founder @portalventures | previously: @insightpartners, @goldmansachs | not financial advice

Joined August 2019
84 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
14 Nov 2024
I’m incredibly proud to announce the launch of our oversubscribed $75M @PortalVentures Fund 2. We exclusively lead crypto pre-seeds with the first check in. Across our two funds we’ve now raised $115M. ~~~ Crypto is an industry that requires real conviction. Prior to launching Portal, I was an investor at Insight Partners. Insight was founded in 1995 to back software founders in what was, at the time, a cottage industry. Since then, they’ve raised $90B and had 50 IPOs across the portfolio. Leaving that seat was not an easy decision, but I saw a similar opportunity. Build a firm that is purpose-built to back the emerging protocol economy. ~~~ When launching Fund 1, I was fortunate to have a great investor base for support and mentorship. Our investors include Midas list investors, decacorn founders, and Managing Partners of large funds across asset classes like @djparekh of Insight Partners, @KyleSamani of Multicoin, and Henry Kravis of KKR. There are so many people that helped me get here, but I’ll never forget Deven, Jeff, Ian, Nikhil, and David from Insight for being my first-ever investors and supporters. ~~~ Launching in early 2022 presented a slew of challenges. While crypto rallied to ATHs and mentions of the supercycle peaked, we grounded ourselves in the age-old Buffett quote “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” As the year went on, exuberance evaporated with the crash of Luna and FTX. Fear filled the markets, it was go-time. We wired for one of our most exciting early lead investments within weeks of the FTX crash. From Q4 2022 through all of 2023, we were aggressive. As some told us to pivot to AI or ‘slow our deployment,’ we ran faster… We grounded in our conviction and ran into what looked like a burning market. It was the right decision. ~~~ When we started raising for Fund 2 earlier this year, BTC was still ~40% down from its ATH and many still questioned the viability of the industry. We’re super thankful to the teams at Accolade, Theta, and CrossLayer for betting big on us early on. An investor base that can see through the cycles lets us focus on what we love… ... And there are really two things that I love most about what we’re doing at Portal: 1. Backing founders with high conviction on day zero builds special relationships: We’re the first believers. Building in a volatile, emerging industry is a highly personal experience. It’s incredibly rewarding to see founders grow from an individual with an idea, to the leader of a category-creating product with a large team and scaled business. We’re on the rollercoaster with our founders. We take the late-night calls. We can relate when it feels like the world is ending. And we certainly celebrate the wins. 2. Crypto is a new asset class: New asset classes create new types of investment firms. There is no age-old playbook on being a world-class crypto investor, just as there was no PE playbook in the ‘80s or venture software playbook in the ‘90s. We get to think from first principles and help write the rules on investing in an industry that will create tens of trillions of dollars of market cap. Opportunities like this don’t come along often. ~~~ With our new $75M Fund 2, we’re excited to double down on what we do best: leading first-check investments into category-creating protocol businesses.
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1. Consciousness is pre-verbal 2. LLMs are trained on something post-verbal 3. How can something post-verbal be conscious?
Google DeepMind researcher argues that LLMs can never be conscious, not in 10 years or 100 years. "Expecting an algorithmic description to instantiate the quality it maps is like expecting the mathematical formula of gravity to physically exert weight."
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What would you do if you hacked satoshi's wallet? 1.⁠ ⁠Taking a large levered short on BTC. 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Move tokens from Satoshi's wallet. 3.⁠ ⁠⁠Close short. Open long. 4.⁠ ⁠⁠Announce you have the wallet and for the purposes of making BTC PQ, you will be burning all tokens. Alternatively, you might: 1.⁠ ⁠Accumulate BTC and lobby privately to make BTC PQ 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Or, focus attacks on lost private key wallets not satoshi's wallet You would not, however, immediately sell and / or try to break the network. Your issues would be: 1. The price of BTC will crater once any of Satoshi's coins move (lowering your EV) 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Liquidity at that scale will be challenging 3.⁠ ⁠⁠Off-ramping at that scale will be challenging
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Evan Fisher retweeted
Portal Talent Network — 3.11.26 Role #1: @utexocom Title: Head of Exchange Relationships Description: Be the face of Utexo to exchanges. Manage existing partnerships, secure new listings and integration opportunities, and drive strategic alignment between the product roadmap and the needs of major trading venues. This is a senior, high-visibility role at the intersection of business development, product strategy, and ecosystem growth. Role #2: @JoinHorizon Title: Growth Marketing (Contractor) Description: Own paid social, lifecycle, and influencer-driven acquisition across TikTok, Meta, and referral channels. Produce high-performing video content and manage paid campaigns to drive brand awareness and customer acquisition. ***This role has the potential to convert into a full-time position if the engagement is successful. If you're interested in either opportunity, DM @evanzsolomon or send your LinkedIn and resume to esolomon@portal.vc
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In 2001 people thought the internet was dead & overhyped. Today it's $10T in mkt cap Blockchain is entering the commercialization phase. Large market. Real value props. Proven biz models. Don't miss Amazon bc you're appalled by Pets dot com
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Moats for the next decade: Capital intensivity Trust Network effects
For 50 yrs we treated the supremacy of asset-light businesses as a permanent economic law But if AI commoditizes asset-light businesses, we’d just be reverting to the historical mean where value accrued to atoms, infrastructure, energy It would be a 50 year blip. An anomaly
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When LPs ask who I most respect, my answer is usually "I'd give Kyle my money." I once made a joke that Kyle's love language is debate. He's truth seeking and incredible at standing behind his views even when contrarian. I've learned a lot from him and he's gone out of his way to help us as we build our firm. Excited to see what's next 🫡🙏🏼
0/ A personal update I have decided to step back from @multicoin. It's a bittersweet moment for me because my time at Multicoin has been some of the most meaningful and rewarding of my life. That said, I am excited to take some time off and explore new areas of technology. After nearly a decade in crypto, I’m more confident than ever that crypto is going to fundamentally rewire the circuitry of finance. I believe the Clarity Act will unlock a tidal wave of new entrants and spur adoption unlike anything we’ve seen. I remain bullish on crypto, specifically Solana, and intend to continue making personal investments in the space and supporting Multicoin portfolio companies. Moreover, I will continue to serve on the board of @zama, and I will continue in my role as Chairman at Forward Industries (@FWDind). More on Forward in next tweet. It goes without saying that I also remain bullish on Multicoin. My partners @tushar_jain, Brian Smith, @johnrobertreed, @mattshap1, @xethalis, @SpencerApplebau, and @shayonsengupta are some of the best investors and operators in the world. I am excited for them to continue to drive the crypto ecosystem and Multicoin forward for many years to come. To all of our portfolio founders, LPs, and industry partners—thank you for the opportunity to work with you. For reference, here is the letter we shared with LPs today drive.google.com/file/d/1bso…
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We got 2 pitches today that didn't include any info on founder background Founders - you are the most important piece of a startup, at least tell me your name!
Replying to @BraytonKey
Founder bios
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Tokenization is one of those special markets that is both consensus and still underappreciated. Within tokenization, what's most exciting to us? Latent Capital Markets. Join us as we talk with our portfolio companies on this intersection. x.com/i/spaces/1dRKZalewWMxB…
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Latent Capital Markets: x.com/evanbfish/status/19962…

3 Dec 2025
1/ Most tokenization pitches miss the point. We've had hundreds of conversations with financial institutions, capital market experts, & founders. Out of that came our thesis: Latent Capital Markets.
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Also found this to be a great resource for buyback info x.com/layerggofficial/status…

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Launching a new substack (link below):
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We've seen @chriseyin and @teddyP_xyz execute from day 1. They're ambitious, insanely fast-moving, and committed to building the best tokenization solutions 2025 was filled with insane ups and downs I've never seen them hungrier than they are now
2025 was a seminal year for RWAs and Plume: * 3.5x growth in RWA value from $5.5b to $18.8b * 7x growth in RWA holders from 88k to 580k holders * Commodities, institutional funds, and private credit as the fastest growing RWA markets And in just 2 quarters of @plumenetwork being live on mainnet: * #1 chain by RWA holders with over 280k of 580k holders (47% of the whole market) * Largest deployment of @apolloglobal with $50M from @grovedotfinance * Largest @WisdomTreeFunds deployment with over 14 different funds * SEC issued us a US transfer agent license * Plumasia in full effect with deployments of CMBI, Taikang, UBS uMint with @DigiFTTech * The broader diversity of RWAs on any chain in the world with tbills, precious metals, private credit, minerals, alternative assets, equities/ETFs, etc * The second largest market for RWAfi and RWA looping with @NestCredit assets * 1 of 3 pure play RWA tokens listed on all major exchanges @binance @Official_Upbit @coinbase @Bybit_Official @BithumbOfficial and many more Grateful that we get to work in this market and the biggest opportunity i've ever seen. Shoutout to our partners, our community, our ecosystem, our team, our investors, and all of our supporters. You all have been there and had our backs through all the ups and downs of this insane market and we couldn't do it without you all. Despite the insane progress we saw this year, we're not even 1% of the way there. This is literally a multiple quadrillion dollar market and the stars have aligned for us to change the world together with everyone else here building through thick and thin. Brick by brick. Life is better onchain, and we won't stop until we've tokenized the entire world. Goons in control. Plume is my safe word much love it's a goon world. gplume
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19 Dec 2025
Lots of VCs missed early payments deals bc they dramatically underestimated TAM I think the same is true with tokenization. It won't happen all at once, but there are truly trillions of $ of assets to come on-chain This is a market that will support many massive outcomes
17 Dec 2025
it’s been an incredible two years since embarking on the @plumenetwork journey with @chriseyin—the legend himself during this “tokenization boom,” we’ve seen tremendous positive change and real progress toward RWA adoption, driven by more open regulation and strong tailwinds from some of the largest financial institutions in the world i’ve recently been constantly asked for my thoughts on the RWA space while on the conference circuit across NYC, Asia, and the UAE -- pockets of the world where Plume is building a strong foothold. the honest answer: it’s still early, but all the signs for growth are there and after all my insane travel, it’s become clear to me that @plumenetwork is the only truly global RWA player capitalizing on the high velocity of tokenization worldwide grateful that @nytimes picked up on our story and journey -- the RWA vertical is early and just starting to hit escape velocity oh, and if you haven’t already, give @banamlas a follow to stay up to date on how one of the true legends in the space, and our GC, is navigating the evolution of tokenization today nytimes.com/2025/12/17/techn…
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19 Dec 2025
As founders and investors turn increasingly short-termist, the competitive set for long-term builders and investors clears out Swing big, bet longer
The current media meta in tech tends to lionise past success or focus on the immediate future. I always felt technology most inspired when taking a longer lens on timelines, so started working on a series of thoughts/chats about 2050 starting here. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/finnmu…
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18 Dec 2025
Regulatory clarity brings the need to consider incumbency advantages Further, understanding the buy vs. build frameworks of Coinbase, Robinhood, Blackrock, etc will be life or death for many companies
Everything we announced at the Coinbase System Update in under two minutes.
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