After Bday week feels like I’m living in Hanging Gardens of Babylon💖

I love this photo.

Excited to be kicking this off.

ego death capital raising $100 million Fund II

In 2021, ego death capital was officially launched as a venture capital firm. Andi Pitt, Nico Lechuga, and I, along with Preston Pysh, Lyn Alden and Pablo Fernandez as advisors, saw an emerging opportunity to invest, through ego death capital Fund I, in companies that would both accelerate the Bitcoin ecosystem and allow us to work alongside some of the most amazing entrepreneurs of our time. Most of the “smart” money at the time still hadn’t realized that #Bitcoin was emerging not only as the preeminent store of value, but equally important, the first layer (tied to energy) of a new peer-to-peer decentralized internet of money. Because of this, many venture funds didn’t understand the difference between Bitcoin and everything else, which is probably still true today. Bitcoin was scaling in layers and there was now an opportunity to build enduring businesses on a stable and secure foundation. The thesis of Fund I was to take advantage of that asymmetry in knowledge and help the best entrepreneurs build value for users. The #Bitcoin ecosystem at that time was still quite small. We raised $25.2 million in Fund I + a $7.5 million SPV to ensure a disciplined focus on companies that could be enablers of the transition underway.

We’re extremely proud of the entrepreneurs in our Fund I portfolio companies, their teams, and their success to date. So far in Fund I, we have led funding in Fedi, Breez, Synota, Relai, and Wolf, along with two companies in stealth. Our thesis proved correct, and many of our portfolio companies (as well as others in the broader Bitcoin ecosystem) are now experiencing incredible growth, with much more expected on the horizon. Real companies, bringing real value to users – and growing as a result.

In 2024, the funding market still hasn’t caught up to the opportunity, and a significant gap exists in Series A funding for Bitcoin only companies. This makes sense because a majority of venture capital still doesn’t understand the transformative nature of the Bitcoin protocol nor how it is emerging in layers. Without this key knowledge, it would be hard to understand the profound shift this entails to businesses in the future. This leaves Bitcoin only entrepreneurs not only pitching on the value and metrics of their business, but in parallel trying to “teach” capital that has been burned with their crypto investments about a new protocol. To add insult to injury, it is many of these same Bitcoin only entrepreneurs who warned of the various scams in the crypto/web3 market in the first place. It’s not a stretch to say that those building on Bitcoin prefer a partner who understands and is focused on it. For any entrepreneur, it is hard to imagine building enduring trust with a financial partner who doesn’t share your world view.

One of the most exciting things about the Bitcoin space is the extraordinary talent it attracts from all over the world. Having a front row seat at the profound shift that the internet demonstrated and how it attracted the best and brightest, I honestly didn’t think I would have another chance to experience it. Instead, we’re experiencing something even more powerful than the rise of the internet. An exponentially growing talent pool of entrepreneurs, users, and capital who fully understand that the most profound challenges of our time are unable to be solved from the very system creating them. Who instead of trying to optimize from within that broken system, have decided to focus their time, talent and capital on a parallel system built on Bitcoin that changes the world.

That dedication applies to our team too, we are very excited to announce that Lyn Alden and Preston Pysh are joining Fund II as partners. Through their work as advisors to Fund I, we already know the incredible value to the fund and companies in it they provide. In addition to our new partners for Fund II, we are adding renown Bitcoin and Lightning Network expert, Lisa Neigut alongside Pablo Fernandez as an additional technical advisor. We are also fortunate to add Pete Briger (Chairman of Fortress Investment Group) as an advisor to Fund II. Besides being a long time Bitcoin advocate, Pete helped to build Fortress into one of the preeminent financial firms of our time. These moves deepen our own bench with incredible people so that we in turn can continue to deliver value to the entrepreneurs and investors we serve.

While it is still early and there will be many ups and downs along the way, a transition from the world operating on top of a dishonest ledger, to the world working on top of an honest ledger is firmly underway. That transition will create incredible business opportunities, while bringing hope and abundance to billions of people around the world.

We feel super fortunate to be a part of it.

Read the full release here:

Hi Nostr 🫂 I’ve missed you guys. I checked in a few times here and there, but for the most part I’ve been off line just making some magical ❄️ memories.