Avichal Garg is Co-Founder & Partner @ Electric Capital, last month Electric announced they had raised $1BN for their new fund making them one of the largest independent and crypto-native VC firms in the world. As for Avichal, prior to Electric, he was an investor in crypto projects such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Lightning Labs, and OpenSea and unicorns such as Airtable, Cruise, Deel, Figma, Notion and many more. On the operating side, Avichal successfully sold his last company to Facebook where he became Director of Product Management for the Local product group, a team of 400 engineers responsible for billions in revenue.
In Today's Episode with Avichal Garg You Will Learn:
1.) Origins into Venture:
- How did Avichal make his way into the world of startups and angel investing?
- How did Avichal make the pivot from software to crypto investing?
- Was Avichal nervous when making the move to institutionalize what had been personal investing?
- What does Avichal know now that he wishes he had known at the start of Electric?
2.) The Landscape: Crypto Investing
- How does Avichal assess the crypto fund landscape today?
- Will we continue to see a small number of firms (a16z, Katie Haun, Paradigm, Electric) dominate the market?
- What happens to all the small crypto funds that have been raised in the last year?
- Why does Avichal believe crypto investing is much more collaborative than venture investing?
- How can venture size returns be made if the ownership levels are so much smaller?
3.) Crypto Firms vs Traditional VC Firms:
- Why does Avichal believe that crypto is software eating money?
- What does this mean for traditional venture? Who will survive? Who will die? Who will thrive?
- Why can generalist firms not compete with crypto native firms?
- How are the teams of crypto native firms structured so differently to those of traditional VCs?
- Do crypto projects and investments need the same level of service and help that generalist VCs provide with their platform services?
4.) Tokens - Equity - Liquidity:
- How does Avichal advise investors on how to think through token vs equity investing?
- When does it make sense to have a token vs not having a token?
- How are crypto tokens priced and valued? What do you need to know when buying tokens?
- How does the liquidity of crypto markets make it challenging for investor psychology?
- What is the biggest lesson Avichal has learned on when is the right time to sell?
5.) DAOs: 101
- What are DAOs? Are they not just another form of government?
- What makes one DAO successful and another not?
- What tooling and infrastructure are required to manage a DAO successfully?
- What does Avichal believe the vision of a DAO should be? How should they define success?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Avichal Garg
Avichal's Favourite Book: The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
Avichal's Most Recent Investment: Magic Eden