April 14, 2022
I am thrilled to share that I have expanded my role at Chapter One, a web3 native venture capital firm, as their first Venture Partner on the investment team. I have been a scout since September 2021 working on deal flow and sourcing investments. Chapter One’s investment team is led by Jeff Morris Jr. and Menelaos Mazakaris. My transition from a scout to venture partner will entail contributing to a robust DeFi investment strategy that combines Chapter One’s focus on accessibility through product and design as well as community building.
Investing and helping founders has always been a passion of mine and I am excited to continue this journey with Chapter One while I remain a founder and a core contributor focused on business development initiatives for Rari Capital at the Tribe DAO.
How I got here
I have been working in the DeFi ecosystem since 2016 and have always admired founders akin to me. Over the last six years I have supported many projects through integrations and partnerships, while also strategizing with teams surrounding tokenomics, strategy and user growth. I also have a significant amount of experience leading business development and community management for a protocol and broader DAO.
In high school I worked on a mobile wallet called Ambo with some of my closest friends. After several years of working together and building out the mobile application we were acquired by MyCrypto where I led business development. My time at both Ambo and MyCrypto taught me how to build products for mobile users and cater to the mainstream world by building a bridge between people’s phones, their banks and the world of ERC-20 trading. One of the major initiatives that I led was user education and the onboarding experience while also building relationships with external DeFi protocols.
In 2020 I moved to my next venture called Rari Capital. I was inspired to start Rari Capital because I saw an evolution in the way finance and technology intersected with one another and recognized how important building products for the masses was to bring the now non-crypto natives into the world of crypto and make web3 a part of everyone’s lives. Over the last two years I have focused extensively on Rari Capital and committed to build relationships with protocols, DAOs and other ecosystem partners. A core product that has been built within the DAO is Fuse, a decentralized and permissionless open interest rate protocol, that currently holds over $1B in total value locked.
A recent noteworthy investment of mine as a scout at Chapter One was our involvement in the ShapeShift DAO treasury diversification. We invested alongside Coinbase to purchase and secure success tokens created by UMA to support the long-term growth of ShapeShift and the products they are building.
What role I will play as a Venture Partner
As a Venture Partner I will be working closely with the investment team to continue building out Chapter One’s DeFi presence. Additionally, I will be working with the Chapter One team to build out a founder experience offering financial and strategic support to the best and brightest DeFi founders.
I look forward to meeting and supporting many more founders as they build the future of decentralized finance and the digital economy that is taking web3 by storm.
Themes that continue to inspire me and that I will focus on include: DeFi accessibility and user experience, liquidity efficiency, community building, fostering network effects and tokenomics. These will be critical pillars for future DeFi protocols as I continue my DeFi journey at Chapter One while still remaining a core component of the Rari Capital team.
Reach out, seriously!
I am always looking to meet new people and help share my perspective as a DeFi founder. If you have an idea or already have built something revolutionary please reach out to me at: jack@chapterone.com or Twitter @JackLipstone and let’s chat!
LFG,
Jack Lipstone