NYC → Solana Breakpoint → South Africa — December was book‑ended by two weeks of investor/partner meetings in New York and a focused run at Breakpoint (Abu Dhabi), then back to South Africa to close the year with high‑signal conversations.
Breakpoint > everything — Main event of the month. DATS maturing, application layer getting its valuation moment, and Solana’s “younger, tighter, more product‑driven” culture stood out.
BD & partnerships first — Back‑office automation + outreach systems ran smoothly, letting us prioritise hands‑on growth work and partner development.
Video cadence steady (lighter while travelling) — TikTok continued; YouTube queued for early January to maintain consistency and audience familiarity/trust.
Clients — Polli and Bolt advanced with customers and partners; pipelines stayed warm despite travel.
Deal flow — Active OTC and secondary opportunities continued in the background.
Quarter wrap — Cosmoverse → Devconnect → Breakpoint made for a heavy season of in‑person BD; we’re set up with clear follow‑ups for Q1.
Refreshed relationships with funds, family offices, and infra partners; multiple threads moved from networking → working sessions → scoped next steps for Q1.
Reconnected with local industry (large arbitrage venues and leading remittance exchanges). Next: diligence collaboration lanes and data access.
Polli (staking optimisation) — Maintained investor + foundation momentum; pilots and partner dialogs kept pace post‑travel.
Bolt (liquidity/infra) — Progressed customer calls and integration scoping; aligning near‑term KPIs with counterparties.
Back‑office + outreach — Automations, CRM, and follow‑ups worked smoothly through travel; BD stayed consistent across LinkedIn, X, and Telegram.
Team — Full team back at strength in Q1; Ryan returns from family leave and we’ll scale output and pipeline for clients.
Content cadence — Weekly production plan remains (scripts → shoot → edit → publish) with short syncs to stay aligned.
Video system — No structural changes in December; lightweight recording on the road, edits queued for January.
Ops tooling — Kept enrichment/scheduling/routing automations stable to protect cadence during travel weeks.
DAT Summit (Dec 10): Rooms full of fund managers; leverage low, ~$100B flowed in; DATs shifting from passive treasuries to operating companies that buy infra and reinvest. Betting apps as UI unlock; apps likely to drive 2026 growth. Top Solana apps (Jupiter, Pump, Kamino) do ~$1.8B rev at ~3–4× multiples.
Capital‑markets chain (Dec 11): Solana leaning into fast, cheap block space; valuation models evolving to include community, not just DCFs; long‑run everything interoperable.
Attendance (Dec 12): ~60% capacity by Day 3; DeFi everywhere. Everyone who matters—node providers, wallets, lenders, validators—was in the room.
Applications undervalued: drive ~60% of activity yet ~7% of value → multi‑year growth opportunity.
DATs maturing: consolidation ahead; behave like growth companies; infra buys + ecosystem reinvestment; regulatory‑aware (no yield gymnastics).
Solana’s thesis: built for capital markets; app layer controls distribution; UI approachable for non‑crypto natives.
Constructive base: low leverage, stronger fundamentals despite price compression—institutions noticing.
Scale & culture: ~7k (contained, approachable) vs 20k+ (diffuse, research‑heavy). Venue design shaped conversation quality.
Where value happened: side rooms/focused tracks > expo floors; easier to hold attention for 3–4 hours of keynotes at Breakpoint.
Application layer over infra — distribution + cashflows matter more than TVL narratives.
UI as the unlock — mass adoption arrives when crypto stops looking like crypto.
DAT maturation — look for vehicles acting like growth companies; avoid pure treasury plays.
Cultural advantage — Solana’s tighter, more inclusive loop helps consumer apps iterate faster.
Travel slows output, but the right in‑person weeks compress months of back‑and‑forth.
Consistent, even if lighter, video posts keep the flywheel turning; quality follows cadence.
Focused venues (Breakpoint‑style) beat sprawling formats for BD and partner clarity.
Bolt team retreat — Costa Rica — Focused week on roadmap, integrations, and growth ops; align KPIs and partner timelines for Q1.
Puerto Rico — Sequire Investor Summit (Jan 21–23) — Investor meetings at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, San Juan (SRAX/Sequire). Expect dozens of presenting companies and a broad mix of investors/family offices; curated tracks + networking. Goal: expand LP/strategic network and advance secondary/OTC relationships.
NYC follow‑ups — In‑person check‑ins with funds and partners from recent meetings.
YouTube cadence on — Kick off weekly posting; continue TikTok shorts; cross‑post highlights to X/LinkedIn.
Fund vehicle — Formalise the workplan with our PE‑background partner (vehicle, thesis, LP profile, timeline) for an early‑year decision.
Clients — Convert December BD into pilots/mandates for Polli and Bolt; lock KPIs and partner milestones.
SA partnerships — Advance discussions with arbitrage/remittances players; define data and integration scopes.
OTC/secondary — Keep allocations flowing for aligned partners; tighten diligence and comms loops.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.