VenturePunk Raises $1.5m to Build Web3 Product Studio
Focus on innovation and rapid experimentation in decentralized finance, digital culture, and the metaverse
This summer I launched VenturePunk, a venture studio and builder community, to focus on rapid web3 experimentation.
Today I’m proud to announce a $1.5M pre-seed fundraise led by forward-thinking DAOs, funds, and angel investors.
Here’s what we’re doing and why.
The Headlines
VenturePunk’s focus is rapid innovation and experimentation in decentralized finance, digital culture, and the metaverse.
We're proud to announce a pre-seed fundraise of $1.5M to expand the possibilities of web3.
The round includes: PunkDAO, The LAO, Bufficorn Ventures, Erick Calderon (Snowfro), Devin Finzer (OpenSea), Bain Capital Crypto, ConsenSys Mesh, and Polygon Ventures, among others.
The Thesis
Web3 is an idea where the next phase of the internet is owned by the creators and users of the network, as opposed to centralized corporations or governments. It represents a tectonic shift in entrepreneurship and community building.
We’re so early that there are still so many questions about what this tech and these principles can enable. We started VenturePunk to explore some of those questions.
We're passionate about NFT communities, collector tools, web3 games, DeFi, decentralized social media, DAOs, creator monetization, regenerative finance, CC0, and other areas.
As a studio, we use the same internal team and resources to experiment as efficiently as possible using proven processes to ideate, validate, get traction, and then scale new projects.
Why Now
For years, VCs have had the opportunity to rethink what a web3 value-add fund looks like. With VenturePunk we’re creating what a venture builder should look like in web3 and thinking how we can leverage crypto-native tools and strategies to help build and launch world class products and communities.
At our core, we’re a community-focused product studio, shipping innovative apps and protocols. But we’ll be surrounded by a product and growth-minded ecosystem of content, community, and collaborations.
The Roadmap
VenturePunk has already got multiple projects at work. Our first public initiative is Skylab, a thriving curated community that includes some of web3’s most ambitious and accomplished builders and enthusiasts.
With the Skylab MVC (Minimum Viable Community) we’ve proven there’s a need for a community where passionate builders can find support and resources. We're now ready to assign more resources, find ways to sustain the community, then grow the member base.
In addition to pushing Skylab forward, we’re already actively experimenting and validating new ideas. Many will be developed internally. In some cases, we'll work with outside teams.
We will be announcing our first product release, an interactive on-chain art platform, in the coming months.
The Pre-Seed
Today, we welcome an outstanding group of angels, builders, DAOs and funds to the VenturePunk family.
Web3 builders: Devin Finzer (OpenSea), Erick Calderon (Artblocks), Bobby Ong (CoinGecko), Ben Lakoff (Charged Particles), Reuben Bramanathan (IDEO), Brett Shear, Andrew Jiang (Curated), Raz (Guild), Igor Lilic, Joseph Delong (Astaria), James Young (Collabland), Daniel Heyman (Palm), Chris Barrett (Chainlink), 0xJoshua (Opolis).
Ecosystem DAOs: PunkDAO, The LAO, Spaceship DAO, Bufficorn Ventures, AVentures DAO.
Forward thinking funds: ConsenSys Mesh, Polygon Ventures, Bain Capital Crypto, Lionschain Capital, NxGen, Mirana Ventures, Halliday Ventures, Lemniscap, Alphaverse Capital.
Why VenturePunk
I started building on the blockchain over 8 years ago. Back in 2014 I launched a side project on a new blockchain called Stellar.
But it wasn’t until 2017 when I discovered Ethereum and made it my mission to experiment in blockchain full time.
As an early employee at Totle, an early DEX startup, I led a team that was one of the first to route trades through multiple exchanges inside a single transaction.
As DeFi Product Lead at ConsenSys in 2019 I launched the DeFi Score, a first-of-its-kind framework to evaluate risk in DeFi.
My Project $MEME was the first to experiment with NFT staking in 2020, launched several NFT artist careers, and helped kickstart the recent NFT bull market.
I also co-founded Nifty’s, where we launched the Matrix NFT Project with Warner Bros., which was the first 100K PFP project to sell out.
I’ve also been an early adopter and highly vocal NFT evangelist making a substantial investment early on in blue chip projects including CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Meebits, ArtBlocks Curated (Chromie Squiggle, Fidenza, etc.), Loot Project, and more.
Now, with VenturePunk, we’re setting out to build rapidly and find novel uses of blockchain technology that provide real value, building upon what we’ve already learned during these early experiments.
The Team
The VenturePunk team also includes COO Mashal Waqar, a serial entrepreneur, writer, and techie who has a track record in scaling audiences and communities. She was previously the co-founder and COO of The Tempest, a global media company reaching millions around the world.
Thomas Lipari also joins VenturePunk as Head of Engineering after having worked with me at Nifty’s and ConsenSys.
I’m excited to be building out our product studio alongside some of the smartest and best people in the space, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Get Involved
We invite you to join us in building the future of web3 with a focus on community and frequent experimentation.
To stay up to date:
Join our email list: https://venturepunk.substack.com
Follow us on Twitter: @venture_punk
View open roles: http://venturepunk.com/
Let’s build!
🙏
Jordan Lyall
Founder + CEO
VenturePunk
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