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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. During that time, helped start and grow five investment firms, including Askesis Capital, Dayah Capital, Sachem Head Capital Management, and Conatus Capital. Before that, Geoff worked at Bain Capital and Bain & Company and studied Economics at Harvard.
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Li Jin
Li Jin is the co-founder of Variant Fund and the founder of Atelier Ventures. Prior to that, Li Jin was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Cameron Winklevoss
Cameron Winklevoss is the Co-founder and President of Gemini, a next-generation Bitcoin exchange. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and earned an MBA from Oxford University. In 2008, he represented the United States at the Olympics Games in Beijing, China, where he placed 6th. Since 2003, Cameron has been an angel investor and entrepreneur in emerging technologies. He began participating in the Bitcoin economy through direct investment in 2012.
Amar Kuchinad
Amar Kuchinad is the CEO of Copper. He has over 20 years of experience in financial markets, having served as Chief Strategy Officer at Trumid, CEO of Electronifie (a corporate bond trading platform acquired by Trumid in May 2017). Prior to founding Electronifie in 2014, Amar served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Trading and Markets Division at the SEC. Previously, he led multiple equity options, emerging markets, and credit trading businesses at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Amar graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and was a member of the track and field team.
James Hutchins
James is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at NIV. He leads the firm’s research efforts, and is passionate about leveraging data to uncover new trends, inform investment decisions, and support portfolio companies. James has been a full-time crypto investor since 2018, and was previously Head of Research at Coatue Management. He holds an AB in Economics from Harvard.
Alana Levin
Alana is an Investment Partner at Variant Fund. Her initial interest in crypto stemmed from a broader interest in public goods and financial regulatory policy– she spent a summer at the SEC and graduated summa cum laude with degrees in Finance & Public Policy from Wharton. Alana’s interest in crypto has since evolved to focus primarily on token design, governance structures, scaling costs, and privacy mechanics. She often writes about these concepts on her Substack, Back-of-the-Envelope, and on her Mirror profile. Prior to Variant, Alana worked as a consultant at BCG. In her free time, Alana enjoys running, writing, kayaking, and exploring old bookstores and cafés.
David Bonanno
David Bonanno is CFOat Bullish and was previously chief financial officer at Far Peak Acquisition Corp. He holds a BA in psychology from Harvard University.
Mason Nystrom
Mason is a junior partner at Pantera Capital and was previously an Investment partner at Variant and Senior Research Analyst at Messari. Before Messari, Mason worked at ConsenSys as a Content Marketer focused on marketing strategy for ConsenSys and its portfolio companies. Mason first entered the crypto industry as an Analyst at Gatecoin, the first cryptocurrency exchange to list ether, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. Mason obtained his Master’s in Business Management at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Cully Cavness
Cully Cavness is the Co-Founder, President, and COO of Crusoe Energy. He was educated at Harvard Business School Executive Education.
Glenn Hutchins
Glenn is co-founder and Chairman at NIV. Previously, he co-founded the private equity firm Silver Lake. He is currently a director of AT&T, Co-Chair of the Brookings Institution, Chair of CARE, and Vice Chair of the Obama Foundation. He was a Director and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2011-2020. Glenn founded the Hutchins Family Foundation which has created the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at The Brookings Institution. He holds an AB from Harvard College, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Derek Walkush
Derek is an Investment Research Partner at Variant. He got interested in crypto in late 2020 around DeFi summer after conducting high level research on blockchain as an analyst in Georgetown’s student-run hedge fund. Looking to learn more about the space, Derek interned at Accolade Partners, which launched one of the first institutional crypto fund of funds. His interest and conviction only seemed to grow; he soon dove into the on-chain world and became a part-time contributor at Index Coop and AladdinDAO; he was recently elected to Aladdin’s research council where he pitches stable farming strategies. After teaching himself SQL and working as an analyst for a project finance startup, Derek began writing for Spencer’s newsletter, OurNetwork, applying his interest in data querying and fundamentals analysis. Realizing the generational opportunity in front of him, Derek left Georgetown to join the team full-time in June 2022. His primary research interests are on-chain data analytics and token distribution. In his free time, Derek enjoys working out (former D1 rower), 90s movies, cooking, and traveling.