January was reset and setup: South Africa catch-ups, relationship maintenance, and getting the calendar and priorities lined up for a heavy February.
February was field work: ETH Denver representing Bolt, then straight into Solana mtnDAO for client growth and founder sourcing.
BD priority: Strong focus on partnerships and making sure conference conversations turned into real follow-ups.
Sourcing mode: mtnDAO surfaced founder-quality venture opportunities for Riverstone’s investor network, especially teams with real traction and repeat-builder DNA.
Corporate positioning: We’re leaning into a more institutional posture where Riverstone can support investment firms with outsourced due diligence, with scope to expand from there.
February’s anchor was ETH Denver, where I spent the week representing Bolt and pushing partner conversations forward. I’ve published a recap that I’ll link here: [ETH Denver recap](ADD LINK).
The biggest value of Denver wasn’t vibes or volume. It was concentrated conversations with people who are still building, still shipping, and still able to move quickly.
From Denver I went to Solana mtnDAO, which is essentially a month-long builder house where Solana teams ship, iterate, and pitch the foundation at the end.
My time there was split across two things:
Hands-on growth for Riverstone clients inside the Solana ecosystem, mostly through partnership intros, distribution opportunities, and tightening the narrative so it lands with the right people.
Founder sourcing for Riverstone’s investor network. What stood out is the quality of teams. These weren’t first-time tourists. Most founders were already well connected, had built in crypto before, and had traction. In the current market, that profile matters.
We’re also pushing harder on Solana insider referrals for teams looking to raise, with a clear intent to build a structured referral program around it. This is good for founders (faster access) and good for our investor network (cleaner dealflow).
We’ve developed internal fundraising docs that we’re now sharing selectively with teams we want to assess and potentially work with. Public link here:
https://riverstonecap.notion.site/Riverstone-Capital-Advisory-Fundraising-Services-07a2ba45a819498aad73fbb330a7090c?source=copy_link
January was mostly relationships and planning, which doesn’t always look like output, but it is the foundation of future output. It’s also why this pulse is combined.
February was more execution-heavy: follow-ups, intros, and keeping the pipeline clean so the team can actually act on it.
We’re continuing to standardise how we capture leads and next steps from events so we don’t lose signal in the noise.
Next internal upgrade is translating this into a more institutional-facing operating model, including a due diligence support lane for investment firms.
Conference-as-a-system: treating conferences less like attendance and more like a repeatable workflow: prep, targets, in-room conversion, follow-up cadence, next-step calls.
Ecosystem growth loops: using dev houses like mtnDAO as both a sourcing surface and a partnership engine.
Website updates: I’m planning to update the site to show the work more clearly, including a log of brands we’ve worked with and more detail on what we actually deliver.
ETH Denver felt like filtration: lighter attendance, fewer side events, less chaos, but better signal. You could find the people who are still building.
mtnDAO is an antidote to narrative markets: teams aren’t there to tweet. They’re there to ship and pitch. That environment makes it easier to spot real builders and real traction.
It was genuinely hard to publish a January pulse because January felt slow. But slow months are often the months that set up the fast ones.
The more I treat conferences like an execution engine, the more value I get out of them. The upside is in follow-ups and conversions, not the badge.
Builder environments beat conference floors. Real traction shows up quickly when people are building in public.
London: meetings with market makers and key players.
mtnDAO follow-through: more technical calls with founders we met, plus converting warm relationships into tangible fundraising referrals.
Referral program build: formalise the referral channel for Solana insider dealflow (process, incentives, tracking, compliance guardrails).
Digital Asset Summit (NYC): reconnect with founders and investors we’ve been in touch with and convert outstanding threads into next steps.
Continue refining Riverstone’s institutional posture, including the outsourced due diligence lane.
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