"Can't Be Done"

The most popular criticism of the crypto space is its lack of stability. What if you could solve for volatility, leveraging a decentralized stablecoin to mitigate the risk associated with a cryptocurrency portfolio? And how would a market risk manager from the traditional finance and investment industry assess the current risk profile of the blockchain space? Steven Becker is the President and COO...

While the rules of traditional marketing are clearly defined, marketing in the cryptocurrency space is a whole new ballgame. How do you approach promotion in a decentralized market? What are the best strategies for driving traffic to your site and building a strong community around your brand? Jordan Spence is the CMO of MyCrypto, an open-source, client-side tool for interacting with the blockchai...

Building a blockchain startup is hard enough. How do you educate the market around the technology itself? How do you communicate the business case for your product? But if you’re really looking for a challenge, build a company with a focus on innovation in the healthcare space—an industry notoriously slow to adopt advanced technology! Katherine Kuzmeskas is the founder and CEO of SimplyVital Healt...

When you’re building a startup, it is easy to get caught up in creating the product itself and assume that the technology is the most important thing. But Jacob Hansen argues that an early focus on users is necessary in finding product/market fit. And as your company grows, attracting the right talent becomes just as important as the technology itself. Jacob is the co-founder and CEO of Cobalt, a...

‘Who has the power of the internet? Does the power lie in the hands of a few centralized companies? Or does it lie in the hands of users and communities?’ We all know the answer here. Though the web initially gave authority to its users, the pendulum has swung the other way. Now there are four companies with all the data and all the power, and many would argue that they are using it in questionabl...

Do you know how a former lumberjack becomes the founder of and leader of the largest crypto hedge fund? Listen to this episode of The Boost VC podcast where Adam Draper talks to Olaf Carlson-Wee the founder of Polychain and one of Boost VC's portfolio companies, about starting the first ever crypto hedge fund, and how he now manages more than $250m in assets.

“Venture capital, to me, is a way that we can raise money to help entrepreneurs who can go out there and do something for the world that just opens it up. I am always pushing for freedom, and I think it’s great to see venture capital be able to support entrepreneurs—wherever they are—to go out there and do something extraordinary for freedom.” Tim Draper is the founding partner of Draper Associate...

‘There’s definitely some teams that are using [ICOs] and are able to fund their ideas better and more easily than the traditional VC way of doing things, but there’s just too many bad actors that just want a get rich quick scheme.’ Charlie Lee created Litecoin in 2011 while he was working as software engineer for Google. Litecoin is ‘the silver to Bitcoin’s gold,’ functioning as a peer-to-peer cry...

When problems don’t affect us directly, they are easy to ignore. But if we create a connection with the people who ARE impacted and truly understand the consequences of our own action (or inaction), that’s when we start to care. What if we leveraged the immersive experience of virtual reality to establish empathy for marginalized groups? What if VR could give people the agency to take action and s...

If you want to work in the cryptocurrency or fintech space, there is no doubt that Silicon Valley is the place to be in terms of access to opportunity, financing and a network of peers. But what if your home country happens to be an emerging market like South Africa? What is it like to be part of a foreign national startup in the San Francisco Bay Area? And how do you effectively manage a distribu...

We’re familiar with product/market fit, but have you ever considered product/person fit? Having empathy for the end user is what differentiates the companies that design technology for the benefit of humans from those that are simply out to make a profit. So, how do we design AI, VR and AR products that promote social good—and truly change people’s lives? Sean White is the Chief R&D Officer fo...

What’s different about the decentralized business model of a company like Coinbase? Why do they measure success based on customer experience? And how do they find the best talent with the right mindset to join the Coinbase team? John Yi is the Group Product Manager for Services at Coinbase, a digital currency platform where merchants and consumers can transact with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, E...

‘The closer you get to 50/50 polarizing, the more viral you’re likely to go.’ Ameen Soleimani is the master of branding, coining terms for his blockchain startup like SpankBank and Booty call. Working with the porn industry lends itself to polarizing branding, but why does Ameen think porn also happens to be the most practical application of crypto technology? Ameen is the co-founder and CEO of Sp...

What if every individual had the ability to invest in their community? Dan Finlay sees a future in which the blockchain allows us all to function as venture capitalists, investing in the people we trust in our social networks, using our social collateral to back the things we truly believe in. Dan is a software developer and product lead at MetaMask, a bridge to the distributed web. The platform a...

Esteban Ordano believes that decentralization is key to mitigating the risk that comes with digital communication, and his work uses VR to return our sense of immediacy, to recreate the personal connections that will lead to what he calls a ͚Renaissance of humanity.͛ So, what does the world look like at this intersection of virtual reality and cryptocurrency? Esteban is the founder and CTO of Dece...

So many ICOs, so few products on the market. One of the rare startups that has managed to launch a decentralized product is Golem Network. Golem runs on the same principle as Airbnb, leveraging the sharing economy of decentralized tech to connect many computers in a peer-to-peer network. The same way that Airbnb hosts mobilize their unused resources (i.e.: spare bedrooms) to generate income, Golem...

Only a handful of investment firms were brave enough to enter the crypto space back in the early 2010’s. Those pioneers have witnessed quite an evolution in the blockchain space, and they have gone from being the black sheep of venture capital to enjoying a red-carpet experience with every hedge fund manager on Wall Street. Paul Veradittakit is a Partner with Pantera Capital, a leading investment...

The startups that become really big, really fast are capitalist mutations or ‘Thunder Lizards’ that force the world to react to their agenda. Their founders refuse to accept the world as is and write their own rules, rather than conforming to the systems in place. This is how VC Mike Maples identifies the entrepreneurs he wants to support, the Prime Movers he can serve as not just an investor but...

‘I wanted to play with Barbies, but I also loved smashing up a computer and learning about silicon chips.’ Despite growing up in a tech savvy, entrepreneurial family, Jesse Draper didn’t see herself as a venture capitalist for a long time because ‘that’s not what women do.’ So, how do we level the playing field and get girls to see themselves in roles as startup founders, investors and board membe...

Imagine having a private band or orchestra talented enough to extemporaneously compose, orchestrate and perform the soundtrack to your life, adjusting to the environment or your emotions in real time? Better yet, what if YOU had the ability to create audio content that would adapt to any given situation in an immersive space? Ryan Groves is an award-winning music researcher and veteran developer o...

How did the top icons in science, technology, entrepreneurship, entertainment, literature, and business launch their careers? What qualities do people like Maya Angelou, Warren Buffet and Pitbull have in common that helped them overcome immense challenges and rise to the top of their respective fields? The answer lies in gaining access through ‘the third door.’ As a freshman in college, Alex Banay...

Sending a cold email to a reporter who has never heard of you is not the best way to get media coverage for your startup. But how do we figure out which publication is the best fit for the story we have to tell? How do we play the game of relationships that leads to positive press? How do we pinpoint and pitch a story worth telling—one that is bigger than ourselves? Teddy Schleifer is a Senior Rep...

While the internet has been ground-breaking in terms of connecting people to information, it has done a poor job of connecting us to each other. Stories of fake news and harassment are widespread, and the anonymity of the platform allows individuals to curate a persona very different from who they are in real life. By contrast, virtual reality translates our mannerisms and voices, providing a shar...

Philip Rosedale believes that virtual reality is a world-saving undertaking, but its current single-player use cases separate us from each other rather than bringing us together. And he is on a mission to develop the VR technology that will create shared spaces where people connect in real-time, to ‘get people in a room together.’ Philip is the Co-Founder and CEO of High Fidelity, a San Francisco-...

Crypto is no longer a dirty word in DC, and we have the Chamber of Digital Commerce to thank for that shift in sentiment. Established in 2014, this nonprofit represents companies in the blockchain space, fighting on Capitol Hill for a better regulatory framework that will allow innovation to thrive in this country. Perianne Boring is the Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, th...