“If you’re building in crypto, you are building a financial product – whether you like it or not. Everything becomes a capital asset, which means founders must be financially literate, not just technically strong.

You can’t think in zero-sum terms or traditional market share logic, because crypto is permissionless and driven by shared network effects. The founders who succeed understand that they’re helping grow an ecosystem, not just a company. Ownership, composability, and liquidity are not features, they are the foundation. Gaming, culture, RWAs, even education finance all converge here.

In 2026, the winning founders will be those who understand markets, communities, and capital flows as deeply as they understand product.”

“If you’re building in 2026, my advice is simple: trust yourself and play the long game. The best ideas are usually seen by very few people at the beginning, so you need conviction, and you need to ignore most of the noise, because this market is loud.

Focus on shipping product. Put something in front of users, get real feedback, and iterate fast. Investors are not your validation – users are. When it comes to fundraising, don’t optimize for a big valuation or a headline round. Raise what you actually need to hit the next milestone, and stay disciplined about dilution.

And before you commit years of your life, ask yourself the hard questions: why this problem, why now, and why you. That internal driver will carry you through the downs.”

“The one thing that founders don’t spend enough time on is talking about the team – why they’re the right team to do it, what the background is, and why they’re suited to tackling this opportunity. Usually the team slide is just one slide, and they don’t even spend much time talking about it.

But if you talk to most venture funds and you ask them what is the most important thing when you make an investment, every venture fund will tell you it is the founder and the team. Good founders and good teams, if they run into roadblocks or barriers, they will figure out a way to pivot.

The deck is the first filter, so the deck has to stand out and capture our attention very quickly.”

“Crypto is no longer about experimentation – it’s about building real businesses. At the early stage, we back founders first: people who are deeply motivated, commercially minded, and willing to run through walls to make the product work.

But passion alone is not enough. The next generation of winning companies will show clear product-market fit, real customers, and a credible path to free cash flow. Infrastructure is largely in place. What matters now is execution at the application layer, products that can reach millions of users, not just impress other builders.

The founders who succeed in 2026 will be those who understand both technology and business, who solve problems they personally understand, and who build with long-term conviction rather than chasing short-term narratives.”

“Simplifying the idea is key. A lot of decks are thirty pages of word salad, technical diagrams, and jargon, and people lose interest very quickly. What we want to see is what you’re building, where you’re at, how you’re going to get there, and who the team is.

Early-stage investing is not just about the idea – it’s about the founders. Everybody has ideas, but ideas are nothing without execution. Founders can pivot two, three, four times and still succeed, but they need a clear end goal.

Keep it simple, to the point where even your consumer understands what you’re doing.”

“The first piece of advice is build for real applications. Storytelling wouldn’t go long anymore. In the previous cycles many founders can raise big money with a few slides with beautiful stories. That wouldn’t go long.

Next cycle is about addressing real needs and building real applications. Secondly, they have to consider regulation and compliance in their business model. Like it or not, regulation is here to stay and play bigger roles. Actually we do need regulation to create a level playing field. 

And lastly work with big players like institutions. We need their help for mass adoption.”

“If you’re building for 2026, don’t build for the next cycle – build for the next decade. Markets will always be volatile, and narratives will come and go, but fundamentals compound.

Focus on a real problem, a clear user, and a product that people will still use when the hype disappears. Spend your time on team quality, execution, and distribution – not on short-term signaling. Be globally minded from day one, because the best Web3 companies are born international. And choose a path you can stay committed to: resilience matters more than speed.

If you keep building through the quiet periods, you’ll be there when the market turns.”

“The biggest thing that we filter on is really intrinsic motivation and long-term orientation. There are a lot of folks who come into crypto with short-term goals – we look to partner with the missionaries, not the mercenaries.

Raise money if you’re trying to build something you’re going to work on for the next five or ten years of your life. Build something and put it out there. Is there code? Is there something we can poke around with? It’s very low cost to start building in this space.

Having substance, even an MVP or proof of concept, definitely helps raise across the filter.”