Proud son moment - one of my mom's papers on AI in mammography is now going viral after being published back in '21 with
@MIT
๐คฉ What the post doesn't mention is that she & her team have made HUGE advances since then and are now bringing it to market with
Itโs been incredible seeing
@sentient_agi
come together. From white boarding sessions into the middle of the night to bringing together the brightest minds in the field, there is no better team to achieve this vision of Open AGI than Sentient๐
We are thrilled to announce Sentient's $85M seed round, co-led by
@foundersfund
with
@peterthiel
, alongside
@PanteraCapital
and
@hiFramework
. This marks a pivotal step in aligning AI development toward a community-built open AGI platform.
Our vision at Sentient is to ensure AI
Second ever
@openagisummit
in the books! Thanks to the whole organizing team, panelists, and attendees for making this such an incredible event. Itโs a real privilege having a hand in making these summits happen ๐
@sandeepnailwal
is one of the few people in this space who actually backs up their talk of making web3 a more inclusive place. Wouldn't want to work with anyone else in web3 on an initiative like this๐
Invites are starting to go out for
@0xbeaconcom
's S24 Demo Day๐ Lmk if you want an invite. Companies in this cohort are going to blow people's minds...
BMo is proud to announce John Randolph as our 2022 Callahan nominee! Johnny is a wonderful friend and leader to us, and we couldnโt be more excited to put his name forward. If you canโt wait for the video, check
@tnreels
for a taste of what heโs all about
Less than 2 years ago I was an
@MIT
MBA applying to (and getting turned down by) every web3 VC job I could find.
Last week I was back at MIT speaking on a panel about VCs in web3.
Surreal to reflect on what just two years, hard work, and a lot of luck can bring๐
So happy to officially announce the MIT x Harvard Blockchain Accelerator! It's no secret that
@MIT
and
@Harvard
boast two of the strongest startup scenes. The
@0xmitharvard
Accelerator will bring these two communities together to create the strongest ecosystem possible ๐ฅ๐ช
Excited to share my first 'Histories' piece on the amazing
@mheinrich
of
@0G_labs
, who just put together one of the year's most impressive rounds to build web3's first modular AI chain.
Imo, most VC's 'Why We Invested' articles miss the most important part of the equation -- the
Symbolic Capital is proud to be supporting
@0G_labs
โ mission to build the first modular AI chain.
Learn more about the story behind OG in our exclusive profile with their Co-Founder
@mheinrich
.
Lots of work has gone into planning DiGโs two team model and Iโm super excited to be implementing it this season. Come join us at tryouts in April!
2023 tryout form below! Also excited to announce
a 2nd, development-focused open team comprised of the top young talent in NE + many future Diggos. The two teams will practice, train, & hang together, working to create a holistic, sustainable program!
THE BEST STUFF I LISTENED TO THIS YEAR
Put together a list of the best podcasts I listened to this year, organized into some fun and non-standard categories. Also could not help but throw in a self-indulgent roundup of music towards the end. Feel free to read here or see the
This was maybe my last point in the open division -
Very grateful to feel young again and go huge one last time.
They are building something really special in Boston, and I'm confident and excited for the future of this core group of players.
Can't believe this is happening tomorrow๐ฑ Getting the
@web3aisummit
off the ground has been a real labor of love for our entire group behind the scenes, so I can't wait to share all of this amazing content with you soon.
Hope to see you there if you're in Denver, but if not,
Big release!! Iโm super excited to finally be able to talk about this now that our Web3 VC Database is live. I would have KILLED to have something like this when I was breaking into the industry. Hope others find it useful :)
๐ Introducing the Beacon Web3 VC Database: a game-changing tool for web3 founders to gain unique insights on the funding landscape. Created by
@0xbeaconcom
, it's now free for everyone. Read below to discover why we launched it and how you can leverage it.
So happy to see
@Lukex
announce this round for
@satlayer
! I got to know Luke through his thankless work as the heart and soul of the
@MIT
blockchain network. Several collaborations later, easiest decision ever to back him on building
@satlayer
. โฟm๐ซก
Say โฟm to SatLayer!
The universal security layer powered by Bitcoin is announcing a $8M pre-seed round led by
@Hack_VC
@CastleIslandVC
w/support from
@FTI_DA
@OKX_Ventures
@mirana
& other awesome partners ๐ค
SatLayer deposits kick off on August 22, 2024, 14:00 UTC, at
Congratulations to
@karansirdesai
and the rest of the
@Mira_Network
team on this fundraise! I'm stoked to see them go live and have been super impressed with what I've seen so far with Klok's closed beta (their copilot for crypto tool) -- DM me if you want an invite code ๐
Excited to announce Mira's $9M Seed round led by
@BITKRAFTVC
&
@hiFramework
We're building a decentralised infrastructure to universalise AI for every developer, business & community allowing anybody to gainfully participate in the early innings of this foundational technology.
Excited to share our latest research, A Deep Dive Into Data Availability. It was an absolute privilege working on this with
@vszammit
over the past 2 months.
In it, we explore the value of DA layers, analyze competitors, & discuss the implications of the recent Dencun upgrade๐งต
"A Deep Dive Into Data Availability" - Who are the major players in the DA space and what does Ethereum's Dencun upgrade and sharding roadmap mean for them? Read all about this in our latest research:
I don't tend to get nervous interviewing founders for Histories pieces, but this one definitely got to me;
@dntse
is one of the most brilliant and accomplished founders in this entire space and getting to sit down with him to learn about his life and mission with
@babylon_chain
โI feel the need to take research ideas and convert them into systems that will benefit the world.โ
From tenured Stanford professor to founding
@babylon_chain
,
@dntse
is committed to improving the world with his work.
Read about David Tseโs journey here:
Nodekit๐คPolygon
Weโre thrilled to team up with
@0xPolygon
by bringing composability to CDK rollups and the AggLayer!
Together, we will scale web3 and solve fragmentation by restoring composability to Ethereum.
So excited to finally be able to share what we've been building at
@0xbeaconcom
over these past months. I've never seen such an incredible amount of talent come together to launch a program like this and I can't wait to show everyone what our companies have been building๐๐จ
Excited to announce the Harvard Blockchain Conference on April 13-14, Sat & Sun!
We're thrilled to have a lineup of top [INVESTOR] speakers joining us. Explore the latest trends and insights in crypto investment. Secure your spot now and network with industry leaders!
I'm so happy to finally be able to share our first ever Fellows with the world! We're just one month in and this group has already gotten into the best accelerators in the world, closed funding rounds, and built bleeding edge web3 products. Big things to come from them๐ฅ
We're thrilled to introduce the inaugural Nailwal Fellows cohort. These founders represent web3's brightest stars, backed personally by our Co-Founder
@sandeepnailwal
. Exclusively covered by
@WSJ
, you can read the full piece and more on each fellow below:
We're thrilled to announce a surprise special guest joining us on stage in just 30 minutes! ๐ฅ
Please welcome the incredible
@balajis
! This is going to be an amazing session. Stay tuned! ๐
Stream is here -
Put together some thoughts on how to ace your Beacon application after seeing some commonalities among the best
@0xbeaconcom
application's I've read to date (and I've read every single one๐ค). Summarizing the key takeaways below ๐งต
Have you been thinking of applying to the next Beacon cohort? We just posted a new blog covering tips for the application. TLDR: take your time, proofread, share your story, and highlight growth. Read the full piece here and good luck!
Pretty exciting job opportunity to join us at
@symbolicvc
๐ฅ We're hiring our first-ever Investment Associate in a full-time capacity. Check out the role below and feel free to DM if you have questions.
"Cohort F23 is going to be a failure if we don't have more than 5 unicorns come out this group๐ฆ" I won't say who, but this was dropped at our last
@0xbeaconcom
session concluding the Cohort ๐
You're not going to want to miss this Demo Day...
๐จDemo Day for Cohort F23 is just around the corner!๐จ If you're looking for the best projects in web3, our invite-only Demo Day is the place to be. Make sure you apply to attend here:
โCommunities are going to become the cornerstone of value creationโ
@TomicahTD
speaking facts re: Web3 at the
@hbc_2022
. If you somehow werenโt already, everyone should be watching
@HaunVentures
in this space ๐
Highlight of ETHCC =
@0xbeaconcom
Founder's Dinner last night ๐งโ๐ณ
It's crazy to think we're on our fourth cohort already, with over 100 founders supported! And if you look at some of these pictures closely, you might be able to get a sneak peak of the builders in Cohort S24 ๐ซฃ
Huge congrats to
@0xKartin
and team on the recent $20m round for
@OraProtocol
! My Histories conversation with Kartin was one of my favorites to date. I hope you'll enjoy reading about his journey as much as I enjoyed writing about it ๐
If you're a founder attending
@EthereumDenver
, stop by our Office Hours! I'll be posted up with the
@symbolicvc
&
@0xbeaconcom
teams meeting founders and giving feedback on pitches. Great way to get feedback in a low-key setting. And yes, there will definitely be free food too ๐
The investors are in๐ค๐
Weโre teaming up with
@symbolicvc
to host Investor Office Hours at
@EthereumDenver
! Pitch us, get feedback, and meet other great founders. This event has limited space so make sure to fill out this form if interested!
Weโve assembled The Avengers of
@Harvard
x
@MIT
alums as mentors, so now itโs time to learn from the best and apply to the
@0xmitharvard
Accelerator! Read more and submit your app below ๐
Really enjoyed this conversation with
@lensofleo
! Thanks for the opportunity to share more on what we do at
@symbolicvc
and
@0xbeaconcom
, and digging in to how web3 VCs should actually support their founders.
Excited to share the latest episode of our podcast featuring
@SPLehman
, Principal at
@symbolicvc
and contributor at
@0xbeaconcom
.
Check out how Sam supports Founders throughout their startup lifecycle.
Listen here:
As we celebrate the beginning of a new year, we wanted to highlight another standout alum from Beaconโs inaugural batch,
@TimeswapLabs
. Hereโs what
@0x42069x
,
@Harshita_125
,
@TimelordEth
, and team have been up to since graduating from Cohort 0 โ
Yes, we do read every pitch submitted through our web form! At
@symbolicvc
we're committed to breaking down traditional barriers in VC. Having a form that clearly outlines what we want to see from founders is just one small step to opening up this industry๐๐ช
Say hello to Cohort S23! It was such a pleasure getting to work with the 10 projects in this cohort over the past 3 months. Congrats to everyone on graduating and can't wait to see where these incredible founders take their projects in the near future๐ซ๐ซ
๐ We are thrilled to introduce you to Cohort S23! These 10 startups spent the last 3 months in the Beacon program scaling their projects and are now ready to announce themselves to the world. Read more in
@jacqmelinek
's exclusive coverage for
@TechCrunch
& meet the teams below๐
I vividly remember watching the sequence at 3:01 live and thinking this freshman was going to be special.
Azeez certainly grew into a special, special player. Couldn't think of anyone more deserving of this award.
So lucky to have had a part in this panel on The Future of Parental Leave with three phenomenal panelists from
@mavenclinic
,
@theskimm
, and
@MIT_IWER
.
This event was amazing! Shout out to all of the teams I got to meet at Office Hours (although please give me some time to get caught up on my TG๐ ).
Already starting to scope out our next one for Austin... ๐ฅณ
Last Friday, our team and
@symbolicvc
met with over 80 startups in just 3 hours at our
@EthereumDenver
Office Hours. While a new format for us, it proved to be an overwhelming success! We want to talk about why we did this, and some of our key takeaways from the event๐งต
I'll be moderating a panel on the 'Future of Family Leave' later this month at Sloan! Been working on this for the past several months and am so excited to share my passion for rethinking leave practice and policy in the U.S. with you allโค๏ธ๐
We just reached the halfway point of
@0xbeaconcom
Cohort S23! We've had 9 phenomenal speaker events over the past 1.5 months, where our founders have gotten to learn from top web3 founders and VCs. Here's a brief recap of the sessions and speakers.
A thread๐งต
Say hello to Cohort 0! Working with the first ever Cohort of
@0xbeaconcom
has the been the most fulfilling experience of my professional career to date. It's incredible to see the progress made over just 3 months; these founders are seriously talented! check them out below๐
โFor Cohort 0, we spoke with over 1,000 projects,โ
@sandeepnailwal
, core contributor of
@0xbeaconcom
and co-founder of
@0xPolygon
, said.
โWe feel like Cohort 0 is our MVP of Beacon.โ
Here are the 13 crypto startups from its flagship accelerator program:
Working with Cohort F23 has been the most rewarding experience I've had with
@0xbeaconcom
so farโค๏ธ These founders are amazing and the companies they are building are going to change the industry๐
As someone who got turned off from FUT after realizing all the time I spent grinding would never really mean anything,
@GOALSgame
has me veeery excited ๐
Live at the
#MITBitcoinExpo
watching the finalists of our pitch competition.
@Amurse_now
up first. Creating a web3 native comms platform as an alternative to discord, slack, etc.
Coolest part about reviewing Nailwal Fellowship applications has been seeing just how global web3 is. Just need some Antarctic researchers to apply to make sure we had all seven continents ๐
With just one week left to apply, we've had over 200 unique locations represented in Nailwal Fellowship applications! ๐๐ The Nailwal Fellowship offers $50k to the brightest minds who want to commit to building the future of web3. If youโd like to work in web3 full time, make
I'm incredibly excited to be formally joining
@symbolicvc
as their first Principal.
I put together some thoughts on this new role and how I got here in a new blog I'm calling 'The Crypto Coach' (working title๐). Moving forward, I'll be using this substack to share more of my
Put together some thoughts on achieving 'focus' at startups, using the story
@WatanabeSota
, Founder of
@AstarNetwork
and
@0xbeaconcom
mentor. Some extra context on this post ๐งต
Focus (noun) - the perfect alignment of culture and vision at a startup. In this Web3 Masterclass youโll learn how
@WatanabeSota
found focus at
@AstarNetwork
by making some tough but important decisions:
We just sold all our General Admit tickets! ๐
Due to unprecedented demand for the
#MITBitcoinExpo
, we have added a batch of Last Minute tickets and will extend our free Student tickets for a few more days.
Grab your ticket now and see you next weekend!
๐จExactly one week left to apply to the next Cohort of Beacon๐จ Founders in our cohorts get access to the greatest network of operators and investors in web3 - don't miss your chance to join our community!
Apply here:
My takeaways - model behavior you want employees to embrace (i.e. take leave!), businesses need to track ways they can support parents across all family journeys (conception, adoption, workforce re-entry, etc.), and engage with your staff to understand the benefits they desire.
Every time I work on Lighthouse I canโt help but focus on the 100+ things I want to change to improve the platform. Tweets like this are a good reminder that weโre actually providing some pretty unique value for our founders over at
@0xbeaconcom
๐
The value of accelerators and VCs is often measured by the network they offer. At Beacon, we build tools to unlock our community of top web3 founders, investors, and operators for the projects we back. One such tool is the Expert Network tab on our custom platform, Lighthouse๐ก๐
Founders need great outcomes, not great intentions. They deserve more from their investors than a check, and we built
@sevensevensix
to deliver.
Starting today,
@cristina_laki
is stepping into a brand new Partner role dedicated to listening to and co-creating with our founders.
So much has been achieved in the past 3 months
Please go check out the amazing companies and founders below!
Excited to see each project take off in 2024 ๐๐๐
Thanks again to
@0xbeaconcom
@sandeepnailwal
@0xkenzi
and
@SPLehman
for putting this together and including us :)
Hosting a Happy Hour for Harvard and MIT folks in web3 during ETHCC! DM me if you're an alum or student and want to hang with me and the
@0xmitharvard
team ๐ป
Please join us in welcoming
@SmokeyTheBera
, Co-Founder of
@berachain
, to our Beacon mentor network!
Read about his full background in our announcement here:
Another Office Hours in the books! โ A huge thanks to the over 100 teams that came out to our Office Hours event with
@symbolicvc
at
@consensus2023
. The quality of these founders was amazing๐
Sharing some insight into how we think about the deAI space at Symbolic. There is a lot of noise out there, having a clear framework for categorization helps cut through it.
There's certainly been a lot of funding activity in the Crypto x AI landscape recently. Our investing thesis on this space is guided by a framework we use to categorize segments of the market. See this and more in our latest research piece by
@Chadlgg
๐
Recently had the chance to share some thoughts on the future of SocialFi,
@friendtech
, and
@phaverapp
. TLDR, we're super early but I'm excited about what's in store for the social application layer in web3.
Beacon gives us a unique level of access to web3's brightest founders and I'm super excited to be able to share more of these founders' incredible stories through our new show
@0xbeaconpodcast
. Check it out below!
๐ We're thrilled to launch the Beacon Podcast: Web3 Unlocked ๐๏ธ Experience the untold stories of web3โs greatest companies through conversations with top founders and industry pioneers. Hosted by
@0xkenzi
,
@dikshadutta
, &
@0xsachi
, each episode uncovers the triumphs and
๐จS24 Demo Day is in two weeks!๐จ
The companies in Cohort S24 have been hard at work building over the last three months. On Sept 12, they'll unveil themselves to the world during our investor-only Demo Day. Not invited yet? Apply to join here:
Had so much fun getting to jam with
@RyanJamesWeeks
for his recent piece on
@RuneScape
's influence on web3 gaming. In short - start with the fun and let the crypto elements follow๐ฎ๐ช
Web "game makers are too focused on the economic side and start building out token models, exchanges, NFT items before actually having gameplay thatโs engaging enough to create a sticky game people want to play and devote their time to" โ
@SPLehman
1/ We couldnโt be more excited to announce the successful close of an $18 million funding round co-led by Polychain Capital (
@polychain
) and Hack VC (
@hack_vc
) for the Babylon
#Bitcoin
Staking Protocol!
Huge congrats to the
@ylide_
team who in just 3 months not only built an unparalleled messaging protocol, but also a web3 social app just to prove the strength of their tech. Check these guys out if you want to support true T1 founders.
Thank you Beacon team for your support and expertise during the acceleration program!
Web3 founders, make sure you don't miss a chance to build with them in the following cohortsโ๏ธ
Loved being part of the
@ventureco_op
Cohort 2 last year led! Was a great way to learn about the inner workings of VC led by
@LaconiaCapital
.
Cohort 3 apps are open until 9/18 ๐
Attention! We're giving you additional time to apply for the Nailwal Fellowship โ you now have until June 30th to apply to receive $50k in funding to make the leap from web2 to web3. Get all the details here:
Founders - how many of you struggle to keep track of data on web3 VCs? From which firms lead to who invests at different stages, we know it can be a nightmare getting this info.
If only there was a tool to replace all of those static, outdated spreadsheets and Notion pages... ๐
In just one year of operation, Beacon founders have gone on to raise over $150M collectively from the best funds in the world - and we want you to join them.
๐ฃApplications for Cohort S24 are officially open and due by March 18, 2024๐ฃ
Apply at:
This past weekend, I won gold as an Assistant Coach with the
@USAUltimate
U20 Boys team in Birmingham, UK ๐บ๐ธ๐ฅ It was extra special for me because it marked the 10yr anniversary of my experience playing in the tournament with Team USA as an 18yo (photo below).
Many who know me
All my VC friends - youโre going to want to make sure you reserve your spot to see what Cohort S23 has been working on. Some VERY exciting projects in this class๐
Beacon's next Demo Day is this August! Our Demo Day's are invite-only events where our founders pitch to top investors live. Prior Demo Days have included investors from top funds like
@paradigm
,
@polychaincap
,
@lightspeedvp
& more.
Investors apply here:
The
@cubistdev
team is one of the most mind-boggling impressive groups of founders I've ever seen come together. So happy to have had them as part of Beacon Cohort 0!