Dave MerinHaving been involved in the ecosystem for the past decade, I’m currently taking some time to explore opportunities around the institutionalization of digital assets, which I believe will power the next leg of adoption.
For the past few years, I built and led the Corporate Development team at ConsenSys after helping it transition from an Ethereum ecosystem building organization to an integrated blockchain software business. This 15 person team was responsible for fundraising, M&A, strategic investments, business development, and investor relations, completing more than 5 acquisitions and 50 minority investments, while generating several new business lines, and raising more than $700M across 3 funding rounds for the busines. I initially got involved with ConsenSys over 7 years ago when it agreed to back my project Coven, an open venture investing platform that used crypto economic incentives to facilitate the collaborative sourcing, diligencing, and approval of early stage venture capital investments, which operated in a closed beta among the ConsenSys Mesh network from 2018-2020. At the lowest points of the 2018 - 19 bear market, it was among the most heavily used decentralized applications despite being in a closed beta and the investments made through it generated >2x cash-on cash returns in aggregate in less than 3 years, driven by investments in companies like Bison Trails, Relay Payments, and Axie Infinity, with a TVPI of ~5x at the time we liquidated the portfolio in 2021. Unfortunately, we had to wind it down due to the deeply unstable cost of capital caused by fluctuations in the crypto currency market. On the side, I still contribute to other investment DAOs Hydra.
I started my career in real estate private equity working in acquisitions at NALS, then made a brief foray into politics in the wake of the GFC - working in Senate leadership committees - with an aim to helping the country recover from the financial crisis while getting my law degree from Georgetown, before transitioning to McKinsey where I worked as a management consultant for a number of years and gained exposure to the explosive growth of web2 technology businesses. I left there to work in technology full time, helping Honest Buildings successfully pivot from an internet marketplace business to a SaaS business before its ultimate acquisition by Procore, during which time I was first exposed to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, leading me to Coven and ConsenSys.
I live in the Bay Area with my family, which provides us with ample opportunity to get outside, whether hiking in the woods next to our house or heading up to the mountains to ski. From time to time I also get deeply into craft beverages (e.g., coffee, mezcal, wine).
How to contact me:
While I do try to keep LinkedIn and AngelList reasonably up to date, please don't contact me there.