I’ve spent over a decade as a top-performing sales rep for Web 2.0 social media platforms including Tumblr and Pinterest, where I learned the tremendous value of early customer traction. Direct incentives of Web3 are replacing more traditional revenue models. The new internet infrastructure will require partnerships and customer service acumen from those with first-hand experience and deep interest in navigating this new value exchange.
Focus Verticals
- AI / Machine Learning
- Blockchain / Crypto / NFTs
- Cybersecurity
- Finance / FinTech
- Gaming / Social Alternatives
- Identity / Pseudonymity
- Investing / New Markets
- Real Estate / PropTech
We started ThinkingCap as a response to three overarching ideas entangled within Web3:
- Access
- Community
- Security
Let’s talk through each:
1. Financial Access and Democratization
Some of the most lucrative investments and asset classes are only available to the select few, yet mainstream media’s attention focuses on yesterday’s winning lottery ticket. As a first-generation investor from humble beginnings, I believe that a lack of financial literacy is only partly to blame. Instead, it is financial access that prevents many potential investors from participating in asymmetric upside.
Potential investments:
- Equity crowdfunding
- Emerging asset classes
- Tokenization for access
2. Community Driven Commerce
The creator economy and peer-to-peer commerce are setting all-time highs, but the current infrastructure is still more conducive to exchanging “likes” than it is to exchanging currency. As more young people than ever before aspire to be creators, the existing aggregators must build or acquire a new set of tools to foster this transition.
Potential investments:
- Financial services for creators
- NFT creation and distribution
- DTC service and logistics
3. Privacy and Security
We live in an era of headline grabbing data leaks and hacks. We spend more and more of our lives online, calling for increased security, privacy, and trust. In the past, trust was garnered through offline personal relationships within small communities. The offline model cannot scale up to meet the needs of an interconnected world where today’s consumer demands transparency, accountability, and 3rd-party verification. Trust will be paramount to building sustainable customer relationships, and technology will facilitate this.
Potential investments:
- Privacy as a service
- Decentralized cybersecurity
- Blockchain enhanced audits
ThinkingCap is a collective of former founders, early employees, and operators. We believe in adding value before asking for it. As the name implies, we aim to play a role in shaping the development of our partner companies through the individual expertise brought by each LP.
As managing partner, I'll be leading most deals to start, but as the team grows that will change. ThinkingCap will prioritize and lean on those with specific industry knowledge on a deal-by-deal basis in order to ensure that we bring the full firepower of our greater network into each and every pertinent opportunity.
We encourage LPs interested in going beyond a passive investing strategy to reach out for access to more intimate networking events, portfolio company meetings, and testflights.