Variant Fund is a venture capital firm that describes itself as “a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.” Jesse Walden and Li Jin, co-founders and general partners at Variant, join Unchained to discuss the ownership economy, issues with web2 and web3, NFTs, the future of work, and more. Highlights:

  • where Li and Jesse met and how their backgrounds as investors + founders led them to the crypto space
  • how Li’s investing niche, which she describes as the passion economy, ended up intersecting with crypto
  • why Li believes that web3 platforms will be better for creators than the current web2 ecosystem
  • why Jesse was so inspired by Bitcoin after working in the music industry for so many years
  • why Jesse believes that NFTs are the “port of entry” for the mainstream adoption of crypto
  • what other use-cases exist for NFTs outside of the JPEG or PNG meme (and why Jesse is so excited about music NFTs)
  • why Li believes that web3 tools can help fix the issues inherent to the “gig economy”
  • Li and Jesse respond to criticisms of web3 coming from Jack Dorsey and Moxie Marlinspike
  • how Variant Fund thinks about investing in crypto projects
  • what token allocation Variant Fund targets when investing in crypto projects
  • why mainstream platforms are experiencing backlash for integrating with NFTs and crypto
  • what trends in NFTs, DAOs, and the ownership economy Jesse and Li think will pop in 2022

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Episode links

Li Jin

Jesse Walden

Variant Fund