1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Waikit Lau (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk a little bit about how you operate. If you put in $25,000 to $50,000, do you operate with a syndicate that would bring in the rest? Do you lead a syndicate? Do you follow into a syndicate?

Waikit Lau: It depends on what the entrepreneur wants and needs. They may say, “I’ve got no connections. I’m new to this, but I’ve got something really interesting.” I essentially help them either put together a syndicate where I run the syndicate or I introduce them to potential lead investors that I think would gel with them personality-wise. In a lot of cases, entrepreneurs already have their syndicates set or they have a lead investor. In which case, I’m just a follower. I’ll just write a check for myself.

In the cases where I have led or co-led, it runs the gamut. I have an AngelList syndicate where I’ve done deals where I run a few hundred thousand

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brock Pierce of Blockchain Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What about infrastructure in the developing world?

Brock Pierce: Access to capital is one of the main challenges that governments have around the world. They have to use their balance sheets to basically sign guarantees. With those guarantees, there are people who will lend to the groups that are building the infrastructure on behalf of these nations. Infra tech is a new fund that’s forming right now. It’s in the business of providing infrastructure by using new means of accessing capital.

Capital formation is changing greatly right now. That is due to Blockchain enabling peer-to-peer financing both at the micro-level as well as the >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Waikit Lau (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Waikit Lau was recorded in June 2018.

Waikit Lau, investor and serial entrepreneur, has a refreshingly open attitude towards investing in very early stage companies. Wonderful conversation.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a little bit about what you have been up to so our audience gets to know you and your background. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brock Pierce of Blockchain Capital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s double-click down on each of those categories. Give us some examples of ventures that you have invested in that particularly stand out as great examples of leveraging Blockchain to address one or the other of your two categories.

Brock Pierce: I started Blockchain Capital back in 2013. It was the first venture fund in this sector back then. I’ll use one example. I think we’ve invested in over 70 Blockchain companies. I still am the most active venture investor in the ecosystem. There are now plenty of funds doing this. I’m always going to where the market is going and what is needed most. I consider myself a servant.

Abra is a very interesting one. The founder is a very experienced fintech entrepreneur having built multiple companies. Abra is taking advantage of >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brock Pierce of Blockchain Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Given that is your high level hypothesis, where are the investment opportunities for venture investment that you are particularly excited about?

Brock Pierce: We’re about 10 years in where the internet was in the mid to late 90’s. Keep in mind that internet wasn’t useful until you had a sufficient amount of infrastructure. You need the bridges, the roads, the tunnels. The internet wasn’t useful to most people until you had internet browsers, email clients, and a sufficient amount of content to consume. Blockchain is now entering that phase where we have the infrastructure that can help begin to scale.

The first 10 years has really been about infrastructure. Not that infrastructure is not an important category but we’re now entering the phase where >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kelly Perdew of Moonshots Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What is the metric that you look for?

Kelly Perdew: We publish that we like to see companies that have $50,000 to $100,000 of monthly recurring revenue which translates into $600,000 to $1.2 million in ARR. The companies that we’ve invested in have been at $1 million and growing. That’s the rule. There are exceptions to every rule. We want to see that. What gets interesting though is we have to do a whole lot with the financials because your definition of recurring revenue and my definition of recurring revenue might differ.

We just want to be on the same page with the definition of what that is. When you’re talking about clients that are small and medium-sized businesses, they may only spend money every quarter. It also depends on what vertical they’re in. Being able to separate that and understand churn >>>

408th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Kara Weber, Brilliant Ventures

Kara Weber, Founder General Partner at Brilliant Ventures, speaks extensively about her commitment to female founders.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brock Pierce of Blockchain Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Brock Pierce was recorded in September 2018.

Brock Pierce, Co-Founder of Blockchain Capital, discusses his worldview of the Blockchain investment opportunity. Brock is one of the pioneers of investing in Blockchain companies.

Sramana Mitra: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your various activities. I know you’re an expert in Bitcoin, crypto, and Blockchain. You invest outside of those segments as well. Give us an overview of what you are up to. >>>