Does Venture Capital Investment Violate the Ethos of Crypto? Sequoia Says No - Ep. 367
Shaun Maguire and Michelle Bailhe, partners at Sequoia, discuss their long term view and thesis about crypto, what do they look for to invest in a crypto project, the takeaways from the blowup of Terra, the insolvency of crypto companies, and much more. Show highlights:
- what is Sequoia’s long term view and thesis about the crypto industry
- how different our lives will look in 20 years from now due to blockchain technology
- how Sequoia had to adapt to invest in this new asset class and what are the similarities and differences with investing in traditional startups
- when a product or service on the internet should be offered in a decentralized or centralized way
- how Sequoia decides whether to invest in the entity behind a project or in the tokens
- whether having venture capitalists involved at all goes against the ethos of decentralization
- why Shaun believes that Ethereum proved that decentralization can be achieved even when you start being centralized
- whether people underestimate the value that VCs can add to a project
- why Shaun believes that Solana is moving towards decentralization
- Sequoia’s thesis about privacy in crypto and the potential of zero-knowledge proofs
- how Michelle sees the macroeconomic environment impacting crypto and whether this cycle is different from the previous ones
- the importance of product market fit in crypto projects
- what crypto projects should be focusing on and the business model they should be pursuing
- the main takeaways of the Terra collapse and how it was a major setback for algo stablecoins
- how crypto founders should always do the right thing even though there is no clear regulation
- whether SBF is the Berkshire Hathaway of crypto today
- the lessons to be learned from the potential insolvency of some crypto lenders and investment firms
- how demand for blockspace will keep increasing and whether a single blockchain could supply all that space
- the future of the metaverse and how it can be defined
- Michelle’s mental model for crypto and the phases for achieving worldwide adoption
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance/
Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/
EPISODE LINKS
Shaun Maguire:
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shaunmmaguire
- Sequoia Profile: https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/shaun-maguire/
Michelle:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/michellebailhe
- Sequoia Profile: https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/michelle-bailhe/
- Michelle’s investment thesis: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/ask-not-wen-moon-ask-why-moon/
Bear Market:
- Michelle’s Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/michellebailhe/status/1526373378516365312?s=20&t=c7vdmdg2mnQ34rsAGIm0lg
- Insolvency of crypto lenders:
- Voyager: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/22/voyager-digital-requests-loan-repayment-from-3ac-considers-issuing-default-notice/
- BlockFi: https://decrypt.co/103422/blockfi-secures-250-million-line-of-credit-from-ftx
- Celsius: https://www.theblock.co/linked/151522/crypto-lending-firm-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-and-transfers-citing-market-conditions
- Celsius possible bankruptcy: https://www.theblock.co/linked/154100/crypto-lender-celsius-hires-more-advisors-ahead-of-possible-bankruptcy-wsj
- Previous Unchained Coverage:
- Why Possible Insolvencies by Celsius and 3AC Could Spell Disaster for Crypto: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-possible-insolvencies-by-celsius-and-3ac-could-spell-disaster-for-crypto/
- Cobie and Chris Burniske on How to Navigate a Crypto Bear Market: https://unchainedpodcast.com/cobie-and-chris-burniske-on-how-to-navigate-a-crypto-bear-market-ep-354/
** For more episode links and details visit the Unchained website **
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.
Choose Template
Pick the result you want. You can review provider and model before generating.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Scientific findings, mechanisms, studies, hypotheses, and the limits of the evidence discussed.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
Investment theses, assets, catalysts, valuation reasoning, time horizons, and risks.
Chronologies, actors, causes, consequences, turning points, and competing historical interpretations.
Policies, proposals, stakeholders, arguments, implementation constraints, and predicted effects.
Career paths, skills, hiring signals, workplace decisions, transitions, and limitations of the advice.
Behavioral mechanisms, biases, motivation, habits, emotions, interventions, and evidence limitations.
Economic mechanisms, incentives, indicators, market structure, forecasts, and uncertainty.
Leadership principles, team systems, organizational design, culture, feedback, and failure modes.
Audience, positioning, messaging, acquisition, retention, experiments, metrics, and failed approaches.
Teaching methods, learning strategies, practice, feedback, assessment, and effectiveness evidence.
Theses, premises, arguments, objections, values, thought experiments, and unresolved questions.
Communication patterns, conflict, boundaries, expectations, repair methods, and contextual limitations.
Books, papers, authors, courses, and other learning resources mentioned in the episode.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Memorable statements and important claims with attribution and source context.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.