WAGMI Ventures Podcast

Laszlo Szabo is the Co-Founder & CEO of Kiln (www.kiln.fi). Backed by Illuminate Financial, GSR, Kraken Ventures, and more, Kiln enables enterprise-grade staking made easy. In this episode we discuss their journey from the origins of Kiln to powering 2.1% of all ETH staked (thus far), including how they uncovered insights from their earliest customers to build out their offerings, the intricac...

Christoph Jentzsch is the Co-Founder & CEO at corpus.ventures (www.corpus.ventures). Christoph is a theoretical physicist who was one of the earliest developers on Ethereum, creator of The DAO (known for its hack in 2016), the founder of slock.it (one of the most exciting early Ethereum projects), and now, co-founder & CEO at corpus.ventures, a venture studio building in web3. In this epis...

Harrison Wang is the Co-Founder & CEO at Unblocked (onunblocked.com). Backed by Tiger Global, Marcy Venture Partners (Jay-Z’s venture fund), Dapper Labs, and more, Unblocked is at the forefront of producing blockchain-backed collectibles for your favorite communities. In this episode we discuss the virtues of “digital collectibles” vs. “NFTs” (in terms of name approachability), what’s attracti...

Michael Sanders is the Co-Founder & Chief Storyteller at Horizon (horizon.io). Backed by Polygon, Coinbase, Take Two Interactive (the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise), & more, Horizon is making blockchain gaming easy, fun, and powerful for users and developers to drive the adoption of web3 and its open, transparent and symbiotic economies. With 700k+ total wallets and 3.4M+ total...

Solal Afota is the Co-Founder of Notebook Labs (www.notebooklabs.xyz). Backed by Bain Capital Crypto & Y Combinator, Notebook Labs is working on decentralized, anonymous, and accountable identity on Web3—making web3 safer so it can become more universal. In this episode we discuss what zero-knowledge proofs enable for accountable identity (and potential near-to-medium-term applications), their...

Dillon Rosenblatt is the Co-Founder & CEO of Autograph (co-founded alongside Tom Brady) (www.autograph.io). Backed by Kleiner Perkins and a16z, and partnered with icons like Simon Biles, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods, Autograph is an NFT platform that brings together the iconic brands in sports and culture to create unique digital collections. In this episode we discuss the possibilities and fu...

Soups Ranjan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sardine (www.sardine.ai). Backed by a16z, Visa, and more, Sardine offers safer, faster payments by combining risk, compliance, and payment protection – all from one powerful API. In this episode we talk about his past work heading up Fraud & Risk for Coinbase (2015–2019), Sardine’s strategy of earning the opportunity to handle payments by solving fra...

Andrew Webber is the Founder & CEO of Digital Power Optimization (www.digitalpoweroptimization.com). DPO helps owners and developers of power assets secure more value for their energy. They combine their expertise in cryptocurrency mining with partner expertise in power generation — offering Cryptocurrency Mining as a Service (CMaaS) to energy companies. In this episode we discuss the market d...

Blake West is the Co-Founder & CTO of Goldfinch ( www.goldfinch.finance ). Backed by a16z, Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol that allows anyone to be a lender, not just banks. With ~$100m in active loan value at time of recording, Goldfinch is the clear leader in on-chain emerging market credit – aka, crypto lending meets real-world businesses. In this episode we discuss challenges...

Justin Gregorius is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pine Street Labs (www.pinestreetlabs.com). Backed by Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, Figment, and others, Pine Street Labs is an enterprise software company that services crypto companies, building products to help businesses use blockchains – starting with their flagship product called walletOS. In this episode we discuss their experience fundraising...

Raullen Chai is the Co-Founder of IoTeX Network (https://iotex.io/). Backed by Samsung Next, IoTeX is the leading decentralized network to power billions of machines at scale via machine economy (MachineFi) applications. In this episode we discuss the possibilities unlocked by bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) on-chain, their $100m fund working to back over 1,000 decentralized machine economy...

Michael Marra is the Founder & CEO of Entre ( www.joinentre.com ). Backed by Kube VC & angels like Dharmesh Shah (Co-Founder/CTO @ HubSpot), Entre is the fastest-growing online professional network of web3 professionals in the world. In this episode we discuss what’s missing with existing online professional networks like LinkedIn, how Entre bridges the gap between web2 and web3 for profes...

Chinmay Patel is the CEO of PERCS (www.getpercs.com). PERCS supercharges communities with NFTs. In this episode we discuss the recent announcement about Starbucks Odyssey (their NFT-powered loyalty program), what most companies get wrong about implementing token-gating, how PERCS helps companies like Playboy and Superplastic think about NFTs, and the upcoming launch of “degen.deals” (an exciting B...

Mike Lopez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cinder (www.cinder.io). Backed by Animoca Brands, Cinder is a blockchain-native gaming metaverse created by game industry veterans –as a crypto-native social hub, creative commons, and free-form MMO community, it’s evolving rapidly and empowering players in innovative new ways. In this episode we discuss why they minted on Solana, advice for blockchain gamin...

Neil Zhang is the Co-Founder of Frontrunner (www.getfrontrunner.com). Frontrunner is the first zero gas fee, decentralized sports prediction market built on blockchain where you get the best odds with no house edge. No limits, no restrictions, just your bets and your profits. In this episode we dig into the exciting vision and possibilities of Frontrunner, building on the Injective protocol, and b...

Shawn Douglass is the CEO of Amberdata (www.amberdata.io). Backed by Coinbase, Amberdata delivers comprehensive digital asset data and insights into blockchain networks, crypto markets, and decentralized finance, empowering financial institutions with critical data for research, trading, risk, analytics, reporting, and compliance. In this episode we discuss the unique challenges associated with ag...

John Linden is the CEO of Mythical Games (www.mythicalgames.com). Backed by a16z (and recently achieving unicorn status), Mythical Games is a game technology studio at the intersection of blockchain and games. In this episode we discuss his past work as Studio Head for the Call of Duty franchise, the past and future of blockchain gaming, what unique unlocks are enabled by web3 for games, and an an...

Ben Simpson is the Founder & CEO of Collective Shift (www.collectiveshift.io). Collective Shift’s mission is to democratize wealth and freedom through crypto to millions by giving investors and traders access to a suite of tools, expert daily insights, opportunity alerts, and a thriving community. In this episode we discuss Collective Shift’s unique insights underlying their education offering...

Aaron Rafferty & Martin Simms are the Co-Founders of StandardDAO (www.standarddao.finance). StandardDAO is all about supercharging, scaling, and securing the 3rd generation of the internet. In this episode we learn more about StandardDAO, discuss big-picture trends across web3, and hear advice for builders in web3. Recorded on Friday, August 5th, 2022.

Mriganka Pattnaik is the Co-Founder and CEO of Merkle Science (www.merklescience.com). Backed by Kraken Ventures, Beco Capital, and others, Merkle Science is a predictive Web3 risk & intelligence platform offering risk mitigation, compliance, and forensics for crypto-native businesses, DeFi participants, financial institutions & government agencies. In this episode we discuss some of the h...