A Founder in Search of A Problem [Part 1]
About 2.5 years ago, I left my job looking to embark on my next chapter - starting my own company. During this time I met lots of different founders and looked into many industries. Software, hardware, healthcare, space, construction, legal and more. Seems all over the place? It was. I’m a curious guy and just wanted to explore as much as I could.
Eventually, I started to narrow it down. This began with focusing on the secondary market for startups. There are 2 sides to this problem, who can sell and who can buy, and I found issues with both. For employees, who might be interested in selling - there is a lot of uncertainty. How much their stock options are worth? Who they can sell to? When? And this is just the tip of the iceberg. On the other end, it’s a very closed group of companies and individuals who have access to this market.
If you’re a retail investor, who is excited about a private company and wish to invest - you’ll have to wait until they IPO. At this point, you may still benefit from buying shares, but it’ll be significantly harder to achieve a similar outcome to the earlier investors. You may even be a passionate customer of this company, talk about their products with all of your friends and help them achieve their success. But still, you can’t participate in any of the financial success.
Over the following months the idea evolved and I noticed similar trends are already happening in crypto. Outside of crypto my ideas on transparency and ownership were considered contrarian, inside they were modest. I wasn’t the only one seeing it, and was suggested by more and more people to use crypto as a possible solution.
For the longest time, I intentionally avoided crypto, so I passionately explained why I shouldn’t. The cult-like culture was off-putting. The signal-to-noise ratio, or as I see it - “hype relative to actual utility” just seemed way off. I (foolishly) concluded it was all a big waste of time, and decided to avoid it completely.
From Critic to Convert [Part 2]
It wasn’t until I hit a regulatory wall that I took an earnest look at crypto. I dove in headfirst. Blockchains, tokens, NFTs, DAOs - you name it. After a few weeks - something happened. It’s hard to pin it down to a single event or a piece of information, but it all just clicked. I can’t claim that I completely “got it”, but I remember feeling vividly I had just discovered this brand new world that is being built, and it’s bigger than anything I could’ve imagined. Through all of the scams and outsize hype, there was real substance to be found. And with this shift in perspective, I saw a massive opportunity. Nothing else I’d looked at over the past 2.5 years even came close.
Now, I wasn’t just “going down the rabbit hole” - I was looking for the biggest bulldozer I could find to dig the deepest possible. The deeper I went, the more my mind was blown. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that in my life. It seemed like I discovered this vast new universe, with nearly infinite opportunity - waiting to be built. I could barely sleep from excitement.
Crypto gives us the opportunity to re-think so many things we take for granted. With tokens, NFTs and DAOs - almost everything can be challenged. Tokens and NFTs can fundamentally transform how we construct, define, and distribute assets. DAOs similarly transform how companies can be built and who ultimately stands to participate and benefit from their success. It’s not about doing something slightly different or better, it’s an entirely different way of doing things. I imagine this is what a physicist experiences as they pursue the deepest questions in the universe. It’s limitless, and open for us to explore, using the most powerful tool we have - our imagination.
Exploring DAOs [Part 3]
I joined as many DAOs as I could while learning more about the space. At some point, it was probably over 100. I wasn’t alone in doing so. I noticed many others excited about crypto being the future, and looking to take part. Joining a community with likeminded people seemed like the way to do it.
DAOs are exciting, and I believe a core part of crypto. While different people have a different understanding of what a DAO is, I think many share a similar sentiment. It represents a new way for a group of people, with a shared mission - to achieve their goal. It can be real estate investors looking to purchase and manage an asset together. It can be social activists supporting a similar cause. It can be a couple of friends looking to start a company. Pretty much anything can be a DAO, which is both exciting and (at times) confusing.
Each DAO launch their own token, and people who work for the DAO are compensated in that token (or at least partially). This creates a long term relationship and financial alignment between the DAO and it’s members. In a traditional company, a small group of people and investors own a majority stake, leading to an enormous influence and a financial reward. While DAOs do have investors and core members who own more, the gap to everyone else is significantly smaller.
DAOs don’t have a CEO. Sure, there is some level of hierarchy, but there is no single person that have the final say. Decisions are being discussed by the members, and eventually voted on using the DAO’s token. The votes are public, and since voting is done with tokens it means only people who have an interest in seeing the DAO succeed can participate.
Transparency is a core part of blockchain as a technology and crypto as a space. Every single transaction is public, forcing DAOs to be a lot more transparent than you’d expect. Unlike a traditional company where it’s impossible to know how money is being spent, the DAO’s treasury (essentially their bank account) is completely public. Anyone can see the “balance”, and also every single payment ever made (or received). This creates a much higher bar for integrity, and when it’s not met - it’s easily exposed.
Transparency goes far beyond payments. A lot of the conversation between the DAO members is in public discord channels, for all to see. Meetings and calls are public and open, inviting others to join, listen in, and participate. The software developed by the DAO is open sourced. Again, public, open, and encouraging outsiders to contribute.
DAOs & The Future of Work [Part 4]
Since DAOs are so public, it means the work is public as well. How often can we share our work with anyone outside the company? Never. We resort to a high level overview on LinkedIn, and having to explain what we actually did again and again every time we’re interviewing. When your work is public, this changes completely. Anyone can see the depth and quality of your work, and verify with the payments you received.
COVID changed our perception of what can be achieved by working fully remote, and DAOs are pushing it even further, far beyond the flexibility of where and when you’re working. A DAO doesn’t “own” you and require you to work full time. You’re welcome to work for multiple DAOs, and only on certain projects you’re interested in. It’s more akin to freelancing, but with real ownership, and far greater impact on the organizations you work with.
We’re seeing an increasing number of young people opting to become freelancers and creators rather than full time employees, and they’re expecting more flexibility and transparency from the companies they work with. I believe these trends are going to converge with DAOs, and when they do - we’ll see far more talent in crypto, focusing on utility and substance. I’m hoping Share will accelerate that.