Ben Lakoff
General Partner at Bankless Ventures
Ben Lakoff
General Partner at Bankless Ventures
Lisbon Metropolitan Area
Overview
Work Experience
General Partner
2023 - Current
Bankless Ventures is an early-stage Web3 fund to empower pioneers to explore the frontier of Web3 and go #bankless
Co-founder, Advisor
2023
In January'23 I transitioned back a non-operational advisor role. Can read more about the transition here: https://twitter.com/benlakoff/status/1633144198638755846
Co-Founder, Business Lead
2020 - 2023
Charged Particles is a NFT protocol that allows users to deposit ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 tokens into NFTs. A scarce NFT (e.g. Art, Collectible, Virtual Real Estate, In-Game Item, etc.) can now be transformed into a basket holding a number of other tokens. What's in your NFT?
Startup Advisor & Investor
2016
Note: I'm no longer doing personal angel checks for crypto/web3 projects - only via Bankless Ventures Experienced Operator and Angel Investor, turned Advisor. I love all things startups and have built, scaled, failed and sold companies in the past. I've been an active Angel investor since 2016 (75+ investments). As an advisor, I have been involved with multiple early-stage startups, focusing mostly within the blockchain / web3 / crypto niche. I assist mainly in early stages as a potential co-founder, advisor, or on growth, mainly working for equity but also doing some paid consulting work. Current Advisory Roles (May-23) - CoinShift (DAO Treasury Management)- https://twitter.com/0xCoinshift - Parcel (DAO Treasury Management) - https://twitter.com/parcelHQ - nftperp (Perpetual futures DEX for NFTs) - https://twitter.com/nftperp - NFT3 (DID) - https://twitter.com/NFT3com - Huddln (NFT Social Media)- https://twitter.com/Huddln_ - Forward Market (DeFi) - https://twitter.com/DefiForward - UnChained Music (Blockchain Music Distribution) - https://twitter.com/UnchainedDistro I'm also a Startup Mentor at Outlier Ventures, Longhash, Graph Paper Capital, Tachyon and Kernel (web3 accelerators).
Mentor
2021
Tachyon is an accelerator for early-stage startups utilizing blockchain and Web 3.0 technologies. Part of the ConsenSys Mesh.
Mentor
2022
Outlier Ventures has been backing Web 3 founders since 2014 and is the world’s leading Open Metaverse accelerator program, and was one of the first VC firms dedicated to investing in the emerging crypto ecosystem.
Mentor
2021
A Web3 venture fund and accelerator, collaborating with founders since 2018.
Financial Analyst
2019
Business Valuations and Financial Modeling. The Rodman Law Group is a boutique law firm specializing in business, cannabis, securities, distributed ledger technology, and intellectual property law. We provide top tier legal advice, business consulting, regulatory guidance, and industry connections to our clients.
Podcaster
2020 - 2023
"The Alt Asset Allocation" Podcast is all about “Alternative Investing” - investments outside of public markets. These were once only reserved for the ultra rich, and they are becoming available to everyday people. In this podcast, we back the curtain, talk with industry leaders and find out more about this exciting growing space of alternative investments. Here are the links: 🟢 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-alt-asset-allocation-podcast/id1527319202 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3XleVpxFCf3lpgJXtEgzP3?si=RoZVkZe7RDG43FeAtaIKdA 🟢 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4b_dZvYrGXQp6Rpfrz54bw/
Head of Business Development
2019 - 2020
2key is an Israeli-Based MarTech Startup disrupting the Pay-Per-Click Market. With a few clicks, you're able to turn any link into a "SmartLink" that tracks, records and incentivizes every interaction. With the right incentives, your link will find your target customers. Responsible for Strategic Partnerships & Sales.
CEO
2018 - 2020
ITF was a Fintech company serving investors in cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets. Scaled to a team of 12 serving over 10K active customers. Graduated from Europe’s Oldest Accelerator, Startup Yard Prague, and was instrumental in helping raise $2M in funding to further develop the products offered by ITF. Ultimately, we failed to find product market fit, and learned more than I ever could having a successful business.
Head of Finance & Strategy
2017 - 2018
ITF was a Fintech company serving investors in cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets. Scaled to a team of 12 serving over 10K active customers. Graduated from Europe’s Oldest Accelerator, Startup Yard Prague, and was instrumental in helping raise $2M in funding to further develop the products offered by ITF. Ultimately, we failed to find product market fit, and learned more than I ever could having a successful business.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - BA
2006 - 2009