In this episode of Inside the Hutt, Brooke Pollack interviews David Gan, founder of Inception Capital. David discusses his journey from investment banking to crypto, including his time at Huobi and the launch of Inception Capital. He breaks down Inception’s two-pronged model—a venture fund and a fund of funds—highlighting their early-stage strategy, cross-border support, and commitment to backing emerging managers. The conversation also explores tokenization, Asia's evolving crypto landscape, exchange listings, and how David's experience and global network help founders scale across markets.
Key Points From This Episode:
David Gan’s professional background and time at Huobi.
Founding Inception Capital and its evolution from Huobi Capital.
Structure of Inception’s two funds: early-stage venture and fund of funds.
Strategy behind taking GP stakes in emerging managers and scaling them.
David’s investment focus on infrastructure, financial services, and tokenization.
Insights on helping U.S. startups expand into Asia and vice versa.
Overview of key Asian crypto markets: China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Commentary on China’s restrictions and Hong Kong’s role in regional crypto.
Geographic differences in crypto product development between Asia and the U.S.
Tokenization trends, regulatory progress, and increased global access to financial products.
Growing founder activity in New York’s crypto ecosystem.
The importance of exchange listings and the evolving landscape of centralized vs. decentralized platforms.
Current token valuation dynamics and the impact on venture investing.
Community-driven public token sales like MegaETH’s conviction round.
Early traction and developer activity in the MegaETH ecosystem.
Investment highlights in projects like World Capital Markets
Framework for backing emerging fund managers and criteria Inception looks for.
Advantages of smaller, nimble funds and strategic synergy with Inception’s core strategy.
David’s alternate career dreams and how poker introduced him to Bitcoin.
Links
David on Twitter: https://x.com/DavidGan1818
Inception Capital: https://www.inception.capital/
Brooke Pollack on X: https://x.com/bhpollack
Brooke Pollack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookepollack/
Hutt Capital: https://www.huttcapital.com/