It is one thing to invest in early stage companies, but to do so in a nascent industry that constantly reinvents and rediscovers itself is a whole different venture. Richard Muirhead co-founded Fabric Ventures in 2012 around the thesis of supporting the Open Economy. While at first this meant investing in Bitcoin-related projects, once Ethereum was announced, a new horizon unveiled, filled with tremendous potential. Since then, the Open Economy thesis was adapted to match technological breakthroughs, and it is now centered around artificial intelligence, distributed computing and self sovereignty (over both fungible, as well non-fungible assets).
Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 - Introduction
6:16 - Richard’s background and how he founded a crypto VC
14:32 - Fabric Ventures’ thesis
21:44 - How the AI thesis evolved
28:05 - User-generated AI
36:00 - On-chain autonomous agents
44:01 - Upcoming DeFi innovations
50:49 - Web3 trends that took Richard by surprise
55:48 - Missed opportunities
57:32 - The impact of crypto liquidity & market cycles on VC investing
1:02:37 - How to vet projects in early investment phase
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Richard Muirhead on Twitter: bit.ly/45IO24d
- Fabric Ventures on Twitter: bit.ly/4eBoPwR
- Fabric Ventures: bit.ly/4eK2MDY
Sponsors:
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay- the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io/ -
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one/?ut... -
This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/554