Haseeb Qureshi is a managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, a cryptocurrency venture fund that recently made headlines when they launched their new $225 million fund to invest in DeFi, NFT, Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, and CeFi. Haseeb talks about his history as a poker player, the qualities he looks for when choosing to invest in a crypto project, his thoughts on the Ethereum arms race, and more. https://saffronacademy.podbean.com/e/episode-1-haseeb-qureshi/ Saffron Socials Web3 app: https://saffron.finance Telegram: https://t.me/saffronfinance Discord: https://discord.gg/pDXpXKY Twitter: https://twitter.com/saffronfinance_ Transcription Dingo: Hey Everyone dingo here. And welcome to the saffron academy podcast. The objective of this podcast is to be an additional educational resource for our viewers, adventures outside the realm of saffron. In this, we’ll be interviewing some of the best, brightest, most tenacious and entrepreneurial minds that the cryptocurrency sector has to offer. We want to give listeners a glimpse into the minds of some of these incredible achievers, how they got into crypto, what their viewpoints are on certain projects and where they see things going in the future. Saffron finance does not endorse the viewpoints shared in these conversations nor should this be construed as any kind of financial advice. But we are interested in giving exposure to a wide range of brilliant investors, developers, entrepreneurs, traders and so much more. We really hope you guys enjoy this new segment. If you have an idea for a topic or a particular guest request, feel free to write into the show at Dingo@saffron.finance . I hope you guys enjoy this and I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of value this provides. Now, having said that our first guest is Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at Dragonfly capital, a renowned cryptocurrency venture fund. His track record is nothing short of extensive, he's accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time. In addition to his time as a managing partner he's also been a programmer, a writer, a teacher, a public speaker and not to mention a bit of a poker aficionado but we will get more into that during the episode proper. I'm really excited to have a chance to be able to interview him and I know you guys are going to love this one, thank you. Okay Welcome to our inaugural episode, as you might have surmised I'm Dingo and you're listening to the Saffron Academy podcast I'm joined today by Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at Dragonfly Capital. Dragonfly recently made the news by launching their new 225 million dollar fund to invest in Defi, NFTs, ETH layer 2 solutions and more. But before we get into all of that, lets talk a little bit about yourself Haseeb, how are you doing? Haseeb: Hey Dingo, I’m doing great, how are you doing? D: I’m doing pretty good, we’ve been burning the candle at both ends coordinating with our guys in China and I was wondering how everything has been with you because I know you're in Singapore now, so how's everything going over there? H: I'm from SF actually but I'm in Singapore at the moment I was in Taiwan earlier so I’ve been globetrotting a bit or rather as much as anyone can given the limitations on travel. But it's been really amazing to see that, in the last two years, year and a half, we’ve all been unable to see each other. And everything's been so digitally mediated it's kind of a bit jarring to be back meeting with entrepreneurs and builders and old friends again. But its been really wonderful and I miss it so much. D: What do you notice about travel because I have not been out of the country? H: It's not, it's not easy, everything is 10 times harder and slightly more nerve wracking. And the one downside is that vaccines are now being distributed in the US. And given that I’m a foreigner in every country I travel to, foreigners are always the last on the list to get vaccines. So if I want to get vaccinated I need to go back to the US, which I’ll probably do in a month. But other than that I mean, Singapore is a really burgeoning crypto community, its kind of become the new Hong Kong. So a lot of the exchanges and CeFi companies that were based in Hong Kong where they tend to have their international headquarters where they serve the pan asian market. Most of them have moved to Singapore because of more favorable regulations. So as a result Singapore has become this new hotspot for crypto founders and ideas. So it's exciting to see so much of a community forming here. D: Yeah I think in the US as well, I think Wyoming I believe it was, was the big state trying to entice people to come over. H: Yeah I don’t know well that's working. But there's always these entrepreneurial cities that are trying -- you know. Miami is actually doing a pretty great job, the mayor, I think it's mayor Suarez, getting a bunch of Crypto people excited and being very open to innovations and giving great incentives for coming over. But I will say I think in America at least, there's like 500 silicon valley wannabes, and really, there's only one silicon valley. It’s still the epicenter of tech innovation in the US, covid or no covid. D: Yeah, it's very cool but I wonder about-- you know I have a background in video production and I know Atlanta really helped bolster their economy by having all of these tax incentives for hollywood and all of these other filming companies to help set up shop there. And I’m wondering is Miami going to be the first to capitalize on that, to drive that business there, is it going to be Wyoming? I think it’s kind of fun, anyone's guess now. H: Well the one thing that's for sure, which is kind of emblematic of you guys is that at least in crypto: it matters less and less where you are. You know, crypto is such a global phenomenon that, if there's one thing that covid has taught us it's that physical location is no object to building something that is world changing. And so many of the protocols, I mean you guys are one of them, you're a decentralized team, the team behind SFI. That was something that venture capitalists in particular just did not believe in that two years ago. You now I remember because when the pandemic started in full force, call it in march, there were so many traditional VCs who were claiming that for funding, the tap is going to turn off until the next year until this is all over. Because VC’s have to meet people in person. You can't run the industry without in person meetings, it was sort of this enshrined almost traditional superstitious belief that in order to invest in something great, you need to meet the founder and go for a walk with them, look them in the eye, kind of see into their soul, and the moment the market started coming back you know in the summer, all that shit went out the window. And suddenly people were writing these 100 million + dollar growth rounds into companies and moving really fast and no one was meeting anyone in person. And suddenly you realize “huh, all this stuff that we thought was super important to what we do, turns out, it's nice to have but it's not essential. You can really do it without that. And I think crypto is a universe where we are clearly not going back to that world. Obviously we invested in you guys in the middle of the pandemic, and maybe for those who are not familiar Dragonfly struck up a deal to invest in SFI through the treasury, and we did that without ever meeting anyone in person. And we couldn't of course because members of the team are pseudonymous. But we were so excited about what you guys were doing, in this new world, this is how things are going to work. You don't need to meet the people in person if the product and the community is entirely digital in the first place. D: Yeah that's a really good point. I always try to look at things like the glass half full And I look at covid, I look at the paradigm shift that its bringing to the world and I think that if there is a good thing to come out of covid, you're right, it has kind of normalized working from home and by extension, its normalized this sort of global work space where you can coordinate with people from across the globe. We’re doing it right now. And it's such a cool way to, at least for me in my own experience, kind of be exposed to different sorts of cultures and lifestyles and everything in between. I’d like to get a little bit, because Haseeb, you have such an interesting backstory, so lets dial it back just a little bit here and just talk a little bit more about how you grew up, maybe your education and then maybe some pivotal moments in your life that have influenced your decision to pursue investing and that sort of thing. Because I think there are a lot of people who are listening to this that are from varying walks of life, have varying amounts of capital, maybe they are playing with the idea of being in this new nascent industry. And they are playing with the idea of well what do I invest in, how do I identify something that is worth investing in, how can I make that distinction? H: Sure sure, so I grew up in Texas, in a small town called Dripping Springs which at the time it was a town of about 2000 people. And I was pretty much the only brown kid who was in that school system, alongside my two brothers. It was an interesting place to grow up because it was one of those places that was so boring, that you sort of, your mind had to be elsewhere. And in a way that was a bit of a blessing in disguise because it led me to really becoming cognizant as an internet native person. And I think there's sort of a generation around the late 90s that was sort of a first fully online generation. And that was me I was right on the cusp of when that digital transformation was takin
