Portal - Evan Fisher (Episode #25)

In this episode, Ben sits down with Evan Fisher, Founder and General Partner of Portal Ventures. Evan started his career at Goldman Sachs and Insight Partners before launching Portal. At Portal, Evan invests across the industry, globe, and fundraising stage as he applies his traditionally trained venture skillset to protocol investing. Evan is a pragmatist with a business model oriented investment framework that has thus far resonated with founders and builders across the blockchain industry. Lets get into it.

Timestamps

1:45 How was ETHcc and your trip to Paris?

2:58 How should crypto-natives share with others what the state of the industry is?

3:44 What is your background?

6:44 How does your classical venture investment experience translate into protocol investing at Portal?

8:17 What is different about traditional investing and protocol investing?

12:41 What needs to change in crypto in order to attract institutional investors?

16:15 How can non-layer one tokens hold value without being deemed as securities?

18:05 Where do you feel like you have an edge?

20:45 What are the business models in crypto that are emblematic of where the space can go?

22:56 What are some emerging categories that you’re most excited about?

26:06 What is Urbit?

29:10 How do you invest in Urbit?

31:03 What is built on Urbit that can attract the interest of crypto native people?

35:19 What is next for DeFi?

38:41 How was the Ion deal sourced?

42:56 What are some of the retail ready projects that you are excited about?

47:48 Is there anything in AI that you’re excited about?

52:01 What is your most contrarian take within crypto?

52:22 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto?

56:50 Where can people learn more about you?

Resources Mentioned

Medici Network

Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Connect with the guest

Follow Evan on Twitter https://twitter.com/evanbfish

Follow Portal on Twitter https://twitter.com/PortalVentures

Portal Ventures https://portal.vc/

Disclaimer

Ben Jacobs is a partner at Scenius Capital Management. All views expressed by Ben and the guests of this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Scenius Capital Management. Guests and the host may maintain positions in the assets or funds discussed in this podcast. You should not treat any opinion expressed by anyone on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy but only as an expression of their personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.