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 f...
Feb 17, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 100
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...
Feb 14, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 99
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....
Feb 06, 2024•17 min•Season 1Ep. 98
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 approac...
Feb 05, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 97
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...
Jan 25, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 96
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), ...
Jan 06, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 95
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 outloo...
Jan 01, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 94
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 mom...
Dec 22, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 93
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 investme...
Dec 15, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 92
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 convict...
Dec 07, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 91
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 o...
Dec 01, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 90
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 f...
Nov 30, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 89
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...
Nov 29, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 88
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...
Nov 21, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 87
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...
Nov 20, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 86
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 com...
Nov 18, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 85
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 compos...
Nov 11, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 84
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 proj...
Nov 02, 2023•18 min•Season 1Ep. 83
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 h...
Nov 01, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 82
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 ...
Oct 31, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 81
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....
Oct 27, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 80
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 i...
Oct 26, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 79
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 ...
Oct 25, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 78
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 1...
Oct 20, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 77
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 cry...
Oct 19, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 76
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 get...
Oct 18, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 75
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 cr...
Oct 17, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 74
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, &...
Oct 13, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 73
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 bl...
Oct 12, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 72
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 USD...
Oct 11, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 71
