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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 β€œsmart” 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 β€œteach” 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:

Replies (49)

Since I first learned about Ego Death Capital I always wished that they had more bandwidth to further accelerate the incredible growth in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Thankfully my prayers have been answered 🀩. I can’t imagine a more inspiring place to be spending my time Congratulations Jeff to you and your amazing team !!!
First of all, congratulations! May you guys succeed where the Spanish soccerteam Real Madrid once failed. Getting the best players of the world into an unbeatable team. It was Fiat money, greed and inflated egos back then but now there's btc, Nostre and ego death. What could to wrong :-) Ego death? From Shamanic ego death rituals? The rituals to leave behind inflated ego (centrism), anxieties, greeds, overly attachment to the material and all fantasies and selfconfirmations? To prepare for egoless servantship for the communities and Nature itself, the Earth we all have our feet upon? That ego death? Can tell from experience, it is mind-blowing stuff. Like the Lakhota so beautifully say: may you walk well on your own journey, and that we never forget to keep The Childrens Fire burning. I warmly wish you all that. May the Fire be good to us all
Dear Jeff, for the same reasons you well rationalize above, IMO Bitcoin start-ups need to urgently embrace cross-disciplinary and specifically interaction design excellence. With technology & business model in open parity, the next main differentiator to enable success is in simple terms β€˜great design - thinking & doing’. Great design is still quite an elusive mindset and process but, that can be systematized into an organization - ideally early in the start-up phase. This is something I have been delighted to witness in real time with my growing relationship with Obi and his evolving approach at Fedi. How might we enable initiatives in the new system to quickly understand and embrace the power of a life-centered cross-disciplinary design approach in their development and more importantly their learning and decision-making processes? This is why I am making deep and fast career changes to clear my desk (& mind) to focus full time on bringing world class design to the most powerful people+planet technology in existence today = freedom tech. This is why I have begun and why I am collaborating with (orange pilling) and connecting some of the most talented strategic designers out there with the brightest minds in the Bitcoin space. Together we can envision, build, validate and deploy an eco-system of meaningful and delightful products, services and experiences that meet the many people exactly where they are at and where they need to be met for their journey to begin. Is this something you are on to at Ego Death? Would love to discuss. May you live in interesting times βœ… /Stiven