Hating on crypto VC is a favorite community pastime of average web3 investor. The timeless tale of VC dumping on retail has long reached meme status— a convenient reason for why one’s not making money in the market.
If that’s what you believe you may not want to hear this, but I’m gonna say it anyway— the meme’s over-rated.
If you run an antique shop— buying antiques around world & selling them to collectors— you’d better have turnovers, i.e. your goal is to sell antiques on a profit, not sitting on them. Or you have a hobby, not a business. Same w/ professional investors.
The goal is to discover & invest in high-potential startups, sell them for a gain. Rinse, repeat. Only difference w/ VC in crypto is they have opportunity for faster turnover than traditional VC b/c of world-wide secondary mkt liquidity for digital assets.
A healthy market needs different types of investors w/ different risk profiles & time horizons, esp for a market like crypto where current value creation is small (yet) compared to potential future value creation. I’m talking abt specifically three types of investors:
- “Coin flippers” who buy low, sell high in short term to keep price volatility in check
- “Diamond hands” & “dollar cost averagers” who can be buyers of last resort
- Professional “antique shop runners”— VCs and angels— who funnel funding from liquid market to early-stage projects, which become tomorrow’s new ticker names that add dynamism to the market
Each type has different risk/reward structure— coin flippers have high turnover / high win rate / low profit margin, while VCs and angels have low turnover / low win rate / high profit margin, relatively speaking.
One type doesn’t intrinsically make more money than another. In any investment style your skill is what makes the math work to stay profitable in the long run.
However, most individual investors don’t even have opportunity to develop skill in VC-type investing—
Because they have no access to high-quality early stage investment projects.
In fact, if you can have access to the same potential deal flow as top crypto VCs do, that’s arguably already half the success in that type of investing.
But what if I tell you that now you actually can?
Announcing Tascha Labs x WAGMI Ventures—
I’m partnering with WAGMI Ventures, a top web3 angel investor syndicate, to bring crypto venture deal access to my subscribers.
As a member of the syndicate, you’ll have opportunity to invest in high-quality web3 startups at seed stage along with top tier VCs. The syndicate has participated in investment rounds led by firms like a16z, Sequoia, Union Square Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital.
Through the syndicate’s network you can get in on some of the same deals these VC firms are participating in, at the same time. It’s like what they say— if you can’t beat them, join them!
Seriously though, if you’re just beginning angel investing in web3, this is a great pair of crutches to help you start learning VC/angel investments by doing them. (And if you’re a seasoned angel, it doesn’t hurt to have more deals coming your way.)
The projects coming through are already vetted & chosen by some of the best professional VCs in the industry, i.e. you get to free ride on their investment teams’ due diligence work, so to speak.
Does this guarantee you’ll make money? No. Again, venture investing is a low win-rate / high-payoff business. 95% of startups fail. Professional VCs invested in plenty of disasters, FTX being a most brilliant recent example. Plus, you’ll still need to make your own judgment about whether to join in on a deal when it’s presented to you.
But does having high quality deal flow and professional due diligence at your back improve your chance of success? Yes. Investing is a game of probability. You want to adopt anything that increases your odds of winning.
Who it is for
If you have money to invest, passion for web3, some brains & industry knowledge to assess investment candidates, and you’re looking for diversification from investing in liquid markets, then this is a good opportunity.
How it works
If your application is accepted, you’ll get notified on all future deals the syndicate has access to, along with project background, deal round info, etc. If you want to invest in a project, follow the instructions that’ll be sent to you. If not, do nothing. Simple as that.
Crypto VCs made $2.7 billion investments in Q4, 2022, down over 90% from a year ago. Crypto winter is well underway & project valuations have come down sharply. I personally think the current cohort of web3 VC deals may have one of the highest reward-to-risk rates when we look back one day. So if you’re interested in antique-shop-runner style of investing, this may be a great time to start.
Apply to join the syndicate here.