@bentossell Fundamental technology skills (computer science, data analytics, etc) and acquisition of soft-skills (leadership, empathy, storytelling, etc), while reading as much as possible on topics I was interested in. This is true for all stages of a career probably.

The specific areas that I think are interesting are AI/ML, crypto, life sciences & voice.

@bentossell You're not "buying" - you're "investing."

You make decisions to buy things without much information on daily basis. You almost never make investment decisions without information. Crypto is no different.

@wakefield00 Ben Smith gave me two pieces of advice when I moved to Silicon Valley:

1. Keep your personal burn rate as low as possible to preserve optionality.
2. You will be rewarded more for taking big swings at hard problems, than having small successes.

I didn't fully appreciate the quality of this advice at the time but routinely share it with others on weekly basis.

@nvs Every team should adhere to the strictest guidelines possible (AML/KYC). The risk outweighs the reward if regulators disagree with your interpretation of the law. There are platforms that are making it easier for teams to do this (CoinList, Templum, tZero, Polymath, etc) so shouldn't be that big of a hassle moving forward.

@some_day_man Both are interesting experiments. No clue if they work but I commend both governments for trying something new. It will be interesting to see if citizens buy into participating in centralized token models that are run by the very governments that they are potentially weary of.

@Jyannos I think that most hard assets in the world will be tokenized at some point. The first areas I'm interested in are (1) investing in tokenized securities of companies (which I believe to be more beneficial for founders & investors) and (2) investing in tokenized securities backed by hard assets (cash-flowing real estate is the lowest hanging fruit probably).

I want to believe that there will be numerous winners in the tokenized security platform wars but it is more likely that there is only 1 or 2. These platforms are going to be less like equity in a single company and more like NYSE or NASDAQ - the winners will serve different purposes, assets or geographies.

The platforms with a head start are Templum, tZero, and Polymath. My understanding is Templum is the only platform to have successfully executed a SEC-compliant transaction but the others will be fast followers. Will be fun to watch this unfold over next 18-24 months.

@eriktorenberg The largest market opportunity in crypto is meshing the advantages of tokens with traditional finance markets. This will be most obvious in tokenized securities. Many of the hardcore crypto folks want to decentralize the world (and have a chance of accomplishing that) but majority of the "market cap" and wealth generation will happen surrounding hard assets and organization equity, not decentralized products / services.

@eriktorenberg I change my mind on topics fairly regularly. One of the biggest things I have changed my mind on is the process of evaluating investment opportunities. I use to think that crypto and early stage venture were drastically different & required different skills (technical code review, etc) -- now I see many parallels (great team, viable/useful tech that solves a problem, large market opportunity, lack of competition, etc). The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

@chenxicai1 Italians run the world. Everyone knows that ;)

@utekkare I think it is Mike Maples that says "I want to invest early or too early." I feel the same way about crypto investing. I'm looking for really strong teams that are building valuable technology to address a hard problem with large market opportunity (as is every investor in the world lol). Almost everything will change in the dynamic environment of early stage investing so I'm particularly focused on backing teams that I believe in & am inspired by.

Most teams are dreaming if they think they're not offering a security. My guess is 80-90% of the "utility" tokens being offered today actually qualify as securities according to the SEC / CFTC. Regulators will come down hard on a few folks and I would expect this behavior to be quickly curtailed.

@utekkare @utekkare Yes but if a team ever wants to enter into the US, they should just take the necessary steps to be compliant from Day 1. Will save themselves a world of hurt later on.

@utekkare @APompliano That sounds legit. As long as the startup is US based. International is murkier, no?

@Dogetoshi It isn't in crypto but I saw StatMuse early on and was indecisive. They're going to end up as one of the hottest companies in the voice space (and have a large, attractive investor outcome). Luckily I've stayed good friends with Eli but watching as a friend is never as fun as watching as an investor :)

@chenxicai1 I don't think only one will succeed but obviously Ethereum has quite a head start. I've been impressed with Vitalik's willingness to stay vigilant, while also praising other teams where applicable.

@some_day_man Normally I would say yes but we live in a such a crazy time that who knows at this point.

@Sheets173 I think teams should create 3 documents:

1. Longer, more technical white paper explaining details
2. One or two page executive summary of white paper
3. Pitch deck

The extra time it takes to create everything can pay dividends when circulating materials to different stakeholders. You never know what someone prefers & the additional effort rarely goes unnoticed.

@Sheets173 @APompliano Appreciate the advice, as always. Finishing up all three, so good to know you are of the mind that the extra effort is going to be worth it (though I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you probably don't advise against extra effort often). We should grab another coffee @ Morning Times sometime soon to follow up on our first and so I can hand you the WP for my newer venture in person (or executive summary, or deck of course haha).

@some_day_man You are already seeing this become popular so I think it will only accelerate. Much of the crypto revolution is the mindset - people are looking for a solution that brings more equality, trust & transparency. Profit-sharing via tokens can accomplish all three.

@some_day_man @some_day_man This would be interesting too.

@some_day_man This would be interesting but may be hard to pull off given the more technical nature of many projects. You could probably focus on specific types of projects (consumer-facing) and avoid highly technical conversations too. Than again, there are plenty of people who would love to see heated debates over technical aspects of an ambitious project too.

@APompliano Agreed. Maybe it would be better to simply do fireside chats with famous crypto leaders as well as unknown crypto founders.

@some_day_man No. I'm not a day trader and don't pretend to be one.

My core competency is investing in teams and technologies at their earliest stages. There is no reason for me to step outside that focus - plenty of professionals that serve that purpose and are very good.

@jgulden Bitcoin is the greatest viral product ever created.

@jgulden @APompliano I'm sure many of the social platforms are looking at tokens as potential currencies within their closed ecosystems (doubtful this works), while also exploring how blockchain technology can improve their operations.

It would be interesting to see a Facebook or Twitter launch a fully de-centralized copy of their platform. The idea of disrupting themselves would appear scary at first, but I'm sure they would figure out a way to make money off of it. Red Hat has built an incredible business monetizing open source software.

@APompliano interesting for sure. I keep wondering how tokenization could solve some of Twitter's biggest problems... verifying legitimate but anonymous identities behind each account, incentivizing against antisocial behavior, giving popular voices a way to monetize their following through microtransactions, reducing dependence on an ad-supported revenue model, etc. Are there any other perennial operational problems you see crypto as being uniquely positioned to solve?