• A Full Stack Venture Firm

     

    Investing in World Changing Founders Building the Future

  • The Future Is Stateless

    Stateless Ventures is a full stack venture firm investing across all stages of the startup life cycle. Our primary focus is on the intersection of AI, crypto and web3. With a family of funds including a liquid fund, venture fund and opportunistic SPVs, we cover the full range of venture investing opportunities. We invest from pre seed, seed and series A through late stage growth rounds. We partner with founders from the very beginning and help them navigate the life cycle of a startup.

     

    We look for startups with highly asymmetric risk reward potential. Often, these are good ideas that start out looking like bad ideas. Identifying the crossover between what the smartest people are working on during nights/weekends and where the world is going.

     

    The Stateless investment team has deployed over 250m across liquid vehicles, venture and growth SPVs.

     

    We believe the future is stateless and invest in protocols and companies bringing about that change.

     

  • 20

    We have over 20 years of combined GP investment experience in venture capital and crypto asset markets.

    $250 million

     

    Stateless partners have invested over 250m+ across more than 100 companies globally.

    5000

    Stateless partners run one of the largest investor syndicates with over 5000 investors.

  • TEAM

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    Matt Slater

    Managing Partner

    Matt is founder and Managing Partner at Stateless Ventures where he leads the investment team across all sectors and asset classes. Matt brings extensive operating experience both as a startup founder and VC and has a deep appreciation for technical founders. Matt is chair of the investment committee at Stateless.

     

    Prior to Stateless, Matt was Co-founder and CEO of Hedgy – a blockchain derivatives startup backed by Tim Draper and Marc Benioff. A pioneer of smart contract technology, Hedgy built one of the first decentralized exchanges for crypto derivatives. Hedgy was acquired by Wyre, Inc. in 2018.


    Matt holds a BSc in Business from USC, a Masters in Finance from Hult and a J.D in Law from Loyola Law School.

     

     

    Twitter: @mattslater

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    Reid Stender

    Junior Partner

    Reid is an junior partner at Stateless Ventures where he helps the investment team across all sectors. Reid leads venture sourcing, dilligence and research and sits on the investment committee at Stateless.

     

    Prior to Stateless, Reid covered internet and media sectors at Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) - a long/short hedge fund focused on public equities. Reid also worked in the Advisory practice at KPMG, assisting technology businesses with M&A.

    Reid graduated from the University of Oregon, doubling majoring in Finance and Economics.

     

     

    Twitter: @Decryptcrypto

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    Zach Ginsburg

    Venture Partner

    Zach is a Venture Partner at Stateless Ventures where he leads private syndicate investments from early stage to growth equity. Zach is responsible for deal sourcing, dilligence, investor relations and sits on the investment committee at Stateless.

     

    Zach is founder/GP at Calm Ventures, a top angel list syndicate with over 5000 investors. Notable investments include SpaceX, Brex, Headspace, Omaze and SuperRare.

     

    Previously, Zach was partner at OCV Ventures leading growth equity deals. Zach graduated from USC with a BSc in Finance.

     

    Twitter: @zachgins

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    Sol Bier

    Venture Partner

    Sol is a Venture Partner at Stateless Ventures where he leads late stage investments across SaaS, Crypto, Healthcare, AI, EVs, Autonomous Robotics and other emerging fields.

    Sol founded and currently leads Factorial Funds, a private equity and venture fund focusing on growth stage investments.

    Previously, Sol was a founding engineer at Cruise Automation (YC W14), an early self driving car startup acquired by GM for $1b in 2016.

     

    Sol graduated from USC with a BSc in Physics while teaching himself how to code on nights and weekends.

     

    Twitter: @solbier1

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    Sam Trautwein

    Venture Partner

    Sam is a Venture Partner at Stateless Ventures where he sources DeFi and early stage crypto deals.

     

    Sam co-founded Carbon Money during his senior year at Stanford, raising funds from Y Combinator and General Catalyst, among others. Sam started mining Bitcoin in his dorm room in 2014 and, prior to Carbon, was one of the founding engineers at Plenty, a Softbank backed AI and hydroponics company. Sam is passionate about decentralization and tech enabled disintermediation.

     

    Sam studied Computer Science at Stanford.

     

     

     

    Twitter: @futurenomics

  • "We invest in what we believe should exist. And let the world catch up.”

    - Matt Slater

    Introducing Stateless

    Hi, Matt Slater here. I started Stateless after many years of investing both personally and through my prior investment funds. Stateless is the culmination of my investment thesis. It summarizes how I'm placing my bets over the next few decades.

    Founders are the Net Driver of Progress

    "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -George Bernard Shaw

     

    Translating this quote to todays world, I argue that all progress depends on the Unreasonable Founder. Founders are the net driver of progress.

     

    Good Ideas Start on the Fringe

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    Your Thumbs Will Learn

    During a media tour in 2007 in which Steve Jobs showed the device to reporters, there was one instance in which a journalist criticized the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard.

    “It doesn’t work,” the reporter said.

    Jobs stopped for a moment and tilted his head. The reporter said he or she kept making typos and the keys were too small for his or her thumbs.

    Jobs smiled and then replied: “Your thumbs will learn.”

    I'm Ultra Long Science and Technology

    I believe we are still in the beginning stages of the technology productivity boom. In the industrial revolution, we multiplied our productivity per capita by using machines to generate leverage on physical labor. The engine, tractors, electricity, automobiles, planes and the assembly line multiplied our productivity output.

     

    Now, technology is taking us on 100 year

    Software is the highest leverage tool mankind has ever invented

    Beware of Biases, they act as blinders to see new solutions to old problems.

    What are assumptions people have about the world that everybody believes. But, they are fixed in our minds, not in reality? Some examples are:

     

    1) Does education need to be taught as a formal 4 year college institution? Can we give the young generation the technical skills via 3 month online coding courses?

    2) Do we need to solve climate change by reducing carbon emissions or can we solve it by taking out the carbon of the atmosphere faster than we put it in?

    3) Are trains and jet-fuel powered airplanes the most efficient way to get around the world? Could we circumvent the globe using sub-orbital flight?

    4) Are Tanker ships the optimal way to ship goods around the world? Could a hydroplane boat be better?

    5) Is the current cell tower based model of the optimal solution to mobile internet penetration? Could a satellite mesh network be 10x or 100x better?

    6) Is the USD the best form of a world reserve currency we have? Would a digitally native, store of value present a better alternative?

    7) Is medicine the best way to cure an infected organ or can we regrow the organ using stem cells?

    8) Is a bits based transistor computer the optimal way to build a computer? Or could a quantum design computer be a better design?

     

     

    All of these questions share one thing in common. They question reality using first principles. By removing our human biases for “how we’ve always done things,” we can think more freely about the specific problem we are trying to solve. It is only from a first principle approach that we can arrive at a novel solution. A 0 to 1 solution.

    The Best Ideas Often Start out looking like Bad Ideas

    Here are some common traits of good ideas that look like bad ideas:

    - Powerful people will dismiss them as toys

    - Western union dismissed the telephone when it was invented – they said Why do we need voice? WE have Morse code

    - Why do we need email when we have fax machines?

    - Why do we need online shopping when I can go down to the mail?

    Skype

    - Unbundling the functions done by incumbent businesses

    - Emerge first as hobbies

     

     

    Betting against the status quo can be daunting. It can feel like you are alone in space. However, that feeling, of being ahead of the crowd is a good indication you are headed in the right direction. The best companies create their own sectors.

     

    That is why we founded Carbon Ventures. To back incredible founders as they venture into the unknown and to give them both the financial and social capital to push the envelope that much further.

     

    As investors, we are always looking for companies that present asymmetric risk reward. Where the risk is capped (1x our investment) but the reward may be many times the initial capital. 100-1000x multiple potential.

  • INVESTMENT THESIS

    Investment Thesis

    I back startups with highly asymmetric risk reward potential. Often, these are good ideas that start out looking like bad ideas. Identifying the crossover between what the smartest people are working on during nights/weekends and where the world is going.

     

    Using the network I've built over the last decade in silicon valley, I get access to proprietary deal flow. My approach is simple. I back founders with domain expertise solving hard problems in massive markets. Industries that have not yet been touched by technology. I look for asymmetric opportunities where the payoff, if successful, dwarfs the risk of loss.

     

    I invest in teams I believe in first, ideas second. A good team can find their way to a good idea. A bad team often cannot.

     

    MY BACKGROUND

    In 2014, I Co-founded Hedgy, a blockchain derivatives platform backed by Tim Draper and Marc Benioff. Hedgy raised $1.2m in funding and was acquired by Wyre, Inc in 2018. In late 2017, I co-founded Synapse Capital, a crypto asset investment fund where I managed a portfolio of liquid and illiquid crypto investments. (www.synapse.capital)

     

    My career has largely been in the investing and cryptocurrency world. I first invested in bitcoin in 2013. I later invested in the Ethereum crowd sale in 2014 among many of the other early, successful protocols.

     

    Through 2014-2017, I increased my exposure as Ethereum ushered in a new era of the internet – the internet of value. I invested in many of the top performing crypto assets including Cosmos, 0x (pre-seed), Theta, Augur, MakerDAO and Golem generating a combined return of over 5000%.

    FOCUS AREAS

    Some Areas I’m currently Interested In (subject to change):

    • Crypto Assets, programmable money & smart contracts
    • Fintech & unbundling of financial services
    • AI/Machine learning
    • No Code software tools
    • Robotics
    • Tangent businesses to the proliferation of electric vehicles
    • Online education focused on technical skills
    • Disrupting Real Estate brokerage, management and research
    • Automating professional services
    • Genetic Engineering/ DNA programming
    • Life extension technologies

    INVESTMENT CHECKLIST

    I have 10 point checklist I used to help me evaluate deals. None of these are requirements and this is not exhaustive but it helps me hone my intuition on the potential of a business to become a winner years down the road.

    1. Can this company be worth $10 Billion or more in the future?
    2. Is this a new, small market growing fast or a big market giving up existing market share? What will the size of the market be in 10 years, rather than now?
    3. Does this company become more powerful as it gets bigger? Ie. Real Network effects, trends towards Metcalfe’s law
    4. Is this a good idea that looks like a bad idea or a bad idea that looks like a good idea? (Want former).
    5. Is at least one founder technical? Does this founder understand the problem or tooling better than anyone else?
    6. Does this founder have a deep sense of mission? Will they stick with it for 10 years?
    7. Is this company following a real trend or a fake trend?
    8. Did this product/trend start with hobbyists on nights and weekends?
    9. Does founder have high integrity and will be transparent with investors/employees/customers
    10. What is founder cadence and speed of product iteration? (faster better).

    EXPECTATIONS

    Independence

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  • Portfolio

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    Ethereum

    2014 Seed
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    Celestia

    Series B

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    MakerDAO

    2017

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    Cosmos Network

    2017 Seed

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    Synthetix

    2018 Seed

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    Aave

    2020

     

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    0x

    2017 Seed

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    Theta Labs

    2018 Seed

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    Augur

    2017 Seed

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    Hop Protocol

    Seed

     

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    Futureswap

    2019 Seed

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    Keep

    2018 Seed

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    Republic Protocol

    2018

     

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    POAP

    Seed

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    Loopring

    2020

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    Authereum

    Seed

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    district0x

    2018 Seed

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    Bancor Network

    2020

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    Nexus Mutual

    2020

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    Stargaze

    Seed

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    Metalink

    Seed

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    BreederDAO

    Seed

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    Decentral Games

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    Synapse Protocol

    Seed

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    xToken

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    Tessera

    (Previously fractional.art)

    Series A

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    decent.xyz

    Seed

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    Nomad

    Seed

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    Matchbox

    Seed

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    Burnt Finance

    Series A

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    IPOR

    Seed

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    Alexandria Labs

    Seed

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    Smoothy Finance

    Seed

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    Tokemak

    Series A

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    Layer N

    Seed

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    Ostium

    Seed

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    Canza Finance

    Seed

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