Variant Values

When we founded Variant three years ago, we knew we wanted to build a mission-driven web3 VC firm and partner with founders who are long-term oriented and here to do their life’s work. During those early days we outlined the following cultural tenets that describe our mission and core values – principles and beliefs we have inside Variant that explain how we interact and get the work done in service of our mission and the founders we back. 

As crypto-native fund, we believe in building in public and sharing our thoughts, so below is our values doc. I hope understanding our beliefs and core principles will help everyone in our network – from candidates and employees to prospective founders, portfolio teams, advisors and community LPs – who want to be part of the culture like this. 

Our Mission: Build the user-owned web

Variant was founded on a simple idea: the networks that define the next generation of the internet will turn users into owners. This ownership aligns incentives so that networks can grow bigger, faster; it can also serve to drive more equitable outcomes. Tokens distributed via blockchains make this world possible.

Our Core Values: How we make everyday decisions

We respect every entrepreneur

• Variant is a service business, and the entrepreneur is our customer
• We seek to make every interaction a positive experience (for example, by taking the time to write a thoughtful pass note, even if we decide not to invest)
• We show up on time
• We never speak negatively about an entrepreneur to anyone; we give benefit of the doubt, find the silver lining and respect their work
• We strive to answer every communication, close every loop

We win bigger as a team

• We celebrate diversity of strengths; don’t harp on weaknesses.
• We value each other’s time and are extremely judicious about how we spend it
• We obsess over details
• We constantly ask “what more can I do to help my team succeed? or “is there a better way to do this?”
• We aren’t afraid to cut tape and rethink collaboration from first principles

We have a bias towards action

• We don’t simply diagnose problems or wait for direction — we come up with solutions and implement them
• We embrace change and are willing to take calculated risks

We invest and build in public

• We share our thinking publicly, as often as possible
• We live in the future that we want to pull forward
• We use the products and protocols we invest in
• We contribute to the communities we invest in
• We experiment onchain

We take our mission to heart

• We take a long view on our thesis and our mission of building a more equitable internet through user ownership
• We live our own mission: our funds are owned by our users — the founders that we back; our investor base is comprised of over 100 of the brightest minds and builders in web3, crypto, and technology