Podcast

Solal Afota is the Co-Founder of Notebook Labs. Backed by Bain Capital Crypto & Y Combinator, Notebook Labs is working on decentralized, anonymous, and accountable identity on Web3—making web3 safer so it can become more universal. In this episode we discuss what zero-knowledge proofs enable for accountable identity (and potential near-to-medium-term applications), their unique technical and business challenges, and their experience building within Y Combinator.

Dave Balter is the Founder & CEO at Flipside Crypto. Backed by HashKey Capital, Dapper Labs, M13, & more, Flipside Crypto offers decoded blockchain data for querying and building in its Studio. Users can also earn as an analyst by making dashboards and boards for various Web3 projects and networks. In this episode we talk about their journey through the bear market (as told via his open Medium letter to his team), what’s been different building Flipside Crypto (relative to other companies he’s founded), what we’re getting right (and wrong) in crypto here in 2024, and much more.

Jay Jog is the Co-Founder of Sei Labs. Backed by Multicoin Capital, Coinbase, WAGMI Ventures, & more, Sei is the fastest Layer 1 blockchain, designed to scale with the industry. In this episode we discuss Jay’s experience at Robinhood (and how it inspired the creation of Sei Labs), how speed unlocks new building possibilities, Sei’s evolution from the “DeFi-focused chain” to a “general-purpose permissionless chain,” and of course–today’s mainnet launch (plus much, much more).

Austin Diamond is the Co-Founder & CEO of Alongside. Backed by a16z Crypto, Coinbase, Franklin Templeton, & more, Alongside has created the first fully backed on-chain broad-based crypto market index. In this episode we discuss the history of index funds, earliest insights that led to their unique methodology of token selection for AMKT, the biggest mistakes institutions make when broadening their exposure to digital asset markets, and much more. WAGMI Ventures is an investor in Alongside.

Luis Schliesske is the Co-Founder at Gelato. Backed by Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, IDEO CoLab Ventures, & more, Gelato is web3’s cloud platform, enabling developers to deploy custom chains with cutting-edge web2 UX, while also facilitating seamless integrations with all your favorite web3 tools & services. In this episode we talk about their Rollup-as-a-Service capabilities, how they think about differentiation in the market, how to think about team composition for creating a technical vision from scratch, the state of crypto these days, and much more.