New podcast: "The antidote to AI slop, and the future of onchain personalization" (Farcaster Builders Series Ep. #2)

New podcast: "The plumbing of social finance" (Farcaster Builders Series Ep. #3)

Going to the opening of the Lausanne (Switzerland) Chapter Kick-Off of the "Agent Economy Association", luma.com/w1713cmj [https://luma.com/w1713cmj].The agent economy is one of the 3 pillars of our thesis "pre-seed everyday finance" at Olive Capital [https://olivecapital.vc].Will you be there? Let's meet in Lausanne. Welcome back to the Farcaster Builders Series, where we go behind the code to meet the builders shaping the Farcaster ecosystem. In this third and last episode episode, we sat down with JUSTIN AHN [https://farcaster.xyz/ahn.eth], co-founder of QUIDLI [https://quid.li/]. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts: runwayseries.co [https://runwayseries.co/] This limited series was recorded at an interesting moment, just before Neynar’s acquisition of Farcaster and its refocus on builders. The timing turned out to be sharp. Inside, we go deep on the strategies, timing, and mental models of the founders architecting the next generation of onchain experiences, with * EP#1: Kaloh building Indexy: “From speculation to modern (and agentic) portfolio management” (listen) [https://venturenotes.substack.com/p/new-podcast-humans-agents-and-indexy], * EP#2: Atown building Emerge: “The antidote to AI slop, and the future of onchain personalization” (listen) [https://venturenotes.substack.com/p/new-podcast-the-antidote-to-ai-slop], and * EP#3: for the final episode, we are looking today at the infrastructure layer of social finance with Justin (@ahn.eth [https://farcaster.xyz/ahn.eth]) building Quidli: “The plumbing of social finance”. Who is Justin? Justin is the co-founder of Quidli, and he has been living on the internet longer than most people in crypto have been paying attention to it, since 1995. He went on to work in corporate finance, then built one of Vietnam’s first nationwide e-commerce platforms, before spending years moving between countries and experiencing firsthand how broken cross-border payments are. He met his co-founder Guillaume [https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-figielski] in France’s early Ethereum community. Together, they share a conviction about self-sovereign internet and frictionless payments that has shaped Quidli from day one. What is Quidli? At its core, Quidli is a social graph register, a way to bring your social connections onchain and make them portable, interoperable, and ultimately yours. The problem it is solving is one every internet user intuitively understands but rarely articulates: your audience, your network, your community, none of it belongs to you. It lives on someone else’s server. Change platforms and you start from zero. Get banned or locked out and it is gone. X is the clearest example today: it is hard to leave not because the product is great, but because your network is trapped there. Quidli’s answer is a register that lets you duplicate your social graph onchain, making it censorship-resistant and portable across any platform you use. The immediate product built on top of this is a mini-app that lets you send tokens to people using their social handle, no wallet addresses, no seed phrases, no ENS required. If you follow someone on Farcaster, Telegram, Discord, or even email, you can send them tokens directly. You already know their handle. That is enough. Why this, why now? The ENS comparison is worth dwelling on. ENS was supposed to abstract away the complexity of blockchain addresses, and in some ways it did. But ENS became, as Justin puts it, a vanity project. A personalized license plate. Knowing that Vitalik is vitalik.eth only helps you if you already know who Vitalik is. It does not help you send tokens to someone you met in a Telegram group. A social register solves this differently. It starts from the connections you already have, on the platforms you already use, and maps them to onchain addresses. It is the difference between DNS (which actually works) and a vanity URL (which is just aesthetics). The payment rails follow naturally. Once your social graph is on-chain, value transfer becomes a native feature of your network, not an afterthought bolted onto a wallet interface. That is the convergence Justin sees accelerating: social and finance, at the individual and org level. Three key insights from this episode 1. Your social graph is your most valuable on-chain asset.More than tokens, more than NFTs. The network you have built over years, across platforms, communities, and collaborations, is genuinely irreplaceable. Putting it onchain is not a technical exercise, it is a form of ownership. 2. ENS solved the wrong problem.Readable addresses are useful but identity without social context is not identity, it is just a label. What builders need is a system that starts from real human connections and makes those the unit of trust. 3. Advice for Farcaster builders: wrap, don’t lock.Farcaster is one channel, not the whole game. Build web apps that can be wrapped as mini-apps and deployed across multiple platforms simultaneously. The builders who will win are the ones who treat Farcaster as an entry point, not a ceiling. It is a very useful episode for understanding how portable social graphs can abstract away complex blockchain UX to enable seamless value transfer across any platform. Thanks Justin, and thanks to all three founders who took the time to be part of this series. And thanks for reading,Raph | Founder, Olive Capital This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe [https://venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

New podcast: "The antidote to AI slop, and the future of onchain personalization" (Farcaster Builders Series Ep. #2)

Welcome back to the Farcaster Builders Series, where we go behind the code to meet the builders shaping the Farcaster ecosystem. In this second episode, we sit down with ATOWN [https://farcaster.xyz/atown], the founder of Emerge [https://www.tryemerge.xyz/]. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts: runwayseries.co [https://runwayseries.co] The core thesis: personalization vs. slop In this episode, we explore a powerful convergence: AI agents + diffusion models + crypto rails. Atown shares the epiphany that sparked Emerge: people are tired of generic AI content (”AI slop”), but they love seeing themselves reflected in trending media. By building on Farcaster, Emerge created a primitive where users tag an agent to inject their own digital identity into memes and trends in real-time. As A Town puts it, “The antidote to AI slop is personalization.” What we discuss The conversation goes deep into the mechanics of building a consumer crypto app that feels nothing like a crypto app. Key takeaways include: * The mechanics of onchain virality: how Emerge uses “mini-apps” to turn every user interaction into a discovery engine. When a user generates content, they share it back to the feed, creating a viral loop that traditional apps struggle to replicate. * Escaping the ‘crypto echo chamber’: while Farcaster is the perfect MVP testing ground, Atown discusses the hard truth about venture scale: you eventually have to leave the nest. We cover their roadmap to go “upstream” to platforms like X, using crypto purely as invisible settlement rails for revenue sharing. * The token dilemma (funding vs. friction): Emerge used Clanker to raise initial runway, a game-changer for bootstrapping. But Atown offers a sober warning to new builders: launching a token solves funding but creates immediate pressure to engineer utility. His advice? Prioritize content proliferation over token gating. “I don’t want to stifle that by saying you have to hold my token.” Why you should listen This is a masterclass for anyone navigating the intersection of Gen-AI and web3. If you are trying to figure out how to monetize attention without ruining the user experience, or how to pivot from a “vibe coding” project to a viable business, this episode provides the playbook. Thanks for reading,Raph | Founder, Olive Capital [https://olivecapital.vc] 9 calls booked but I can still accommodate one 15min 1:1 on March 12.Book the last 15min slotI’ve opened up my calendar on that day for focused conversations: For LPs in Venture Capital: let’s discuss your investment thesis, your challenges, and what we’re building at Olive Capital For Pre-Seed Founders: I’ll provide direct feedback on your pitch One requirement: come prepared with specific topics.No generic questions or casual chit-chat, let’s make every minute count. To book your slot: https://app.cal.com/rpghrc/15 [https://app.cal.com/rpghrc/15] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe [https://venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

New podcast: "humans, agents, and Indexy" (Farcaster Builders Series Ep. #1)

Hi, I am launching the Farcaster Builders Series, a limited podcast run dedicated to understanding the strategies, timing, and mental models of the founders building the next generation of onchain experiences within the Farcaster ecosystem. This first episode was recorded prior to Neynar’s acquisition of Farcaster [https://cryptorank.io/news/feed/9b966-farcaster-to-refund-180m-raised-venture]. That shift toward a builder-centric ecosystem validates the timing of this conversation perfectly. In Episode 1, we sit down with Kaloh, the founder of Indexy [https://indexy.xyz/] (read until the end for an exclusive investment opportunity). Listen now: Spotify [http://spotify.runwayseries.co/] | Apple Podcasts [http://apple.runwayseries.co/] From speculation to modern (and agentic) portfolio management The crypto market is often defined by volatility that churns out newcomers before they can become long-term adopters. Kaloh argues that the ecosystem lacks a “safety wrapper”, a structured way for users to gain exposure without the binary risk of single-asset betting. Indexy [https://indexy.xyz/] is solving this by converging Traditional Finance (TradFi) mechanics with onchain assets. The conversation explores three critical themes: The “safety wrapper” for mass adoption Kaloh notes that new users often exit the ecosystem permanently after a single bad trade. Indexy utilizes indexing not just for analytics, but as a retention tool. By offering diversified exposure and historical benchmarking, they provide the stability required to onboard the next wave of non-native users. 2026 roadmap: the transactional layer, and AI agents While 2025 was dedicated to analytics, 2026 marks the shift to execution. Indexy is moving toward a transactional model where users can invest directly in strategies. Crucially, this roadmap includes “Agentic Indexes”: building the infrastructure for AI agents to design, maintain, and allocate capital using emerging standards like ERC-8004 and x402. The vision is for Indexy to become the primary coordination layer where both humans and AI agents deploy capital into hybrid portfolios of crypto and Real World Assets (RWAs). Signal vs. noise in builder feedback Perhaps the most actionable insight for fellow founders is Kaloh’s approach to feedback. In an environment dominated by token prices, feedback is often distorted by short-term speculation. Kaloh’s playbook involves ruthlessly filtering out “price noise” to focus exclusively on the “power users”, those who rely on the product’s utility rather than its hype cycle. Investment opportunity in Indexy We are currently gauging interest for an investment round in Indexy. Olive Capital is preparing to establish an SPV to facilitate this allocation, betting on the convergence of onchain assets and the agentic economy. If you are an accredited investor and interested in participating in this SPV, please reply directly to this email to learn more. Thanks for reading,Raph | Founder, Olive Capital This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe [https://venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

NEW 🎙! 1st Private Bank in Digital Assets in Switzerland

Hej Venturers, new episode dropping this week, you can already listen to a quick excerpt already today in this email. As usual when published on the main streaming platforms, you’ll get 10min free and the full episode will be available for our premium members. If you’re not a premium member, you can today until April 2nd, 2023, become premium for 50% off (€45/y vs €90/y normally). Next on the show:- Lightweight ZK-centric Layer 1- Enterprise-grade staking- Wallets as an API. In this episode, we meet a “legacy” Middle-Eastern private bank that has a large wealth management entity in Switzerland that launched in 2019 digital asset services for its Ultra-High-Net-Worth Clients a.k.a UHNW, including custody, trading, staking, cryptoart collecting and very soon DeFi. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe [https://venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

💳 NFTs before you heard about NFTs.

Hej Venturers, Before we move to the core topic of the day, we are excited to announce that we are in the backstage of producing a new short-form, 15 minute VC podcast in 🇬🇧 (not related to Harry 😉) that will be restricted to our subscribers in Q3’2021.The format? One VC, five questions and an opportunity for our subs to have their questions featured with their names.Make sure to subscribe so that you do not miss it! We’re offering you a 25% discount (€9/monthly or €90/yearly) until Aug 31st. Early June was a real blast with the Runway Series Summit [https://summit.runwayseries.co]. I am still high! 39 guests (28 VCs & 11 CEOs), 13 talks, 3 days of high level convos..For those of you who did not get your tickets, we’ve got your covered.We’re pulling together the 13 audio replays + detailed shownotes in English 🇬🇧 in a separate & dedicated Substack.With promo code OFFVN50 you get 50% off on the full & exclusive access to the audio replays including the detailed shownotes (€ 15 instead of € 29) for the 13 conferences. Now let’s go to today’s agenda. NFT and the community aspect of it, beyond social proof. One thing that really struck me during our episode AMA VC #7 on NFTs with Sia Houchangnia [https://upcomingvc.substack.com/p/replaynft], VC & Partner at Seedcamp, is the infinite dimension of applications and community use cases that this digital unit enables. Indeed, beyond the simple social proof offered by the simple fact of owning an NFT, with respect to the community to which the holder of an NFT belongs, NFT is a profound revolution in the way members of a community interact allowing them to feel closer to each other. Brands are starting to understand this and luxury is one of the sectors that see NFTs as an opportunity to renew the customer experience. And Arianee [https://www.arianee.org] has been opening the doors to them with its technology since 2017. In this 🇫🇷 episode 51 of Runway Series Originals, I had the great pleasure of receiving Luc Jodet [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucjodet], Arianee Co-Founder. All full-length podcast episodes are available for free for you readers until August 31, 2021, afterwards most (9 in 10) of the newly issued episodes will be restricted to our subscribers [https://upcomingvc.substack.com/subscribe?]. A short, 20-minute version will remain available on streaming platforms such as Apple Podcasts [https://apple.runwayseries.co] or Spotify [https://spotify.runwayseries.co]. Available in SaaS and Open Source, Arianee technology is profoundly transforming customer relations in the Luxury and Retail sectors with brands. The Arianee platform makes it possible to create a digital passport for each good and item, guaranteeing its authenticity, securing its resale and allowing brands to maintain a perpetual relationship with its owner and a history of its transactions, as stated by the BPI which participated in the recent € 8million post-seed round with ISAI [https://www.arianee.org/newsfeed/fundraising]. In this fantastic episode, Luc looks back on 🔥 entrepreneurship and why it is for him a choice of life or even a necessity, 🔥 his passion for the (renewable) energy transition, his one-year experience in politics on this subject and the first company he founded on the “traced” renewable energy, 🔥 how he got to discover blockchain and conceived with his co-founders the Arianee project which since 2017 puts NFTs at the core of the Arianee technology 🔥 Luc also discusses the opportunity that NFTs represent for luxury brands 🔥 how Arianee dual Open Source and SaaS model is a strength 🔥 how Arianee first got financed with an ICO in 2018 to develop the Open Source protocol and then how Arianee managed to convince VCs in 2020 And many other fascinating subjects. I really want to thank Luc for this opportunity and I am sure you will love this episode. Enjoy the episode ! What do you think about this episode? What kind of early applications of NFTs have you come across before 2017 before NFTs came to light end of 2020? Leave us a comment in the section underneath this post! Do you want the detailed shownotes in French? Let us know by replying to this email and we will add you to a private Notion page. Do you want to know more in a Live Format with Luc about Open Source, Luxury & NFTs? Let us know by replying to this email and we will see when we can set up such a direct discussion. That’s all for today, speak soon!Raph [https://bit.ly/RphlGRC], Founder @ UPCOMINGVC® [https://www.upcoming.vc] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe [https://venturenotes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]