Why venture firms must be engineering-first

What happens when an investor treats crypto like software infrastructure, not speculation? In this episode, I sit down with Avichal Garg, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Electric Capital, to unpack the evolution of crypto investing—from speculative hype cycles to infrastructure that powers the next era of the internet. Avichal explains how Electric Capital measures developer activity across blockchain ecosystems, why he believes the next trillion-dollar opportunities are being built quietly by open-source engineers, and how software-based incentives will transform everything from finance to governance. We discuss the reality of investing through crypto winters, the rise of modular blockchains, the lessons learned from building at Google and Facebook, and how AI and decentralization are beginning to converge.

Highlights:

• How Electric Capital built the most comprehensive developer data set in crypto
• Why tracking engineers is a better signal than token price or TVL
• How Avichal differentiates between speculation and true infrastructure investment
• Why open-source software is the backbone of the next financial system
• How Electric measures developer retention and ecosystem health across chains
• Why crypto winters are the best time to back new protocols and founders
• How decentralization and AI will intersect to create new governance models
• Why the future of crypto is about composability, not maximalism
• How venture capital must evolve to serve protocol-based companies
• Why patience and conviction separate enduring investors from trend followers

Guest Bio:

Avichal Garg is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Electric Capital, a venture firm investing in builders of decentralized networks, infrastructure, and developer tools.

Before launching Electric Capital, Avichal founded Spool (acquired by Meta) and previously held senior roles at Google and Facebook, where he helped scale some of the most widely used consumer products on the internet.

He is recognized for pioneering a data-driven approach to crypto investing—using developer activity, GitHub commits, and open-source metrics to identify early momentum in blockchain ecosystems.

Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.

#VentureCapital #VC #Startups #OpenLP #AssetManagement

Stay Connected:

X / Twitter: David Weisburd: @dweisburd

LinkedIn: David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/ Avichal Garg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avichalgarg/

Links Electric Capital: https://www.electriccapital.com/

Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at david@weisburdcapital.com.

(0:00) Preview (1:26) Introduction with guest Avichal Garg (1:30) Electric Capital's inception and trust in investing (6:01) Long-term trust, integrity, and alignment in partnerships (10:00) Future opportunities for new General Partners (13:43) Electric Capital's investment thesis and engineer necessity (19:10) Disruption of TradFi by crypto and regulatory moats (23:32) Coinbase's potential and crypto prediction markets (29:42) Crypto's integration and stablecoins' market dynamics by 2030 (35:11) Bitcoin valuation and dollar depreciation (39:09) Asset allocation in high growth tech and inflation strategies (44:46) Lived experience vs. CPI, economic and tax policy impacts (50:07) Middle class plight and social contract solutions (52:52) Policy, AI, and robotics in shaping the future (54:06) SEC regulations and digital assets (56:04) Investing advice: patience and resource management (58:55) Market participation and timing strategies (1:02:12) AI's limitless potential and US economic leadership (1:03:09) Closing remarks