Everything on Venture Strategy

Commercial success often depends on ecosystem maturity rather than technical readiness alone. Foundational ventures frequently experience delayed ROI until adjacent infrastructure reaches critical mass.

Impact: Startups should secure extended runway capital and align product launches with broader technological inflection points to maximize capital efficiency.

— from Commercializing Cryptography: Infrastructure, Standards, and Future-Proofing · web3 with a16z crypto· Jul 24, 2026

Missionary founders driven by intrinsic beliefs in cryptography and privacy are more resilient during the early "valley of death" phases when rational metrics fail. Investors should prioritize non-monetary motivations to identify teams capable of enduring multi-year development cycles.

Impact: Improves founder selection accuracy and portfolio resilience by filtering out mercenary projects prone to abandonment during market downturns.

— from Crypto Cycles, Institutional DeFi, and RWA Efficiency · The Milk Road Show· Jul 20, 2026

Hyper-growth companies should prioritize scaling velocity over early margin optimization to avoid stifling innovation.

Impact: Enables faster market capture and product iteration, positioning firms to dominate before competitors optimize prematurely.

— from Specialized AI Inference and Enterprise ROI Strategy · The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch· Jul 20, 2026

OBEX's selection criteria prioritize teams capable of both asset origination and underwriting, ensuring deep domain expertise. This approach mitigates risk by requiring founders to have proven track records in their respective industries.

Impact: Sets a new standard for RWA due diligence, encouraging the development of specialized teams that bridge traditional finance expertise with on-chain execution.

— from Sky Deploys $1B to RWAs: Institutional DeFi Shift · The Milk Road Show· Mar 25, 2026