Scenius Studio

In this episode, Ben sits down with Hootie Rashidifard, Founder and General Partner of Hash3. Hootie recently announced Hash3’s first fund dedicated to investing in disruptive crypto middleware and infrastructure. With a roster of LPs with experience leading unicorn tech start ups, Hash3 works closely with its investor base and venture partner network to help crypto founders operate and scale their protocols and businesses. Let’s get into it. Timestamps 2:41 Background and experience? 6:11 What were you investing in at Canaan? 11:03 What made you leave Canaan and start Hash3? 16:26 Which categories are you investing in? 22:28 Are you investing in L1 or L2 blockchain architecture projects?  26:03 Why do we need more infrastructure? 27:29 What is your investment process at Hash3? 31:27 Is your 6 investment criteria just a mental checklist or a complete diligence process? 35:19 How do exit opportunities fit in your evaluation? 38:18 What projects have you invested in? 45:06 What appealed to you most about Ajna ? 51:07 What is your most contrarian take inside crypto? 53:30 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 56:17 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned Surojit Chatterjee Gokul Rajaram Canaan Hash3 Investment Criteria Chainalysis Crossmint Ajna Lending Opal Connect with the guest Follow Hootie on Twitter https://twitter.com/hootie_r Follow Hash3 on Twitter https://twitter.com/hash3xyz Hash3 https://www.hash3.xyz/ 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.

Kyle Samani, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, shares his unique insights on blockchain and crypto investments. He discusses lessons from his startup Pristine and evaluates Apple's Vision Pro's implications. Samani delves into the intersection of AI and crypto, the potential of zero-knowledge technology for privacy, and the importance of reevaluating market structures. He also offers his contrarian views on emerging categories and the evolution of VC in the crypto space, providing a captivating glimpse into the future of technology and investment.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Matt Walsh, Founding Partner of Castle Island Ventures. Matt was instrumental in the development of Fidelity's blockchain efforts before leaving to found Castle Island in 2018. Matt is a leading crypto VC with a deep understanding of tech innovation driving adoption, and the regulatory dynamics impacting the blockchain industry. Let’s get into it. Timestamps 3:15 What is your background? 5:04 Why was Fidelity open to Bitcoin in 2014? 8:10 What gave you the confidence to leave Fidelity and launch Castle Island? 10:26 What was it like raising capital for a new crypto fund in 2018? 12:07 How has the Castle Island thesis evolved since founding the firm? 18:17 What exit opportunities are available to equity-based blockchain companies? 23:15 What is the current state of venture in crypto? 26:25 Walk us through McHenry's market structure bill 30:18 What would this bill unlock within the U.S.? 32:54 Would this bill impact the proliferation of U.S. dollar denominated stable coins? 36:15 What is the status of blockchain acceptance in China? 39:17 Where does operation chokepoint 2.9 stand right now? 44:00 What impact will Ordinals have on BTC beyond NFTs? 48:12 What emerging opportunities are you excited to be backing now via Castle Island? 50:30 What is your most contrarian take within crypto? 52:55 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 53:01 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned McHenry, Thompson, Hill, Johnson Release Digital Asset Market Structure Proposal An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets — John Pfeffer Telecommunications Act of 1996 Waters Floats Stablecoin Bill Draft Ahead of Thursday House Hearing Beijing releases white paper for Web3 innovation and development Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — Nic Carter Halborn CAT Labs Connect with the guest Follow Matt on Twitter https://twitter.com/MattWalshInBos Follow Castle Island on Twitter https://twitter.com/CastleIslandVC Castle Island https://castleisland.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.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Arthur Cheong, Founding Partner of Singapore-based DeFiance Capital. Arthur is a DeFi OG with a track record of early home run bets in Synthetix, Aave, and DYDX. Arthur is now leading DeFiance as the firm executes on its liquid venture thesis.  Let's get into it.  Timestamps 1:43 What are things like in Singapore at the moment from a general business perspective? 3:45 What are the dynamics between Singapore and Hong Kong? 5:58 Are there lobbyists that are pushing the crypto agenda in Asia? 10:42 What is your background? 12:27 What were the early days of DeFi like? 15:35 Explain in your words DeFiance's liquid venture thesis? 17:48 What type of liquid assets are you looking for? 23:50 How does your strategy compare to an active trading strategy? 26:38 What does the one-to-n phase in DeFi looks like? 29:56 What categories need to have their zero-to-one moments? 31:42 Are you still investing in infrastructure? 35:11 What are your thoughts on real-world assets and crypto? 37:53 What are your thoughts on crypto and AI? 39:59 What risk management operations and procedures have you put in place? 47:46 How are you evaluating counterparties? 51:04 What is your most contrarian take within crypto? 53:50 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 58:19 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned Singapore’s Whampoa Group Plans to Set Up Digital Bank in Bahrain ⁠Where Crypto VC Goes From Here -- Regan Bozman⁠ Liquid Venture Investing in Crypto -- Arthur0x The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase -- Union Square Ventures ZenGo: Crypto Wallet Connect with the guest Follow Arthur on Twitter https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x Follow DeFiance on Twitter https://twitter.com/DeFianceCapital DeFiance https://defiance.capital/ 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.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Jason Yeh, Co-Founder and General Partner of Patron. Jason was head of international publishing and head of EU eSports at Riot Games where he was a key member of the team responsible for making League of Legends the most important game of the last decade. Jason is now investing in cutting-edge gaming content and infrastructure with much of the investible innovation happening right here in Web3. Let's get into it. Timestamps 1:52 What is your background? 3:07 Were you a gamer before joining Riot? 4:02 What made League of Legends so revolutionary? 7:27 What’s the scale of gaming and e-sports? 10:22 How do you feel about the gamification of other asset classes and products? 11:58 What led you to start Patron? 15:16 What types of games are played in different regions and how does that affect your investment strategy? 18:11 What are the responsibilities of game publishers? 20:47 What do Web3 VCs misunderstand about the gaming industry? 23:12 What does crypto unlock for the gaming industry? 28:23 What did Axie Infinity get right and wrong? 30:46 How do games create real value for their users? 33:45 What are your thoughts on AI generated content? 36:07 What are some projects that Patron has backed? 41:50 What other gaming adjacent categories are you investing in? 44:50 How are major game developers and publishers looking to adopt Web3 gaming? 47:00 What will crypto gaming look like in the next 1, 5, and 10 years? 48:46 What is your most contrarian take inside of crypto? 51:55 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 53:22 What is your favorite game? 54:42 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned FirstMark Riot Games League of Legends Axie Infinity AnyCraft Space Caps 10KTF Connect with the guest Follow Jason on Twitter https://twitter.com/jasonoliver Patron https://patron.xyz/ 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.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Jeff Morris Jr., Founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One. Jeff was VP of Product and Revenue at Tinder and an active angel investor before leaving to start Chapter One. Jeff has a growth and product oriented mindset and has built his firm to identify founders with audacious missions and then support them on their entrepreneurial journey. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:01 What does it mean to get hit by a "Lucky Truck”? 6:10 What is your background? 10:57 Common threads among your early angel investments? 14:58 What are some moon shot ideas that you’ve come across recently? 19:02 What are your thoughts on Spindl and the roadmap for its products? 23:37 What growth tactics have been most successful for web3 projects? 28:48 What do you think about quests as a way to onboard authentic, organic users? 34:59 What's it like transitioning from an angel investor to running your own fund? 39:30 How do you think about portfolio construction at Chapter One? 42:30 Is AI in a bubble? 44:23 What will be a more valuable investment out of these next two vintages: consumer or infrastructure? 50:22 What are your thoughts on Web3 social? 55:49 What is your most contrarian take on crypto? 57:21 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 59:52 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned Medici Robert Leshner Hivemapper Spindl Chaos Monkeys DeGods Farcaster Daylight Optimism Quests Connect with the guest Follow Jeff on Twitter https://twitter.com/jmj Follow Chapter One on Twitter https://twitter.com/chapterone Chapter One https://chapterone.com/ 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.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Tom Walton-Pocock, Managing Founder of Geometry. Building on his experience as a Co-Founder and CEO of the Aztec Network, Tom launched Geometry on the premise that deeply technical founders need investors who can relate to their engineering first approach to business building. Geometry is now a leading cryptography and mathematics research firm with a track record of successful early-stage blockchain venture deals. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:27 Background and experiences? 3:43 What gave you the motivation to launch Geometry? 7:00 What was the gap in the venture capital market that you identified? 10:00 What does Geometry offer to deeply technical founders? 13:30 What does running a research-driven VC fund mean in practice? 14:41 What are some examples of the business models that you’re backing at Geometry? 22:40 What are ZK proofs and what's their history? 26:20 What is Scroll and what is a ZK EVM rollup? 31:00 What benefits does this ZK technology bring to the average user? 34:20 Beyond ZK what are the cutting edge trends your team is actively researching? 38:20 Why is ZK important for traditional businesses interested in crypto/blockchain? 41:00 How does Geometry helps developers build better UX and products? 45:00 What are some of the projects that Geometry is backing? 51:00 What is invisible to other investors that is clear as day to you/What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 52:27 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 57:11 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned Aztec Zero-Knowledge Proofs Ingonyama Scroll EVM Risc Zero MongoDB Geometry Notebook Connect with the guest Follow Tom on Twitter https://twitter.com/tomwalpo Follow Geometry on Twitter https://twitter.com/__geometry__ Geometry https://geometry.xyz/ 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.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Pranav Kanade, Portfolio Manager of Van Eck's Digital Assets Alpha Fund. Pranav left an illustrious career as a credit Portfolio Manager at Millennium to lead Van Eck’s active crypto hedge fund strategy. The institution's robust platform paired with Pranav's thesis-driven investment process shines a light on how TradFi and crypto are blending together at the highest level of the investment world.  Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:47 What is the Ethereum Shapella upgrade and how important is it? 7:03 What is your background? 14:33 How does your credit and distressed investing experience contribute to your current work at Van Eck? 16:31 What was your pitch to Jan Van Eck on launching an active crypto hedge fund strategy? 22:19 What’s it like running a crypto strategy within a highly regulated, large institution? 25:30 What are the investment themes that you are most focused on in the short-term? 29:41 What are some NFT innovations that are under appreciated? 32:40 What infrastructure needs to be built for institutions to participate on-chain? 36:20 USDC vs. a potential US Dollar denominated CBDC? 43:00 How correlated are assets currently and how does that influence your portfolio construction? 47:06 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 50:35 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 56:29 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned Shapella ERC-4337 Van Eck Bitcoin Strategy ETF Homebase Auto-GPT Connect with the guest Follow Pranav on Twitter https://twitter.com/pkan90 Follow VanEck on Twitter https://twitter.com/vaneck Van Eck https://www.vaneck.com/corp/en/ 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.

Joe McCann, Founder, CEO, and CIO of Asymmetric, shares his extensive experience in crypto and finance. He discusses the misconceptions traditional finance and tech folks have about crypto. Joe explains the strategic shift to multiple fund structures and highlights his bullish stance on Solana based on its innovative advantages. He dives into Bitcoin's potential as a store of value, comparing it to gold, and shares his contrarian views on the evolving crypto landscape. A fascinating exploration of market dynamics and investment philosophies awaits!

In this episode, Ben sits down with Lewis Harland, Portfolio Manager and Head of Research at Decentral Park Capital. Lewis is a prolific writer with deep research into cutting edge valuation methodologies that leverage on chain data and analysis. His top-down valuation frameworks are widely recognized among leaders in the crypto industry while also helping steer Decentral Park's investment strategy and portfolio construction. Let's get into it.  Timestamps 2:21 How has writing publicly online influenced your career? 6:26 What are your resources to find signal amid the noise? 10:39 What is your background? 15:10 How does your research feed into your investment process? 19:17 Can you share some examples where your top-down investment thesis was right and/or wrong? 26:10 Do valuation frameworks matter in crypto? 32:02 Can you explain your guide on how to value a blockchain? 38:18 Please define the Lindy effect? 44:45 How do you think about new technological disruptions and their impact on valuation methodologies? 50:24 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 54:07 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 56:56 Where can people learn more about you? Resources Mentioned GlassNode Into The Block Thermocap On Blockchain Valuations Cryptonetwork Governance As Capital Nexus Mutual EigenLayer Connect with the guest Follow Lewis on Twitter https://twitter.com/_LewisHarland_ Follow Decentral Park Capital on Twitter ​​https://twitter.com/DPCio Decentral Park Capital https://www.decentralpark.io/ 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.