IOSG founder’s experience in participating in the meeting: Project parties and VCs are almost out of money, which tests the founder’s resilience

Original author: Jocy, founder of IOSG

The scale of this industry is still growing further. This year I have participated in different events such as ETHDenver/ETHCC/Montenegro Zuzalu/Edcon. This time in 2049, I still met a lot of old friends. In fact, every such conference has a huge impact on the industry. Attracting a large number of attendees, many companies have set budgets for such conferences. Therefore, as the scale of the industry grows, the number of participants continues to rise even in a bear market.

LP continues to support early-stage VCs who are growing in the industry. VCs continue to support founding teams in some emerging fields. The team continues to expand and grow in scale. It seems that everything is developing in a better direction. But in fact, this is not the case. For many teams, this time 2049 has basically become their last hope of financing. If the bear market does not end, this may be the last time their team’s brand is exposed, because most early-stage teams have lost their money in the past two years. The expansion has basically bottomed out the runway. The burn rate of some teams is very high, and there are only 5 to 10 months left in such a market. They even buy 2049 sky-high tickets/sponsored booths to pitch. More potential investors.

In addition, I attended an exclusive event held by the Medici family. About half of the 120 people were VCs, and about 90% of the funds in the VCs of these 60 people were financing. Because under the pressure of US regulations, fund financing has become It is very difficult. Relying on their brand and influence, they believe that Chinese LPs in Asia will support them more generously.

But the reality is different from the bustling scene of the 2049 event. Most Crypto-oriented LPs have become more frugal due to the bear market, while traditional LPs have fallen into skepticism about the value and use cases of this industry. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect to meet suitable VC/LP to complete financing at a conference event. It is obvious that the bear market will continue for a period of time. At this time, the founding team’s resilience and resilience will be tested, just like the previous one During the bear market cycle, many founders survived until March 2020. When they saw Bitcoin worth 3,000 US dollars, their hopes were shattered, and they disbanded the team and gave up the project. Of course, three months later that year, DeFi Summer broke out and the encryption industry ushered in a new life. Many practitioners saw an unprecedented dawn.

Different from previous years, this year 2049 is no longer so commercial, because VCs and founders from all over the world are invited to participate in different side events. This week in Singapore, in addition to F1 spectators, they are crypto practitioners. Of course, my habit is Usually during this kind of blockchain week, I will arrange some catch up coffee chats during the day to communicate with the founders we have invested in in the past, and then go back to participate in some interesting activities and catch up with some old friends in the evening (basically the week of attending the meeting , they all go to bed at 1 a.m. and get up at 7/8 a.m. to schedule meetings).

From the perspective of IOSG, our strategy for the past two years is to do our best to provide a professional academic stage to help portfolios go to market, and to allow more industry practitioners to discover them, recognize them, and interact with them. .

There is no conflict between academic and social activities. We usually separate them into two separate areas. People who like to study can take notes quietly in the internal lecture area and listen to various presentations and panel discussions. Friends who like to socialize can go around and participate in OFR. Thousands of old friends exchange TG and chat one by one.

In fact, it is a strange thing to pay attention to new topics in 2049, because builders/Devs generally rarely come to such conferences, and this place provides more of a stage for capital docking. The power of capital can drive industry progress. We can see the military competition on the L2 track with a valuation of US$2 billion. zkEVM, which holds hundreds of millions in cash, is making rapid technological progress and is competing in recruitment, mainnet and application ecology. Continuously throwing money at companies, even in a bear market, can still attract better talents to join the game.

In addition, we have invited more than 20 related founders to share the AI track at the IOSG OFR of French ECC in the past two months. This track has already become a radical track for most American Crypto funds to bet on. Modular labs is in the bear market. More than 14 TS were received, Gensyn's valuation exceeded 400 m, and ChainML completed two rounds of financing in less than 6 months.

If you look back at OFR's event theme this year, we are focusing on protocol security audit/ZKML and Generative AI direction/LSD and Modular tracks. Of course, we will invite application and FOG founders at the upcoming DevConnect in Turkey, currently on L2 The application has become an inevitable trend for industry innovation. We are eagerly waiting for these best founders to continue solving industry application problems.

I accidentally wrote too much. In fact, I believe that friends who generally need to read this kind of summary article, I think there are more wanderers, because most practitioners will get involved, so I suggest these friends who are still reading the article, the next activity Just travel and feel the native power of encryption in the development community. Go to the industry to find a place where it shines and create it, instead of just waiting for the next bull market.

Original link