builds communities and tools to inspire and empower gamers to unlock their full potential in web3. In this episode we discuss Coop’s roots in IRC communities and entrepreneurship at a young age, curating games for entertainment value vs. NFT price, the state of the industry for blockchain gaming (good, bad, ugly), the second-order effects in the world if Earn Alliance continues to execute, & much more.

Recorded Monday January 30th, 2023.

Making Social Capital Liquid with Adi Sideman (Revel) Jan 30, 2023

Adi Sideman is the Co-Founder & CEO of Revel (www.revel.xyz).

Backed by Union Square Ventures, Polygon, Dragonfly Capital, & more, Revel is a social trading game that recently debuted as #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt. In this episode we discuss where social networking is heading in the future, interesting possibilities for generative AI in the social networking space, what it’s been like fine-tuning the game economics of Revel, and much more. WAGMI Ventures is an investor in Revel.

Recorded Tuesday January 24th, 2023.

Aggregating For A Better DAO Ecosystem with Arda Erturk (DAOhub) Jan 27, 2023

Arda Erturk is the Founder & CEO of DAOhub (www.daohub.xyz). As a Techstars participant, Arda is building a DAO marketplace to make DAO discovery, investment, and portfolio management easier in one central platform. Their long-term vision is to utilize AI by combining on-chain, off-chain data, and Decentralized IDs (DIDs) to enable data-driven governance and investment decisions for investors and DAO builders. In this episode we discuss Arda’s favorite DAOs (and why), new possibilities for DAO involvement, and what gets him most excited about the DAO space over the next several years (plus much more).
Recorded Monday January 23rd, 2023.

Creating an Empire (the SuperNormal way) with Andrew Choi (SuperNormal & Factorial Funds) Jan 25, 2023

Andrew Choi is the Founder & CEO of SuperNormal (www.supernormal.art) & General Partner @ Factorial Funds (www.factorialfunds.com). SuperNormal is the #1 top-selling web3 brand in Korea with >$100m in volume traded, and with celebrity holders like Eva Longoria, Paris Hilton, Mark Cuban, Sergi Roberto, Android founder, and more. Factorial Funds has invested in top companies like Consensys, Coinbase, Robinhood, Affirm, and more. Andrew’s past work includes Tech Lead at Coinbase, Microsoft, Linkedin, & Snapchat. In this episode we discuss what SuperNormal understands about IP in 2023 that others don’t, the evolution from initial concept to a more expansive vision, the primacy of engaging one’s community in a cyclical loop, the investment thesis of Factorial Funds during the bear market, and much more.
Recorded Friday January 20th, 2023.

What Happens When Counterfeits Become Impossible, with Mark Shekleton (Smart Seal) Jan 23, 2023

Mark Shekleton is the Co-Founder & CEO of Smart Seal (www.smartseal.io). Founded by aerospace engineers (and recently shipping the first physical NFT sold on Amazon), Smart Seal is delivering blockchain provenance for physical products (via merging encrypted near field communication hardware infrastructure with NFTs secured by 1:1 links) – tackling the massive counterfeiting challenges endemic to companies large and small across the world. In this episode we talk about the benefits to a world with fewer counterfeit products (hint: less funding for other criminal activities and enterprises), surprises and obstacles while engaging their earliest customers, his thoughts about the growth to come in the “phygital” space, and much more.
Recorded Wednesday January 18th, 2023.

Why We Need a New Type of Hardware Wallet with Rohan Agarwal (Cypherock) Jan 18, 2023

Rohan Agarwal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Cypherock (www.cypherock.com). Backed by ConsenSys Mesh, Orange DAO, GnosisDAO, and more, Cypherock is the world’s first hardware wallet without a seed phrase. In this episode we discuss the three years of R&D necessary to produce their innovative wallet, second-order effects of users having a 10x more secure wallet, what it was like getting audited by Keylabs (the security firm that hacked Ledger), and much more.

Recorded Monday January 16th, 2023.

Holding The World In Common with Griff Green (Giveth, Commons Stack, General Magic) Jan 16, 2023

Griff Green has been a respected leader within the Ethereum community since 2015 and received a masters degree in Digital Currency in 2016 (as the first holder of its kind). As community manager for Slock.it and TheDAO, he led every angle of the crisis response effort following TheDAO Hack. He co-founded the White Hat Group, which secured the at-risk funds (10% of the total supply of ETH) during TheDAO hack and one year later rescued $210 million dollars worth of crypto assets following the Parity Multisig Hack. Griff and the WHG also audited Aragon and MakerDAO systems. Griff then founded Giveth, a crypto donation platform that radically empowers individuals and communities to affect real change in a transparent, decentralized way, and also founded Commons Stack, the natural progression of Giveth’s efforts to build the future of giving with the goal of turning any non-profit cause into an impact investment.
In this episode we discuss micro-economy governance possibilities, public and social goods funding, his best advice for those new to web3, and much more.
Recorded Thursday January 12th, 2023.

Laszlo Szabo—Kiln Dec 23, 2022

Laszlo Szabo is the Co-Founder & CEO of Kiln (www.kiln.fi). Backed by Illuminate Financial, GSR, Kraken Ventures, and more, Kiln enables enterprise-grade staking made easy. In this episode we discuss their journey from the origins of Kiln to powering 2.1% of all ETH staked (thus far), including how they uncovered insights from their earliest customers to build out their offerings, the intricacies of staking (and why staking is the first “Internet bond”), and common misunderstandings about what they enable and how it works.
Recorded Tuesday, December 13th, 2022.

Christoph Jentzsch—corpus.ventures Dec 15, 2022

Christoph Jentzsch is the Co-Founder & CEO at corpus.ventures (www.corpus.ventures). Christoph is a theoretical physicist who was one of the earliest developers on Ethereum, creator of The DAO (known for its hack in 2016), the founder of slock.it (one of the most exciting early Ethereum projects), and now, co-founder & CEO at corpus.ventures, a venture studio building in web3.
In this episode we hear what attracted him to Ethereum during its earliest days, how he wrestled with (and worked through) his emotional state during and after The DAO Hack, his unwavering commitment to the Ethereum community and its ideals (despite public perception that the “loud” frauds and scams across web3 are representative of everyone in the space), and the exciting projects they’re building at corpus.ventures. Follow them on Twitter at @ChrJentzsch and @cventurestudio, and learn more about their work at www.corpus.ventures.
Recorded Wednesday, December 14th, 2022.

Harrison Wang—Unblocked Dec 14, 2022

Harrison Wang is the Co-Founder & CEO at Unblocked (onunblocked.com). Backed by Tiger Global, Marcy Venture Partners (Jay-Z’s venture fund), Dapper Labs, and more, Unblocked is at the forefront of producing blockchain-backed collectibles for your favorite communities. In this episode we discuss the virtues of “digital collectibles” vs. “NFTs” (in terms of name approachability), what’s attracting major brands/artists to the digital collectible space (and how Unblocked powers that work), and what FTX means for the broader space over the coming months (in terms of funding availability and mainstream perception/adoption).

Recorded Wednesday, December 14th, 2022.

Michael Sanders—Horizon Dec 09, 2022

Michael Sanders is the Co-Founder & Chief Storyteller at Horizon (horizon.io). Backed by Polygon, Coinbase, Take Two Interactive (the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise), & more, Horizon is making blockchain gaming easy, fun, and powerful for users and developers to drive the adoption of web3 and its open, transparent and symbiotic economies. With 700k+ total wallets and 3.4M+ total transactions on their Sequence platform (and exciting adoption of their Skyweaver game), Horizon is quickly establishing itself as a leader in building web3 gaming. In this episode we discuss challenges and surprises in the early days of Horizon (founded in 2017), where Michael sees web3 games and game economies going over the next 3-to-5 years, Horizon’s experience wrapping up a fundraising round in October 2022 (at a particularly precarious time in the industry), and Michael’s best generalizable advice for founders in web3 (hint: focus on the best ideas, and take care of yourself so you’re in it for the long-game).
Recorded on Thursday December 8th, 2022.

Solal Afota—Notebook Labs Dec 01, 2022

Solal Afota is the Co-Founder of Notebook Labs (www.notebooklabs.xyz). Backed by Bain Capital Crypto & Y Combinator, Notebook Labs is working on decentralized, anonymous, and accountable identity on Web3—making web3 safer so it can become more universal. In this episode we discuss what zero-knowledge proofs enable for accountable identity (and potential near-to-medium-term applications), their unique technical and business challenges, and their experience building within Y Combinator.
Recorded on Tuesday November 29th, 2022.

Dillon Rosenblatt—Autograph Nov 17, 2022

Dillon Rosenblatt is the Co-Founder & CEO of Autograph (co-founded alongside Tom Brady) (www.autograph.io). Backed by Kleiner Perkins and a16z, and partnered with icons like Simon Biles, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods, Autograph is an NFT platform that brings together the iconic brands in sports and culture to create unique digital collections. In this episode we discuss the possibilities and future of NFTs, the unique opportunity of building through the bear market, how to co-create alongside your community, and (of course) what it’s like building a company with Tom Brady.
Recorded on Thursday November 17th, 2022.

Soups Ranjan—Sardine Nov 17, 2022

Soups Ranjan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sardine (www.sardine.ai). Backed by a16z, Visa, and more, Sardine offers safer, faster payments by combining risk, compliance, and payment protection – all from one powerful API. In this episode we talk about his past work heading up Fraud & Risk for Coinbase (2015–2019), Sardine’s strategy of earning the opportunity to handle payments by solving fraud first, their unique flywheel from fraud prevention to better data insights, their data consortium initiative, and much more.
Recorded on Thursday November 3rd, 2022.

Andrew Webber—Digital Power Optimization Nov 17, 2022

Andrew Webber is the Founder & CEO of Digital Power Optimization (www.digitalpoweroptimization.com). DPO helps owners and developers of power assets secure more value for their energy. They combine their expertise in cryptocurrency mining with partner expertise in power generation — offering Cryptocurrency Mining as a Service (CMaaS) to energy companies. In this episode we discuss the market dynamics of the cryptocurrency mining space, how DPO connects the dots for non-crypto-native energy industry players, and ultimately what the future of the space looks like over the next five-to-twenty years.
Recorded on Monday October 31st, 2022.

Blake West—Goldfinch Oct 29, 2022

Blake West is the Co-Founder & CTO of Goldfinch (www.goldfinch.finance). Backed by a16z, Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol that allows anyone to be a lender, not just banks. With ~$100m in active loan value at time of recording, Goldfinch is the clear leader in on-chain emerging market credit – aka, crypto lending meets real-world businesses. In this episode we discuss challenges and surprises in the early days of Goldfinch, blockers to emerging market credit formation (and why obstacles exist), speculation about the possibility of a unified/global on-chain capital market, and Blake’s best generalizable advice for founders across web3 (hint: ignore the token at first).

Recorded on Friday October 28th, 2022.

Justin Gregorius—Pine Street Labs Oct 16, 2022

Justin Gregorius is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pine Street Labs (www.pinestreetlabs.com). Backed by Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, Figment, and others, Pine Street Labs is an enterprise software company that services crypto companies, building products to help businesses use blockchains – starting with their flagship product called walletOS. In this episode we discuss their experience fundraising in the current market environment, what the future of enterprises in web3 may look like, and how they’re thinking about go-to-market for their flagship product (hint: focus on crypto-native businesses first). Recorded on Friday, October 14th, 2022.

Raullen Chai—IoTeX Oct 05, 2022

Raullen Chai is the Co-Founder of IoTeX Network (https://iotex.io/). Backed by Samsung Next, IoTeX is the leading decentralized network to power billions of machines at scale via machine economy (MachineFi) applications. In this episode we discuss the possibilities unlocked by bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) on-chain, their $100m fund working to back over 1,000 decentralized machine economy startups, and the broader MachineFi philosophy and how it’s concretely translated into their work.
Recorded on Wednesday, October 5th, 2022.

Michael Marra—Entre Oct 05, 2022

Michael Marra is the Founder & CEO of Entre (www.joinentre.com). Backed by Kube VC & angels like Dharmesh Shah (Co-Founder/CTO @ HubSpot), Entre is the fastest-growing online professional network of web3 professionals in the world. In this episode we discuss what’s missing with existing online professional networks like LinkedIn, how Entre bridges the gap between web2 and web3 for professionals, and how generosity and authenticity drives relationships and projects forward in web3.

Recorded on Monday, October 3rd, 2022.

Chinmay Patel—PERCS Sep 28, 2022

Chinmay Patel is the CEO of PERCS (www.getpercs.com). PERCS supercharges communities with NFTs. In this episode we discuss the recent announcement about Starbucks Odyssey (their NFT-powered loyalty program), what most companies get wrong about implementing token-gating, how PERCS helps companies like Playboy and Superplastic think about NFTs, and the upcoming launch of “degen.deals” (an exciting Black Friday/Cyber Monday online experience powered by PERCS). WAGMI Ventures is an investor in PERCS.
Recorded on Monday, September 26th, 2022.

John Linden—Mythical Games Sep 15, 2022

John Linden is the CEO of Mythical Games (www.mythicalgames.com). Backed by a16z (and recently achieving unicorn status), Mythical Games is a game technology studio at the intersection of blockchain and games. In this episode we discuss his past work as Studio Head for the Call of Duty franchise, the past and future of blockchain gaming, what unique unlocks are enabled by web3 for games, and an announcement about their work building an EVM-compatible chain (in anticipation of the Merge).
Recorded on Tuesday, September 13th, 2022.

Shawn Douglass—Amberdata Sep 15, 2022

Shawn Douglass is the CEO of Amberdata (www.amberdata.io). Backed by Coinbase, Amberdata delivers comprehensive digital asset data and insights into blockchain networks, crypto markets, and decentralized finance, empowering financial institutions with critical data for research, trading, risk, analytics, reporting, and compliance. In this episode we discuss the unique challenges associated with aggregating and providing data across chains and tokens, the financialization of the Internet, and unique advice for builders in web3.
Recorded on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022.

Neil Zhang—Frontrunner Sep 15, 2022

Neil Zhang is the Co-Founder of Frontrunner (www.getfrontrunner.com). Frontrunner is the first zero gas fee, decentralized sports prediction market built on blockchain where you get the best odds with no house edge. No limits, no restrictions, just your bets and your profits. In this episode we dig into the exciting vision and possibilities of Frontrunner, building on the Injective protocol, and building resilience – in your team, in your company – through the bear market. WAGMI Ventures is an investor in Frontrunner.
Recorded on Wednesday, August 10th, 2022.

Mike Lopez—Cinder Sep 15, 2022

Mike Lopez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cinder (www.cinder.io). Backed by Animoca Brands, Cinder is a blockchain-native gaming metaverse created by game industry veterans –as a crypto-native social hub, creative commons, and free-form MMO community, it’s evolving rapidly and empowering players in innovative new ways. In this episode we discuss why they minted on Solana, advice for blockchain gaming builders, and the bigger picture of where blockchain gaming has been – and where it’s going.
Recorded on Thursday, September 1st, 2022.

Mriganka Pattnaik—Merkle Science Sep 15, 2022

Mriganka Pattnaik is the Co-Founder and CEO of Merkle Science (www.merklescience.com). Backed by Kraken Ventures, Beco Capital, and others, Merkle Science is a predictive Web3 risk & intelligence platform offering risk mitigation, compliance, and forensics for crypto-native businesses, DeFi participants, financial institutions & government agencies. In this episode we discuss some of the history of risk mitigation in crypto, the possibilities for risk mitigation in the future, and the tradeoffs between privacy and KYC (“know your client”) as part of the bigger conversation about what mainstream adoption of crypto may require (from a regulatory standpoint).
Recorded on Wednesday, August 24th, 2022.

Aaron Rafferty & Martin Simms—StandardDAO Sep 15, 2022

Aaron Rafferty & Martin Simms are the Co-Founders of StandardDAO (www.standarddao.finance). StandardDAO is all about supercharging, scaling, and securing the 3rd generation of the internet. In this episode we learn more about StandardDAO, discuss big-picture trends across web3, and hear advice for builders in web3.
Recorded on Friday, August 5th, 2022.

Ben Simpson—Collective Shift Sep 15, 2022

Ben Simpson is the Founder & CEO of Collective Shift (www.collectiveshift.io). Collective Shift’s mission is to democratize wealth and freedom through crypto to millions by giving investors and traders access to a suite of tools, expert daily insights, opportunity alerts, and a thriving community. In this episode we discuss Collective Shift’s unique insights underlying their education offerings, what’s been missing for crypto education, and how they’ve addressed the challenges associated with their commitment to transparency and credibility.
Recorded on Wednesday, August 17th, 2022.

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