Nick Tomaino is the Founder and General Partner @ 1confirmation, one of the leading seed firms fueling the decentralization of the web and society. The fund started with $26M in backing from individuals including Peter Thiel and Mark Cuban and it has been reported that the firm now has over $1B in assets under management. Nick has led seed investments in OpenSea, dYdX, SuperRare, Polkadot and Cosmos among others. Prior to 1confirmation, Nick was a Principal @ Runa Capital and before that led business development and marketing at Coinbase in the early days of the company.
In Today's Episode with Nick Tomaino We Discuss:
- From Cryptokitties to founding the Leading Seed Crypto Firm:
- How did Nick first come into contact with crypto and bitcoin specifically?
- How did getting fired from Coinbase catalyse his move into venture?
- What does Nick know today that he wishes he had known when he started investing?
2. The Landscape Today: Funds and SBF
- Are the current generation of crypto funds too large? Should they give money back to their LPs?
- Will the next generation of crypto funds be smaller? Are any crypto funds able to raise right now?
- Why does crypto Twitter hate crypto VCs? Who are the worst VCs for pump and dump?
3. SBF & FTX: What Actually Happened, Who is to Blame, What Happens from here?
- What is the biggest misconception on SBF and FTX today?
- Who should be held accountable? What else would Nick like to see?
- How should FTX change the way that LPs invest into venture managers?
4. How to Build the Best Crypto Portfolio in Venture:
- How large are the funds? How does Nick determine the right size for a fund?
- How many investments does Nick make per fund? How do loss rates look in crypto?
- What have been Nick's biggest investment hits and losses? How did that impact his mindset?
5. The Future for NFTs and Opensea:
- Why does Nick remain bullish on the future of NFTs?
- How is Nick able to remain optimistic about the future of Opensea given their volumes?
- Where does Nick believe the fair price for Opensea should be today?
- Did Nick sell their Opensea at the $13Bn round?