Scenius Studio

In this episode, Ben sits down with Regan Bozman, Co-Founder of Lattice Capital. Regan started his crypto career at CoinList where he was responsible for the launch of several of the industry's largest protocols. Regan then leveraged his go-to-market experience and partnered with his CoinList co-worker Mike Zajko, to launch Lattice Capital, an early-stage focused crypto VC firm. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:30 What is your background? 4:38 What was the impetus for AngelList to develop the CoinList platform? 08:58 What were the key CoinList products and features that appealed to protocol founders? 11:48 Describe your transition from CoinList to founding Lattice? 16:32 What led to the development of Dove Metrics? 22:51 What was it like operating your first fund? 28:47 What were the biggest lessons learned from Fund I that you are applying to Fund II? 32:04 What is TIPIN and what does the thesis represent? 40:37 What crypto use-cases excite Lattice? 45:41 Describe Ensemble: Lattice's most recently announced investment? 48:40 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 49:57 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 50:56 Where can people learn more about you and Lattice? Resources Mentioned CoinList Dove Metrics ​​ Digital Book: Bitcoin and the Internet TIPIN POAP Delphia Ensemble Connect with the guest Lattice Capital https://lattice.fund/ Follow Lattice on Twitter https://twitter.com/lattice_fund Follow Regan on Twitter https://twitter.com/reganbozman 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 Joyce Yang, Founder of Global Coin Research (GCR). GCR is a token-gated venture DAO with early-stage investments in various leading crypto companies and protocols. Joyce has built a vibrant community of thousands of accredited investors that together source, diligence, and invest as a collective. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:12 What is your background? 6:07 What's it like being a female founder in crypto? 10:35 What is a venture DAO and how do they work? 12:20 How does GCR source and diligence investments? 15:43 How are GCR tokens and community participation used to reward behavior?  17:58 Why would a company want GCR on its cap table? 22:07 How does GCR think about carry on a deal by deal basis? 24:45 What component of GCR's community is most important to the DAO's success? 27:34 What are the biggest challenges of running a venture DAO vs. a traditional fund? 29:59 What's the story around GCR's investment into Lens? 33:53 What did GCR see in Magic Eden that made the DAO want to invest? 37:25 What current investment themes in crypto are community-led? 39:22 How does GCR's global footprint support its mission? 41:18 What is your most contrarian take within crypto? 45:17 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 49:15 Where can people learn more about GCR? Resources Mentioned Lily Liu, Min Teo, Beryl Li, Linda Xie Sui Lens Magic Eden Tangent Ventures Connect with the guest Global Coin Research https://globalcoinresearch.com/ Follow Joyce on Twitter https://twitter.com/JoyceInNYC Follow GCR on Twitter https://twitter.com/GlobalCoinRsrch Join GCR on Discord ⁠⁠https://GCR.community⁠ 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, I sit down with Balder Bomans, CIO of Maven 11 Capital based out of Amsterdam. Balder and Maven 11 have built a best-in-class venture firm on the back of their deep technical research, a commitment to community development, and active portfolio company support.  Let's get into it. Timestamps 1:52 What brings you to San Francisco? 2:30 What is your background? 5:01 How are European crypto funds and companies dealing with the unbanking? 8:05 How did Maven 11 develop its presence in the European market? 11:00 How did you identify early on the value of a project like Celestia? 15:33 What was so compelling about the modular blockchain thesis? 18:34 What patterns have you identified for successful early-stage projects?  22:31 What appealed to you about the Maple Protocol? 28:07 What lessons did the team learn from actively participating in DeFi? 33:37 How did you develop and scale Maven 11's research arm? 35:56 What is MEV and why is it important? 38:45 Are there any companies or protocols Maven 11 likes focusing on MEV? 40:47 What does the future of crosschain interaction or bridging look like? 43:25 What is a trend in the gaming sector that you’re most excited about? 46:03 What is your most contrarian take within crypto? 47:38 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? Resources Mentioned Celestia Lazy Ledger Research Fuel Maple Spectral The Modular Summit Connect with the guest Maven 11 https://www.maven11.com/ Maven 11 Substack ⁠https://maven11.substack.com/ Follow Maven 11 on Twitter https://twitter.com/Maven11Capital Follow Balder on Twitter https://twitter.com/BalderBomans 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 Dorman, Co-Founder of Arca and CIO of the firm's Digital Assets Fund. Jeff has two decades of portfolio management and trading experience, and now as CIO at Arca manages all aspects of portfolio sizing, trading, and risk management. Let's get into it. Timestamps 1:59 What is your background? 5:12 How important is understanding the technical underpinnings of blockchain when investing? 8:04 How have you ported over your traditional finance training to digital asset investing? 11:36 What would be an example of a valuation framework you applied to a digital asset? 18:17 What arguments do you hear from TradFi execs on why they don't like crypto? 22:42 What is the misalignment with Cardano's valuation vs. Coinbase's? 27:03 Operation Chokepoint. Real or fake FUD? 29:05 Tokens as securities. Real or fake FUD? 30:25 Tether. Real or fake FUD? 32:31 Where are we in the cycle from a macro perspective? 37:15 How has Arca effectuated change via governance? 41:50 What activism is Arca pursuing with DYDX? 45:09 How can traditional corporates leverage tokens to align customers and owners? 48:35 What would your 30 second pitch to a Fortune 100 company be like on why they should launch a token? 49:27 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 51:27 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 51:59 Where can people find out more about you? Resources Mentioned $CHZ & Socios Token Terminal: Fundamentals for Crypto Luna Classic Operation Chokepoint 2.0 Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Arca Gnosis (GNO) Proposed Changes DYDX Governance Forum That's our Two Satoshis Connect with the guest Follow Jeff on Twitter https://twitter.com/jdorman81 Follow Arca on Twitter https://twitter.com/arca Arca’s homepage https://www.ar.ca/ 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 Kelvin Koh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Spartan Group. Kelvin was previously a partner at Goldman Sachs and CIO of Indus Capital before launching Spartan out of Hong Kong. Spartan has a liquid hedge fund, a DeFi VC fund, a metaverse and gaming VC fund, as well as a prestigious advisory arm that has been involved in several large transactions within the industry. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:09 What is your background? 6:08 What was the response from your colleagues at Goldman when you went full-time crypto? 7:08 Can you explain the evolving business and regulatory landscape in Hong Kong? 11:36 Why is there positive momentum in Asia regarding crypto? 14:39 What are your thoughts on the latest narratives driving price movement? 19:10 What is your perspective on Bitcoin and the innovations taking place within the btc ecosystem? 23:03 What excites you regarding the future of DeFi? 26:00 What does cross chain interoperability unlock? 27:56 What projects within the metaverse and gaming sectors are you excited about? 32:46 Where will the value accrue in the gaming sector? 34:19 Are there any games you recommend? 40:20 What’s your general perspective on L2s? 43:35 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 47:42 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 50:21 Where can people find out more about you? Resources Mentioned Hong Kong Twitter Thread https://twitter.com/SpartanBlack_1/status/1628230582265315333 Bitcoin NFTs (Ordinals) https://decrypt.co/resources/what-are-ordinals-a-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-nfts Blockstack https://medium.com/@melodyhe/blockstack-partners-with-spartan-group-for-asia-expansion-eb52df118cce Layer Zero https://layerzero.network/ Dookey Dash https://dookeydash.com/ Sewer Pass https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/18/yuga-labs-sewer-pass-nft-collection-nets-over-6m-in-sales-in-just-hours/ Shrapnel https://www.shrapnel.com/ Metalcore https://www.metalcore.gg/ Scroll https://scroll.io/ Connect with the guest Follow Spartan on Twitter https://twitter.com/TheSpartanGroup Spartan Group https://spartangroup.io/ Kelvin on Twitter https://twitter.com/SpartanBlack_1 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.

This podcast delves into Jake Brukhman's journey in building CoinFund, exploring NFT financialization, AI advancements, and his most contrarian take in crypto. From regulatory challenges to emerging trends, this episode covers a wide range of insightful topics.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Mahesh Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder of Escape Velocity 3 or EV3. EV3 is an early-stage venture fund investing in decentralized physical infrastructure networks and digital commodity networks. If you want to learn about the future of the telecom industry then this episode is for you. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:26 What is your background? 5:21 What gave you the confidence to strike out on your own? 8:04 What drew you to crypto incentive networks? 10:36 What made you decide that EV3 had to be a blockchain fund? 14:51 Why is the future of these infrastructure networks peer to peer? 20:09 What did Helium get right and wrong? 27:23 What projects in your purview represent the direction of DeWi? 32:13 Are there any collaborations between telecoms and crypto protocols? 34:36 What will this all look like if it’s successful? 42:42 What will the consumer experience look like? 47:10 Are there any geopolitical risks associated with this type of global, decentralized infrastructure? 52:43 What is your most contrarian within crypto? 55:04 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 57:25 Where can people find out more? Resources Mentioned EV3 Fund Announcement https://moneromr.substack.com/p/escape-velocity-launches-25m-fund Helium 5G https://www.helium.com/5G Helium LoraWAN https://www.helium.com/lorawan X-Net https://www.xnet.company/ Andrena https://andrena.com/ Magma Core https://magmacore.org/ Network State https://thenetworkstate.com/ Connect with the guest Escape Velocity https://ev3.xyz/ EV3 on Twitter https://twitter.com/ev3ventures?lang=en Mahesh on Twitter https://twitter.com/MoneroMahesh 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, I sit down with Richard Galvin, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM) based out of Australia. DACM is an award-winning long-only crypto hedge fund with a phenomenal track record and an institutional approach to digital assets.  In today's show we discuss Richard's banking experience during the internet boom, DACM's on-chain participation, protocols vs. apps, and the future of Solana and Cosmos. Let's get into it. Timestamps 2:15 What is the crypto scene like in Australia? 4:52 Background and what gave you the confidence to launch DACM? 7:44 How did you position DACM to capture the crypto opportunity? 11:35 How did you adapt your fundamental analysis to crypto? 15:20 What is your investment approach and process at DACM? 22:21 How do you think about risks in the crypto ecosystem? 25:58 The future of risk-assets given the rise of interest rates? 30:05 What's your opinion on the fat protocol thesis and its validity going forward? 35:29 What are the investable areas within gaming? 39:50 What are your thoughts on Solana and Cosmos (ATOM)? 45:13 What is your most contrarian take within crypto? 46:43 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 48:30 Where can people find out more? Resources Mentioned DACM's Award-Winning Track Record https://medium.com/@richard.galvin/dacms-digital-asset-fund-once-again-world-s-best-performing-long-only-fund-6f9dd41b9c3a The Internet & The Rise of Blockchain https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/could-blockchain-have-great-impact-as-internet Fat Protocol Thesis https://www.usv.com/writing/2016/08/fat-protocols/ ATOM 2.0 https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/cosmos-atom-2-whitepaper-explained/ App Chain Thesis https://maven11.substack.com/p/the-application-specific-chain-thesis dYdX - DACM Special Situations Snapshot https://medium.com/@richard.galvin/dydx-599a7cb40e0d Connect with the guest DACM https://www.dacm.io/ Richard on Twitter https://twitter.com/richwgalvin 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, I sit down with Hal Press, Founder, and CEO of North Rock Digital. North Rock is a fundamental, thesis-driven, long/short crypto hedge fund. We discuss Hal's assessment of blockchain technology from a first principles perspective and the mindset he uses to manage his hedge fund and trade his portfolio.  Timestamps 2:20 How do you maintain self discipline and composure in these volatile crypto markets? 6:55 What does the planning process look like as you consider trade set-ups? 10:00 How do you find signal among the noise especially on Twitter? 12:20 What innovation within crypto caught your eye? 18:00 What are the core principles of crypto for you? 31:21 What gives tokens their real value? 44:45 What catalysts need to happen for crypto to explode? 47:49 What are your go-to resources for staying on top of the markets? 49:54 What books or investors have influenced you the most? 51:03 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 52:34 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 53:18 Where can people find out more? Connect with the guest North Rock Digital https://northrockdigital.com/ Hal on Twitter https://twitter.com/NorthRockLP Hal’s articles https://medium.com/@halp1120 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 today’s episode, crypto veteran Dan Elitzer joins the show. Dan is the co-founder of Nascent, a team of builders backing early-stage founders that are creating products and primitives for an open financial world. We talk about Dan’s experiences as President of the MIT Bitcoin club and his work at Circle and IDEO before starting Nascent. We discuss Dan's perspectives on tokens, DeFi 3.0, project alpha and much more. We hope you enjoy the show! Timestamps 2:41 What is your background? 9:04 How did you want to build Nascent in a crypto-native format? 12:52 What insights have you learned from Nascent's on-chain activities? 17:55 What tools are you developing for the various crypto security risks? 23:06 How will the VC and token models evolve so that users will actually have benefits? 31:38 Where is the industry going at the moment? 39:34 What will DeFi 3.0 reintroduce to the industry? 41:22 What other core areas of crypto are you focused on understanding? 45:07 What catalysts need to happen in order for real world assets to enter crypto? 49:15 What is your most contrarian take in crypto? 50:00 What is your most contrarian take outside of crypto? 50:51 Where can people find out more? Resources Mentioned MIT Bitcoin Club https://bitcoin.mit.edu/ Dan Elitzer and Jeremy Rubin’s “MIT Bitcoin Project” of 2014 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/14/mit-student-gave-away-100-worth-of-bitcoin-to-all-undergrads-in-2014.html UNIchain is Inevitable https://www.nascent.xyz/idea/the-inevitability-of-unichain Morpho Protocol https://www.morpho.xyz/ Ajna Finance https://www.ajna.finance/ Superfluid Collateral in Open Finance https://tokeneconomy.co/superfluid-collateral-in-open-finance-8c3db15efac Real World Assets https://www.rwa.xyz/ Connect with the guest Dan on Twitter https://twitter.com/delitzer Dan’s Medium Feed https://medium.com/@delitzer Nascent https://www.nascent.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.