Talking with founders in the crypto space these days is like a 2014 deja vu experience. Back then I was talking to founders every week and the same story was repeated; went something like this:
”Asked my neighbor [another tech person] to help me with an idea I had. A couple of months later we’re scrambling to keep up with demand [for the thing my neighbor helped me with]. But, my neighbor wasn’t interested in leaving their day job to build a business [for the thing they helped me with]. And, my neighbor wanted their cut of whatever business the thing becomes.”
In talking to IP attorneys at the time they said it was the number one thing they were asked to handle by founders trying to raise capital with a clean cap table. This became the genesis of our entry into cryptocurrency. The thesis was as follows:
Talent is needed to launch a successful venture.
Each hour of talent has unique value during the early stage of a venture.
Value is computed based on the talent's skills and what the venture needed when the talent applied their skills to the venture. For example if a product designer [talent] was needed in the first 90 days of the venture then the value of the product designer's hours were high. In contrast, if a DevOps engineer wasn't needed in the first 90 days of the venture then the value of their hours would be low.
The talent:value timetable optimizes what talent is needed when during the first year of a venture.
This thesis was too early in 2014; cryptocurrency platforms and tools didn’t exist; there was no L2 or L3 to build on. Fast forward to 2021 and there’s no longer a lack of support for the concept of a legal entity that’s natively on-chain. It’s possible right now and IMO the best move for a founder who recruits talent they know aren’t going to stay with their venture.
Reach out and I’ll demo what we prototyped back then; still relevant today.