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Chris Lepensky is a former Data Director at Utopia, a former investment partner at Variant, and a former data scientist at 0x. He has a PhD from the University of Connecticut.
Work Experience
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Fabio Berger
Fabio Berger is the Co-founder and CEO of BlowfishXYZ. He has a Duke Computer Science degree, is a Full Stack Engineer, and co-founded WealthLift.com and ShelfRelief.
Tong Pow
Tong Pow, co-founder and CEO of Hologram, was previously a member of South Park Commons and an 0x product engineer.
Maximiliano Torres
Maximiliano Torres is former Head of Finance at 0x. He left 0x in April 2022 but continued supporting web3 builders through angel investments and advising in companies, such as Aleph Zero, AngelBlock, dBloks, Delta Prime, Safary Club, and Thaw Digital. His goal is to bridge Silicon Valley's capital with promising web3 founders in LATAM, supporting those who are creating disruptive and sustainable products. Currently, he is a mentor at Rayo Capital, a LATAM-focused web3 fund.
Geoff Hamilton
Geoff is an Investment Research Partner at Variant, where he focuses primarily on DeFi. Prior to joining Variant, Geoff spent 15 years investing in private and public companies. During that time, helped start and grow five investment firms, including Askesis Capital, Dayah Capital, Sachem Head Capital Management, and Conatus Capital. Before that, Geoff worked at Bain Capital and Bain & Company and studied Economics at Harvard.
Tom Schmidt
Tom Schmidt is a Partner at Dragonfly Capital. Previously, he was a Product at 0x Project, a Product Manager for Ads at Facebook and Instagram, and an Engineer at Apple and Stanford CS.
Nihal Maunder
Nihal Maunder is an investor at Pantera Capital and a former product and growth manager at 0x Labs. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
Alana Levin
Alana is an Investment Partner at Variant Fund. Her initial interest in crypto stemmed from a broader interest in public goods and financial regulatory policy– she spent a summer at the SEC and graduated summa cum laude with degrees in Finance & Public Policy from Wharton. Alana’s interest in crypto has since evolved to focus primarily on token design, governance structures, scaling costs, and privacy mechanics. She often writes about these concepts on her Substack, Back-of-the-Envelope, and on her Mirror profile. Prior to Variant, Alana worked as a consultant at BCG. In her free time, Alana enjoys running, writing, kayaking, and exploring old bookstores and cafés.
Li Jin
Li Jin is the co-founder of Variant Fund and the founder of Atelier Ventures. Prior to that, Li Jin was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Mason Nystrom
Mason is an Investment Partner at Variant. Prior to joining Variant, Mason was a Sr. Research Analyst at Messari focused on Web3 protocols and cryptoassets. Before Messari, Mason worked at ConsenSys as a Content Marketer focused on marketing strategy for ConsenSys and its portfolio companies. Mason first entered the crypto industry as an Analyst at Gatecoin, the first cryptocurrency exchange to list ether, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. Mason obtained his Master’s in Business Management at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Derek Walkush
Derek is an Investment Research Partner at Variant. He got interested in crypto in late 2020 around DeFi summer after conducting high level research on blockchain as an analyst in Georgetown’s student-run hedge fund. Looking to learn more about the space, Derek interned at Accolade Partners, which launched one of the first institutional crypto fund of funds. His interest and conviction only seemed to grow; he soon dove into the on-chain world and became a part-time contributor at Index Coop and AladdinDAO; he was recently elected to Aladdin’s research council where he pitches stable farming strategies. After teaching himself SQL and working as an analyst for a project finance startup, Derek began writing for Spencer’s newsletter, OurNetwork, applying his interest in data querying and fundamentals analysis. Realizing the generational opportunity in front of him, Derek left Georgetown to join the team full-time in June 2022. His primary research interests are on-chain data analytics and token distribution. In his free time, Derek enjoys working out (former D1 rower), 90s movies, cooking, and traveling.