Joining Paradigm

I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined the Paradigm investment team to help Matt Huang, Fred Ehrsam and the rest of the team build the world’s leading crypto investment firm.

My introduction to crypto came from a childhood in virtual worlds. From RuneScape to World of Warcraft to EVE Online, I grew up in games where teamwork with anons was the norm. Dozens of players worked in my ORE Rorqual mining fleet in EVE. Hundreds more formed the complex product line for the Titan-class ships built by my industrial corp. These ambitious projects took a collective effort and were connected by a web of in-game social systems and economic incentives. When I first started to learn about Bitcoin in 2013, these experiences kicked off a fascination with how crypto could enable coordination at a scale larger than any game ever could.

While I started in crypto from the perspective of a gamer, I’ve also looked in from the view of some of the world’s most innovative consumer companies. At Goldman Sachs and Coatue, I worked with and invested in companies reimagining the social and economic systems of today - companies like Discord, Bytedance, Unity, Rec Room, and Chime. As crypto looks to build a durable economy for the first billion users, I hope to bring across many of the strategies that these companies used to scale and reshape their industries.

Crypto’s ambition has grown more than I ever could have imagined nearly a decade ago. Chasing that ambition is a combination of innovation, talent, and capital that can catalyze a generational shift across industries. With the opportunity to join Paradigm and partner with some of the best minds in crypto, I’m thrilled to play a role in realizing that ambition.

At Paradigm, I’ll be investing across all stages with a focus on consumer companies. I am excited to work closely with entrepreneurs looking to bring in the first billion users into crypto. If you are working on something you think I’d find interesting, please email me at doug@paradigm.xyz.