009. joining a16z crypto

My sophomore, I was all for it, they all saw it
My junior and senior will only get meaner
—Drake, “The Ride”

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It’s longggg overdue, but the day has finally arrived. I’m going all in on crypto. 

I couldn’t imagine a better time to go all in than less than a month into a crypto bear market and a US economic recession looming on the horizon. The hype has settled, the noise has quieted, and the hysteria is gone—so are many of the web3 tourist investors. While recent interest in the space may be down, web3 is at a particularly unique point with its 4th price-innovation cycle because this time around, so much of the fundamental infrastructure has already been built. Today, core blockchain primitives that took years to build and begin scaling have matured enough to lay a strong foundation for builders and developers to create the next generation of applications and experiences that will bring web3 to the rest of the world. 

Still, as my friend Zach recently pointed out, an overwhelming majority of applications and experiences across web3 have been built with the ‘crypto native’ user in mind. Web3 won’t start to achieve its true potential until apps are built for everyone else, the 99%; until then, the average consumer will continue looking at most of us crypto enthusiasts like we’re crazy. I’ve spent the past year at Maven Ventures trying to bridge that gap, and nothing in the world of technology is more exciting to me than the opportunity to advance web3 and bring crypto to millions of consumers in meaningful ways.

That’s why I’m thrilled to join the investing team at a16z crypto as a partner to invest in and collaborate with the best founders building in web3. If you’ve seen what we’ve been up to the past couple weeks, it’s easy to understand why I’m so excited.

A few areas of consumer crypto I’m most excited about include:

• self-sovereign identity & data

• decentralized production models of creative mediums (music, fashion, art, etc.)

• social applications & on-ramps

• communication tools

• NFTs (conditional ownership, rental protocols, NFTs as productive assets, NFTs as “toys,” pricing mechanisms/analytics)

• privacy

If you’re building in any of these spaces or in crypto x consumer more broadly, my DMs are wide open and I can’t wait to chat.

For more on web3—where we’ve been, where we’re at, where we're heading, and why the hell it’s so important—check out our 2022 State of Crypto Report.

👨🏾‍💻👨🏾‍💻

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Last but not least, I can’t thank my colleagues at Maven Ventures enough for teaching me the in’s and out’s of early-stage investing over the past 2 years. Thank you to all of the founders and operators I’ve had the pleasure of investing in and collaborating with these last 2 years, especially those building in web3. Maven is currently hiring an associate to join their team so if investing in visionary founders building seed-stage consumer software startups sounds like something you’d love to do, hurry your ass up and apply.