Details
Nina is the chief marketing officer at Variant where she is responsible for the brand, marketing, communications, and events. She also advises projects in our portfolio on their marketing strategy. Nina was previously a marketing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she helped build the crypto fund’s brand through media, events and special programs like the Crypto Startup School. Prior to her work at a16z, she was an account director at the OutCast Agency, a marketing agency specializing in comms, creative, and digital.
Work Experience
Relevance Person
Ronny Conway
Ronny Conway is the Founder & General Partner at A.Capital. Prior to starting A.Capital, Ronny was one of the first Partners at Andreessen Horowitz, where he was the head of seed and early-stage investing and was involved in such high profile investments as Airbnb, Instagram, Optimizely, Pinterest, Dollar Shave Club and Twitter. Before a16z, Ronny spent six years at Google, and was one of the first employees at Google Ventures. Ronny has spent most of his life around venture capital, and received his bachelor’s degree from UCLA.
Ramu Arunachalam
Ramu Arunachalam is the General Partner at A.Capital. Ramu was most recently a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. A computer scientist by training, Ramu has over a decade of operating experience in product management and engineering at both startups and public companies. Prior to Andreessen Horowitz, Ramu led new product initiatives in Big Data for Aster Data (acquired by Teradata). Earlier in his career, Ramu was an engineer at VMware and part of the team that developed the industry’s first virtual switch for VMware’s flagship ESX server product line. Ramu holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering (with University Honors) from Carnegie Mellon University.
Anthony Albanese
Anthony is a Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of a16z Crypto. He is responsible for overseeing the operating teams, including legal, regulatory, policy, compliance, network governance, network operations, trading operations, security, marketing/comms and talent. Anthony also works with portfolio companies and projects to help them strategize, hire, and build scalable businesses. Prior to joining a16z, Anthony was the Chief Regulatory Officer of the New York Stock Exchange, where he managed regulation and liaised with regulators at the state, federal, and international levels. He was also the Acting Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), an agency of 1,400 employees regulating over 3,800 financial services entities with assets over $7 trillion. While at DFS, Anthony issued the first-ever BitLicense in New York. He also worked at Weil Gotshal for more than a decade as a partner specializing in securities litigation and corporate governance. Anthony holds a JD from St. John's University School of Law, where he was an editor on the Law Review, and a BA from Union College. After law school, Anthony clerked for Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa on the New York State Court of Appeals.
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.
Caroline Friedman
Caroline is the Head of Operations at Bastion and former Chief of Staff on the a16z crypto team. Prior to joining a16z crypto, she was at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, where she held a Chief of Staff role and a Regulatory Strategy Counsel role. Before that, Caroline worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado. She has prosecuted cases related to cyber-crime, international terrorism, and the illegal export of sensitive U.S. technology. Caroline has also worked as an associate at Jones Day, and has experience at INTERPOL and the Bureau of Industry and Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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.
Guy Wuollet
Guy Wuollet is a partner on the a16z crypto investment team. Guy focuses on infrastructure and application layer investments across crypto. He believes decentralized networks can better align incentives on the Internet and enable the future of commerce and communication. Prior to joining a16z, he worked on independent research in concert with Protocol Labs. His work focused on building decentralized networking protocols and upgrading Internet infrastructure. Guy holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where he rowed on the Varsity Crew team.
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.