Variant

Jesse Walden is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Variant. Jesse led the firm's investments in Uniswap, Phantom, Mirror, Flashbots, Foundation and others. Previously, Jesse was an investment partner on the first crypto fund at Andreessen Horowitz and later led a16z Crypto Startup School.

Li is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Variant, where she leads consumer investing for the firm and supports portfolio companies in their comms, community building, and go-to-market strategy.

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.

Alana is an Investment Partner focusing on infrastructure. Prior to Variant, Alana worked as a consultant at BCG.

Medha is an Investment Research Partner at Variant. On the evenings and weekends she also runs she256, a 5013c she co-founded in 2018 that aims to increase diversity in the crypto space, and an investment DAO called Komorebi, which invests seed capital into female and non-binary crypto founders.

Mason Nystrom is an Investment Partner at Variant, where he focuses on consumer crypto. Prior to joining Variant, Mason was a Sr. Research Analyst at Messari focused on Web3 infrastructure, NFTs, social tokens, and DAO infrastructure. He also worked at ConsenSys focused on marketing strategy for ConsenSys and its portfolio companies.

Derek is an Investment Research Partner at Variant, focused on DeFi. His primary research interests include on-chain data analytics and token distribution. He is also a frequent contributor to Spencer’s newsletter, OurNetwork.

Tina Dai is an Investment Partner at Variant. Tina's journey in web3 started at We3, a community of professional women and non-binary individuals building a more inclusive web3, where she built their investment arm and led 10+ syndicates in select deals. Tina began her venture career at First Round Capital, and later joined Silverton Partners as a Principal to invest in early-stage startups. Prior to venture, Tina held Product Management and Strategy roles at Intuit, and was a former consultant at McKinsey & Company. Tina earned her Business Honors and Finance degrees from UT Austin. In her free time, she enjoys meditating, making music, playing poker, traveling, skiing, and more!

Jack is the data scientist at Variant. In this role, he uses data analytics and modeling to help Variant and its portfolio founders make better data-driven decisions.

Caleb is CFO and COO at Variant Fund. Prior to Variant, he was a Senior Manager at BKD CPAs & Advisors.

Tom is the Chief of Staff at Variant, where he supports the firm across a wide range of functional areas and strategic projects. He previously worked as a Senior Investment Associate at HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets investor, where he covered venture capital managers.

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 a16z crypto.

Dan Roberts is the Editor in Chief at Variant. He has been writing about crypto since 2011. Prior to joining Variant, Dan was Editor in Chief at crypto news site Decrypt.

Alli is the Director of Education and Events at Variant. In her role, she partners with founders, builders, and community members alike to provide the tools, education, and support needed to bring the ownership economy thesis to fruition. She also hosts an ongoing interview series called “Fem3 Voices,” which aims to highlight the work of women and non-binary builders in web3.

Henry is the Controller at Variant. Prior to joining Variant, he was a senior associate at the public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, where he performed attestations over financial institutions.

Jake Chervinsky is one of Variant Fund’s strategic advisors. Jake is currently the Head of Policy at Blockchain Association, the largest advocacy group for the crypto industry in Washington DC. Prior, he was General Counsel at Compound Labs, one of the first companies to progressively decentralize and make users of the Compound protocol owners.

Marc is one of Variant Fund’s strategic advisors and is currently Chief Legal Officer at Polygon. Before recently joining the Polygon team, Marc served as CLO at dYdX. Previously, Marc was a partner in the blockchain and cryptocurrency and financial services group at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP alongside Rebecca. Marc is an expert on blockchain and digital assets, and he frequently speaks and provides education about issues related to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency regulations.

Calder is one of Variant’s strategic advisors focused on the talent and recruiting efforts of the fund and our portfolio. Currently, Calder is Head of Recruiting at OpenSea — he joined as the company’s first recruiting hire, before building out and leading their recruiting function. Prior to that, he held various recruiting positions at tech companies including Facebook, Google, Zynga and Path.

Elyse is an Executive Assistant at Variant. She has over six years of C-level support at financial institutions.

Maria is an Executive Assistant at Variant Fund, bringing over 8 years of experience to the role.