Investing in Diverse Founders Jenny Cheng Alexis Johnson Kevin Valentine Etiënne Vantkruys Ciara Sun

[Music] foreign thank you right now [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thanks everybody for tuning in uh to this panel very very excited to host this panel as moderator basically have my friends here as panelists so yeah very very excited looking forward to it I figured we'd get started by doing some quick introductions I'll start Alexis Johnson president of light known media we focus on advisory marketing and events for projects in the web 3 space separately I run an investment Network for professional athletes and entertainers called Legends investment Network hi everyone I'm Kevin Valentine I'm partner at uh office Lair we're a web 3 early stage Venture fund we also incubate some companies from technology that we incubate in-house and I'm just excited to be on this panel and and really dive into something that I think is a really important topic especially you know given the way that crypto started uh and really focusing on you know banking the unbanked um that was like a really strong theme and um I'd like to see us get back to that and I think we get back to that through investing in emerging markets and diverse founders hi everyone Sierra founder of c-square Ventures we are a early stage web 3 Venture fund uh funded actually just last year prior to founding c-square Ventures I was had a listing and investment at 12 B group also managing the global markets and institutional business unit and prior to that I was doing consulting interracial Finance very excited to be here and to be on this panel hey guys I'm Jenny from Anna mocha I'm currently VP of Investments uh so animal Adventures is the official vcrm of Anna mocha Group which is a notable investor in web 3 especially in blockchain gaming as well as entertainment and IP hi everyone welcome to Cole Denver my name is from trgc it's my fourth uh e Denver happy to see it growing every year I'm the managing partner of trgc early stage Venture fund and we're hardcore focus on infrastructure whatever makes these Network function from day to day that's uh where we find our sweet spot foreign okay thank you for uh the introductions let's get started first question for everybody here how has your um you know investment thesis and really your overall Focus changed given the current market conditions starting with Etienne um I guess what you're asking about it comes down to discipline right um our focus and thesis didn't change one bit for this Market we're still deploying we feel like even more is a lot of uh incredible teams building incredible products that need funding they're underpriced undervalued and we want to scoop them up early and we want to support them take them to Market or help them execute on their roadmap goals so it hasn't changed um matter of fact we slowed down investing in um Q4 21 as you were seeing 25 year olds flying to conferences and private jets it was time for us to exit I think for us um the market goes up and down so but our core thesis has never really changed we're a very fundamental investors we believe in backing Innovation backing on strong Founders and I think our core thesis is how to onboard the next million users onto blockchain and we believe that would be through gaming through entertainment and um as extension of that we're also looking for better infrastructure as well as middleware to kind of Empower that transition um so first start start with our Seasons we are sector Gnostic and we prefer to putting the check early and really grow as the team and provide our operation act expertise for how to build our token tokenomics listening strategies secondary Market strategies and how to build a well-rounded Community for the token and help the token go to market alongside with the team's product go to market and I'd say given current market condition what happened you know all of the incident happened last year it gave us towns opportunity to see new D5 protocols to capture the market share that's left you know FTX or other centralized Asset Management platforms so that I think in the future either is going to be like decentralized exchanges with aggregate liquidity and order book experiences for institutions to really have a seamless trading experiences or it's just fully regulated exchanges like a coinbase or you know hash key just recently got the Hong Kong exchange license um so we are looking at more products and products protocols to fix the problem for onboarding institutions with a decentralized trading experiences I would say that you know going back to what hn said there's no change if you're a disciplined investor I think especially if you're an investor that has seen several technology Cycles the prices go up and down the valuations go up and down the you know the hype of the tech you know will move from speculative to over glorified to reality and so for us and I think all investors it's an opportunity to invest at a lower cost basis um but I think that right now I think it's it's a great time to find people who are actually building regardless of the hype um and that I think that that's just a natural evolution of any emerging technology sector um and so you know you can look at internet you can look at AI um and just think about how all of those Technologies were hyped uh and then what we ended up getting at the end of those those hide Cycles were the unicorns right and so you have to be investing during these you know sort of times where I guess everybody else is scared um you know sort of the blood in the street analogy I wish there was a less violent one right but you know if you have um investors that are afraid to invest uh then they're like it's just consensus thinking and I think that really good investors are thinking contrarily um and so that's what you know how I feel about it awesome and and next question for everybody but starting with you Kevin at avicer like what narratives and Trends are you guys most excited about well I think there are several um you know since we're talking about Emerging Markets I I think anything related to defy um in to enable Financial Services in areas where you know either there isn't traditional infrastructure or any way to be able to create markets around assets that were you know currently illiquid or less transparent or has poor pricing models um and so generally we're excited there I think just you know if you take a walk around you'll see there are a lot of D5 uh projects here um but on the other end of that I'm really excited about infrastructure I think infrastructure gives us you know sort of that abstraction of the technology that allows you know anyone to be able to not know there is you know a ZK proof or you know a roll-up or whatever it is that's that's in the background you just need the technology to work right sort of similar to like you know I don't really need to know how a CDMA chip works for my mobile phone I just need to pick it up call right and so those those sorts of plays I think are the ones that are most exciting and I think that those are like also Revenue generating ones um and I think that that's something that is a self-sustainable business as opposed to uh you know coping on the speculation of a token um you know exclusively um so I think the next ball marker is uh what um the condition for is to really come back um to two different things first is capital and second users so for users we look at Mass adoptions um protocols so that's why we invest heavily into gaming social file and other application layers that can really onboard and Bridge users from web to world to web3 and then for Capital we're also looking at a new D5 um just like you know what I talked about in the last question right so um protocols they can they can use Smart contract to increase the efficiency transparency and security for traditional financial institutions to come into the market those are the areas that we are focusing on so two examples first is options trading international finance is supposed to be 10 times bigger than derivatives of buying crypto is reversed right so it is a big Market there so that we look happily into the options trading sectors and then second would be interest rate swap internet of Finance derivatives are interest rates is supposed to be a 450 trillion um US Dollars Market where in crypto as is just purely missing so we are we're also looking at those protocols for example we invested in Iowa racing launched doing great capture a lot of the markets right there targeting for traditional institutions to come into rt5 from our side uh definitely gaming is something that we are consistently looking at and within gaming the SLG category is something that we're extremely bullish on because it has a lot it has a quite a big Market it's a very um special type of game I think that's very good for blockchain adoption it doesn't need a lot of users because each user has a very high arpu and it comes with an in-game economy that's uh that works well with tokens that is open and another apart from gaming we're also quite bullish on anime5 because actually the anime industry is a 25 billion dollar industry that's waiting to be disrupted um and in within the anime Community they have has had years of trends of community crowd funding their favorite IPS and that eventually becomes a huge IP but these fans put up their own Capital it's kind of like a donation and I think only blockchain technology and smart contract can kind of help them capture the value that's what's only open to very professional and selected investors interesting um from a narrative angle what excites us is uh from infrastructure is cloud cloud storage better wallets um interconnectivity I've seen for instance um bridge is getting better we might be bullish on D5 any given moment of the day but without liquidity or users um we're just building for 10 year if you look at projects like Beamer or Hub protocol uh they're doing great work in making it impossible to seemingly execute our orders across chains so those are areas that uh we feel that are only going to get better um and secondly I think uh security cyber security in general is still an underserved Market I feel like our industry is too complacent um it's a daily hack almost and we just shrug it off and order the next latte so I feel like white hackers uh anything with security related needs definitely more attention and we're making sure um we play our parts in that awesome so yeah next question is more focused on you know the opportunities within Emerging Markets you know in your guys opinion like have you guys started to oh yeah directly have you guys started to deploy into emerging markets and are are there any specific regions that are on your radar more so than other regions starting with Kevin yes so we have deployed in Emerging Markets uh and I think that when you start to look at some of the deals that have happened in Africa over the uh past year you've seen the number of unicorns um starting to grow it's just you know numbers right so by 2050 one in four people on this planet will be African right and then the rest of the population will be you know southeast Asia et cetera right so deploying in markets that are growing that those provide the opportunity for asymmetric returns so we've deployed in Latin America um we've uh we employed well one of our Founders is African um and so we're also heavily focused on um participating in that ecosystem as well so um investing in Emerging Markets come with loss of risks right so it's regular regulation risks it's not very stable and also currency um it's very volatile um but we constantly look at different opportunities in the emerging markets for example in Southeast Asia you know uh game gaming web3 game five uh kind of started there right with XC was ygg it kind of changed um the fundamental ways for the residents there to to make money and you know like a dollar or two it doesn't make it make a difference in the States but it can change their lives in the Philippines um so we uh you know Becca hobby I was early stage founder investors in in ygg in the axi so I saw how they it can really Revolution and make make revolutions happens in those countries so we are constantly looking at deals gaming related social related so um Mass adoptions for users for application layers in Southeast Asia and also we are looking at deals such as exchanges payments in countries like turkey and Russia and overall very bullish about Asia markets um next cycle uh our portfolio is also quite Global and we're also um very early investors into axi and ygg um we think that there's a lot of really great setups in these emerging countries especially in Asia because of the sheer size of the population and these population serves as a big enough time and that actually in these emerging Nations the amount of time people spend online is much higher than developed Nations is usually the north of more than 10 hours so I think it makes sense for digital livelihood a digital economy to be spun out of that and another uh good thing about these nations is that there's a lot of talents at a much lower cost versus uh other parts of the world um and I think this is a very kind of beneficial for startups as looking for high quality Talent interesting um Emerging Markets I think if you step back for a second um anything in itself can be a emerging markets and I'll give you two examples we're reviewing a deal for instance in a Founder in Kenya um where in the payment space remittance space with instant settlement over the Bitcoin Network um but if you step back for a second um even the US it's in my opinion one of the largest emergent markets think of Housing and Healthcare right what can we do there right so I feel like um emerging in a sense means go where uh no one else is looking or there's not enough not a lot of competition and have The Bold and The Thesis the team the partners to be able to execute on that um so that's that's the way I want to think about it it's um it's a lot of influx for instance in capital we've seen in Lagos Nigeria China mentioned turkey for instance um and we saw recent data turkey being one of the largest uh volume wise for exchanges uh and it just blew my mind more than the majority of most European countries um so indeed if you look deeper under the surface and look Beyond um typical cliche narratives um there's definitely opportunity there across this planet yeah and next question you know starting with Kevin when it comes to your portfolio like can you highlight any specific diverse Founders whether it be women Latin American what have you and then you know why is it important to back diverse Founders in this industry so we have several uh diverse Founders in our portfolio so you know I guess African Americans um Latin Americans um Chinese uh Nationals uh you know um as well as Africans um they're actually two Africans who met at University here in at uh Princeton um but I I think the why in terms of just like why invest in diverse Founders is all right let's just start with like if this is finance then portfolio optimization and that should be what you're thinking about in terms of like how you go about managing the money that you've been you know given stewardship over so we invest in you know Founders that are smart um ambitious and I don't see how you know what their militant content of their again would have anything to do with you know their intellectual capacity to be able to come up with a great idea and I think it's just smart business if you're only swimming in the same pools and you know shout out to anybody that went to Harvard or Stanford you know great for you especially if you earned it and you're not just like Legacy but that can't be the only place where great ideas come from it's just like 100 impossible um I went to historically black college I I think that was a great like pool of talent um and so it's just really just like good business to look outside of where everybody else is going back to that point about consensus and so yeah it's just the portfolio diversification and optimization in my eyes and I think it's you know about time that we start really supporting people that have great ideas and uh breaking down the barriers that we sort of like build in society which you know it usually has to do with what school you went to or what watch you're wearing or you know where you vacation Etc like so you know those things I think are really bad for business because you get the same type of individuals who just re-hypothecate ideas and in this case in this industry money so um I think you know those are reasons why I think it's really um you know important and then like I said I think it's just asymmetric returns you have to find you know places where there is less competition um to be able to invest and see a greater upside on your Investments um diversification is important it brings different perspectives on a table um I myself I'm a pretty diverse founder um you know female Asian um the reason I came into the web series space and quite international finance just you know in Wall Street as a young Asia female your ceiling is like very very obvious and there's one thing I really like about web3 and crypto it's very open-minded so at c-square Adventures we invested tons of deals that has diverse Founders so uh female Founders for example walkery that's the first bunch of each Bitcoin ETF that got approved in the states a Founder is a girl as Leah she's awesome during the whole time she set up the company getting the approval for ETF getting a company public listed on asset their whole time she was pregnant having a kid and feeding the kid it was like it was amazing she replies to my messages just like within seconds even like she's she's just a a very very strong female founder and other Founders as well like we support we support um uh Asia Founders um for example project Galaxy cyber connect um hn8 that's the deal that we uh we we call that was hash and dragonfly in Vietnam gaming infrastructure and we also support Founders that are representing lgbtq um I think that's pretty much the theme here as we see all the Rainbow Bridges here so if you're a diverse background founder come find us and we love to chat with you so our our portfolio is uh very Global and not only do we believe that diversity can really bring benefits and Innovations but we have seen that more diverse teams they actually uh come up with more new ideas and they ship faster so when we invest we really like teams that have people from different backgrounds uh beautiful I'm looking at two actually future portfolio companies and um I think my opinion on the matter is um let's let's agree that and I I talked to these Founders All the Time whether we invest in them or not let it be based on Merit become so good at what you do nothing and anyone can ignore you right what is good a Savvy resilient smart they know what they're doing they have that clear three-year four-year road map will get picked up I'm 100 confident of that and um that's the message we push um and we don't care if it's on mars or on Venus we are invest in anyone and um we we sincerely stick by that awesome as we're kind of like running out of time here I wanted to open it up to the audience to ask any of the panelists any question that you may have good to see you oh hi everybody hi panelists my name is President I found an impact and we program an advisor largest black LED digital Assets in the world are given Black History Month just um wrapped up and I know many of you are not from the states but black history month is when we celebrate the achievements and Legacy of African Americans I just want to know who is deliberately an intentional about investing and particularly uh the people that built America but have zero equity in the capital markets and my whole thesis and my passion is access the capital so the reality of it is is for those that don't know like being a black American and Descent of slaves in this country is like being treated very very badly and we have effectively zero percent of access to the institutional capital and I firmly believe that crypto and blockchain is the way from which we can catch up but I just want to hear more about your thoughts on particularly the the Black American community and just the black community in general and create access for us given that we built this land and have so little to show for it um first of all um based in Europe um so I don't feel like I have that much of an Intel as for for instance Kevin would have on how U.S is situated as a society right I could have my opinions of it anyone approached me after the uh the panel happy to chat about it me and president had a few interesting debates in Dubai three weeks ago and um so I feel like um history um as history changes and social standards change um changes are constant in nature right I spoke with a Founder yesterday they recently raised 50 million and he was born in the lowest caste in India right where ecstasy education was not even an option right so his parents didn't even have the benefits to go to school right it was they were born for literally clean toilets now his generation now they have access to education and he just is a professor at uh well-known U.S University and be able to raise their money so I feel like as social standards change um we're in good shape and I'm hopeful for the future awesome thanks everybody for um tuning in to the panel and if you have questions for panelists feel free to ask thanks again thank you [Applause] [Music]