Can confirm.

Asking a VC to sign an NDA was, for years, a signal that you didn’t get venture. That signal has inverted as of late. Early-stage deals built around any proprietary IP are now regularly arriving with NDA requests.

The epidemic of vibe lawyering is going to cause some problems. A friend recently typed the details of an employment dispute, including things he did in violation of his non-compete, into ChatGPT and asked it to draft a separation agreement. He did not talk to a lawyer first. He created a discoverable record of his own liability that lives on a third party's servers. He is very much not the only one. I wrote about why this is a real problem, and what a federal court just confirmed about it.

Got a lot of messages from VC and fund manager friends and clients after yesterday's thread on the paradigm shifting SEC guidance (thank you). The #1 question: what does this actually mean for my portfolio and my next deal? Wrote a deep dive on that. Key points in this thread, full piece linked below.

Perfect summary of a big developement @mikekatz29

Dear blessed algorithm, please show this most excellent @hack_vc #NeurIPS happy hour invite to good people solving the hard problems in AI x {trust / verifiability / attribution / adversarial environments / heterogenous hardware / compute constraints} with cryptography and vibes™ luma.com/d2mps552

Heading to sunny San Diego for #NeurIPS next month? 🌞Join us for an informal happy hour! Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP.

Last week, we hosted our 2025 Annual General Meeting in NYC. A thesis-driven AGM from a thesis-driven firm, we brought our investment theses to life through conversations with the top founders, policymakers, and industry leaders shaping crypto’s next decade. Agenda & highlights below 👇

Come work with us!

“Hack has been one of our most value-added investors, and part of that is Harrison.” - @justsayuluvjo 🫶 Thanks to @soon_svm for hosting our Partner & CTO @IsTheBaron to talk market trends, supporting founders, and the path from builder to investor. 🎧👇

1/ AI will shape the future. The question is whether that future will be closed and centralized, or open, verifiable, and user-owned. We’re betting on the latter. That’s why we led @0G_labs’ pre-seed in 2023 (and the seed last year). 👇

I’m joining @hack_vc as Partner & CTO to help and back serious builders solve the hard, meaningful problems that lie between AI and crypto 🦾

1/ @Hack_VC is about to make a splash in Seoul 🇰🇷 Sept 22–25. Nonstop event activations, founder lunches, late nights & early mornings. @0xRodney, @hsinju, and @herbiefu from the Hack VC team will be on the ground. If you plan to attend KBW and want to jam, ping us. Here's what we have cooking 🧵

1/ Hack VC is so excited to announce that we’ll be hosting hack.summit(“Seoul”) on Sept 22 during @kbwofficial at Josun Palace. We’re bringing together top founders, KOLs, and market movers. If you’re in Seoul and want REAL alpha, this is where you’ll find it—a high-signal, curated crowd. 😉: the first 100 ppl who register will be entered into a raffle to earn 1 free KBW ticket. There will also be other surprises for attendees later as well (shhhhh). RSVP now: lu.ma/gbq4agad

Hack VC is pumped to re-launch the Proof of Work newsletter — now with a fresh spin for the Crypto × AI era. Readers will get monthly updates and intel straight from the top projects building in the space. 💫What shipped in the last month 💫What’s live 💫What insiders are working on Our First Issue: hackvc.substack.com/p/proof-…

Are you ready to join a team where innovation, collaboration, and fun go hand in hand? We’re looking for brilliant minds and great people to grow with us. If you’re searching for a place that challenges you, supports your goals, and celebrates success—this is it.

🚨 BIG NEWS: @Hack_VC, a $600M fund manager, is launching an Echo group! 🚨 Hack VC is one of the first major regulated U.S. crypto fund managers to do this—backed by a growing group of 1,600+ real crypto-native investors. Crypto is, at its core, about community. The most successful networks must be community-owned, community-controlled, and, we believe, community-funded. Launching an Echo group is our way of democratizing access and making Hack VC a truly community-aligned VC. Here’s how we’re putting our money where our mouth is: ✅ Opening access to our deal flow – The Hack VC Echo group is private to prevent spam, but we expect to accept many applicants. ✅ Zero performance fees – No performance fees for at least the first year. ✅ Backing community rounds – Encouraging our portfolio to raise from their communities. ✅ Fairer valuations – Pushing for lower community valuations than what VCs pay. Let’s build together. 🚀

1/ Most crypto VCs talk a big game about “community.” We decided to actually do something - starting with launching a @Hack_VC Echo group to give the community access to our early-stage crypto deals. Hack VC is committed to being a community-aligned VC.

Some personal news: I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined @hack_vc as a partner & head of platform. 8 yrs in crypto = a lifetime. It all started in 2017 when a random recruiter slid into my DMs and told me about a job at @StellarOrg. I took a call with @JedMcCaleb (founder of Mt.Gox, Ripple, and Stellar) & Brit (co-founder of Lightyear). That was where I learned about (and fell in love with) crypto. I decided right then and there that I was going to enter the space whether they hired me or not. So 😂-- I offered Stellar a 1 month contract and told them they could pay me whatever they wanted, but that I was going to perform so well that they'd want to hire me at the end of the contract. Obviously, they accepted. 1 month later, they promoted me to head of growth & my crypto journey began. After I left Stellar, @edithyeung & @chrismccann introed me to @rajgokal @toly from @solana. I met them very, very early when Solana was still at the whitepaper stage and had just gotten accepted into @500GlobalVC. I was with them as their head of growth till right before they launched their testnet. Then, after that, I did a short stint at Tezos (😅), burned out, and decided to found my own startup @DystopiaLabs which was focused around building dev ecosystems + running events. I made a lot of good frens & threw a total of 17 ETH conferences around the world. Special thanks to @clairekart @Cameron_Dennis_ @ekang426 @Minittowinit @levychain @Sim_Pop @YalorMewn @VanessaGrellet_ @cryptomastery_ @StaniKulechov @LukeYoungblood @beechainstack @pet3rpan_ @marek_ @sui414 and so, so many more for supporting or speaking at our events over the yrs 🙏♥️ Most recently, I was @fhenix which is an FHE infrastructure project created by @guyitz @GuyZys. I joined when the whitepaper was released & was with them till their second testnet. TLDR I'm very bullish on the future of the FHE category & knowing the team -- think they're very well positioned to succeed 🚀. As for what’s next... I'll be diving head first into venture capital 👀. If you're a founder or a dev working on cool shit, I'll be in SF for @ethereumsf & the Stanford AI Summit. Slide into my DMs if you'd like to catch up (or want some marketing feedback) ✨

The state of Ethereum, DeFi, and AI with @Alex__Botte from @hack_vc See the full episode of Building Web3 👇