Scenius Studio

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.

In this episode of Scenius Studio, host, Ben Jacobs, sits down with Peter Marshall, founder and CEO of Walden Bridge Capital. Walden Bridge is a research driven crypto hedge fund with an impressive track record dating back to 2017. Peter shares the challenges he faced while operating a crypto hedge fund before foundational asset management services were widely available for digital assets and how these experiences shaped his navigation of the crypto markets today. Peter also details his firm's research-driven investment process and his principles for building an institutional asset management firm. Timestamps 1:50 What is the story behind the name "Walden Bridge"? 3:01 How did you first get into crypto? 6:32 What was the hedge fund landscape like in 2017? 8:42 What were the investment strategies in the early days of Walden Bridge? 11:00 How important is narrative and reflexivity? 13:25 Experiences in building a high-frequency trading strategy? 20:01 How does Walden Bridge construct its portfolio? 22:50 What is the firm's investment process? 29:04 What are some investment sectors that people should keep an eye on? 32:35 How does Walden Bridge analyze the landscape of investment opportunities? 36:43 What are your thoughts on the state of regulation? 41:01 What are your team-building philosophies? 44:58 What is your spiciest take inside and outside of crypto? 46:45 Where can people find out more about Walden Bridge? Resources Mentioned Walden Bridge Capital https://waldenbridge.capital/ Hedge Week Digital Assets Awards https://www.hedgeweek.com/2022/02/25/312353/hedgeweek-announces-winners-inaugural-us-digital-assets-awards Maker DAO https://makerdao.com/en/ Network Effects https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-are-network-effects Token Economics https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-tokenomics-and-why-does-it-matter On-chain Derivatives https://defiprime.com/derivatives Layer 0 https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-layer-0-in-blockchain Gene Editing https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/19/1067074/next-for-crispr/ Connect with the guest Walden Bridge Capital https://waldenbridge.capital/ Disclaimer This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. Any advice and information on this podcast is general only, and has been prepared without taking into account your particular circumstances and needs. Before acting on any advice on this podcast you should assess or seek advice on whether it is appropriate for your needs, financial situation and investment objectives.

In the third episode of Scenius Studio, host, Ben Jacobs, sits down with Steve McKeon of Collab+Currency, an early-stage, crypto-focused venture fund investing into leading projects building the next generation of culture and consumer technology. Steve and the Collab+Currency team have been early to DAOs, NFTs, digital fashion, and several other emerging trends. In this comprehensive conversation, Steve shines a light on his crypto journey and the breadcrumbs of innovation and experimentation that he is most excited about going forward. Timestamps 1:50 What is your background? 5:01 What about crypto appealed to you? 7:32 What made you focus on ETH in the early days? 11:23 How were you able to filter through opportunities during the 2017 ICO craze? 13:10 What led to the creation of Collab+Currency? 17:05 What were the light bulb moments for NFTs? 23:01 Art Blocks explanation 27:50 How did squiggles become a DAO? 31:44 What is on the roadmap for Collab+Currency? 38:35 What are your thoughts on Crypto entering the fashion industry? 46:03 What is the most contrarian take you have inside the crypto world? 48:01 What is your spiciest take outside of crypto? 48:58 Where can people find out more about you? Resources Mentioned Rainbow http://ww25.rainbowtoken.finance/ Crypto Kitties https://www.cryptokitties.co/ Art Blocks https://www.artblocks.io/ Squiggle DAO https://www.squiggledao.com/ The LAO https://www.thelao.io/ You are sleeping on crypto art https://medium.com/collab-currency/youre-sleeping-on-crypto-art-7df920ec038e IYK apparel https://www.iyk.app/ Connect with the guest Steve McKeon https://twitter.com/sbmckeon Collab+Currency https://twitter.com/collab_currency Collab+Currency on the web https://www.collabcurrency.com/ Disclaimer This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. Any advice and information on this podcast is general only, and has been prepared without taking into account your particular circumstances and needs. Before acting on any advice on this podcast you should assess or seek advice on whether it is appropriate for your needs, financial situation and investment objectives.

In our second episode, Ben sits down with Cosmo Jiang (Twitter & LinkedIn), Founder and General Partner of Nova River. Nova River is a web3 crypto investment fund that conducts deep research and takes a fundamental, long-term thesis-driven approach to underwriting investment opportunities with the goal of compounding capital on a multi-year time horizon. In this show we discuss: - Cosmo’s path to founding Nova River - The application of traditional investing frameworks in crypto - Different token types and what they represent - Themes and projects that Cosmo is most excited about - & much more Enjoy this episode with Cosmo of Nova River! Timestamps 2:15 What is the origin of Nova River? 3:11 What is your background? 6:00 Did you evaluate blockchains at Hitchwood? 8:50 Transitioning to the Crypto world 13:10 How have you accelerated your learning to understand the technical merits of projects? 16:00 What was it like to launch a digital asset fund? 20:01 How did you develop your strategy for Nova River? 26:50 Where do you see tokens going in the future? 34:04 What novel type of analysis are you doing for Tokens? 38:45 What sectors of crypto are you most excited about? 43:03 Where do you see NFTs going in the future? 45:23 What can we do with NFT-based loyalty points? 46:58 What is something you do outside crypto that is of value to you? 49:01 What positive things about crypto are you saying to your investors? Resources Mentioned Nova River Hitchwood Capital Management Polygon Blockchain Starbucks Odyssey NFT Helium ($HNT) Connect with the guest Cosmo Jiang https://mobile.twitter.com/cosmo_jiang Nova River https://mobile.twitter.com/novariverxyz Disclaimer This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. Any advice and information on this podcast is general only, and has been prepared without taking into account your particular circumstances and needs. Before acting on any advice on this podcast you should assess or seek advice on whether it is appropriate for your needs, financial situation and investment objectives.

In the inaugural episode of Scenius Studio, I am joined by NiMA and Anthony Avedissian of Seed Club Ventures. In this conversation, we discuss the novel structure of Seed Club Ventures as well as the Venture DAO's investment focus at the intersection of Community and Web3. We dive into some early indicators of investment success and why they believe the Seed Club Ventures model is optimally suited for investing in web3.  I hope you enjoy this episode with NiMA and Anthony of Seed Club Ventures! Timestamps 2:15 What are your backgrounds? 7:05 What is the origin story of Seed Club Ventures? 14:07 What is your position within Seed Club Ventures? 19:50 What are the complexities of the investment club model that SCV adopted? 24:40 What is the investment thesis of Seed Club Ventures? 29:10 What makes a project appealing to you? 35:15 How did Seed Club Ventures find Stability AI? 41:20 What projects in your portfolio are you excited about? 45:24 What is the thing you do outside of crypto that is most valuable to your work? 47:10 Where can people find out more about you? Resources Mentioned Scenius Capital https://www.scenius.capital/ Seed Club Ventures https://www.seedclub.xyz/ Stable Diffusion https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release Try image creation with AI https://www.mage.space/ Guild https://guild.xyz/ How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone The Power Law: Venture Capital Connect with the guest Nima https://twitter.com/insidenima Anthony https://twitter.com/antavedissian Seed Club Ventures https://twitter.com/seedclubvc Disclaimer This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. Any advice and information on this podcast is general only, and has been prepared without taking into account your particular circumstances and needs. Before acting on any advice on this podcast you should assess or seek advice on whether it is appropriate for your needs, financial situation and investment objectives.