we should update this framing!
this isnt “miscellaneous” funding. this is funding for our venture scale bets, and the structure (and meat) of it is very important. this is funding going towards software build outs of what could be the next foundation of gitcoin. we’ve been grooming a series of venture scale bets in a backlog, and will be shipping roughly 12 things over the next year. the plan is to spend the money incrementally, on an average bet size of $25k each, and see if we can’t do for 2026 what QF was in 2021. there are clearly articulated business cases and KPIs in the bets backlog.
when i was last in an executive leadership position at gitcoin (2018-2021), we were able to pioneer quadratic funding, creating $70m in outcomes and making gitcoin a top brand in the space. we will be following the same strategy again, and the upside case is creating a flywheel that pushes gitcoin to a global maxima again (which is my mandate as executive steward). without funding to push on 2026 era innovation, imo gitcoin is rudderless and engineless in the water and we should consider just winding it down. as the og founder who has returned, i think im uniquely qualified and credible to push this forward.
maybe we add a breakpoint at the EOY 2026 and see how the bets played out and decide whether to double down on 1-2 of the venture scale plays. in the most drastic downside scenario, maybe just wind down the project.
some contemporary trends i think we could make plays in: strong narratives for 2026: return to L1, embrace enterprises, stablecoins, vaults, low risk defi, solo entrepreneurs, ai, ai agents, 8004, x402, passkey wallets for normies, humane tech, d/acc, mobile apps