Hello world, and welcome to the fifth issue of Thursday Thoughts.
Each week, founders and investors share their thoughts on fundraising trends and strategy.
CMS Holdings was launched in 2019 and is now one of the most reputable investors in the space. Recently, they backed Solrise, Dexlab, Yield Protocol, and Switchboard.
Kevin McCordic is responsible for sourcing and analyzing venture and public market opportunities, as well as assisting current portfolio companies in various ways — he also makes awesome memes and takes great podcast notes.
He was kind enough to answer a few questions.
How do most founders get on your radar?
There are really 3 main ways that founders get on our radar:
Introduction from our network
The majority of founders we meet and talk with come from our network of industry colleagues and our existing portfolio companies.
Scouting a project and reaching out
We are always on the lookout for new projects that we think have promise and that we can help on their journey. These can come from hackathons, demo days projects that we hear about and want to use, or a whole host of other places.
Cold message from the founder
We try to be active within the different Layer 1 ecosystems. As such, we tend to receive a fair amount of inbound messages from founders looking to chat about their respective projects.
You managed to build a strong brand on Twitter by shitposting some awesome memes - how do you think this helps you attract founders?
For starters, I think it helps show the culture and energy at CMS. I knew CMS would be an awesome place to work the second I saw Dan posting jokes on the @cmsholdings Twitter account. I think the memes carry a similar message to founders who want to work with us.
Community is so important to crypto projects. Memes help strengthen the community. Look at Dogecoin and Elon Musk. People just like memes and they want to be associated with brands that like to have fun in a professional environment. I think founders understand this principle and see the value in it. We’re always looking for ways to support our portfolio companies - they know we’re willing to provide qualitative support (outside of just financing and capital) such as helping out if they hold a meme contest or need a casual shitpost with their brand at the center. This helps to separate CMS from passive investors in the space.
You recently participated in dYdX Series C - what do you think about the emerging late-stage fundraising ecosystem?
This is a natural progression of the private funding market for crypto. The DeFi boom within the last year or so has led to a myriad of projects that add real value to this industry. As this class of crypto projects comes of age and gains more traction, we’ll see more companies doing these types of later-stage fundraising - similar to what we’ve seen in traditional venture financing. It’s just a sign of the maturity of this market. Late-stage fundraising rounds also legitimize the space as bigger players help provide more growth-stage financing to take these companies and projects to the next level. I’m excited for the new class of crypto blue chips that will drive this industry forward.
Also, s/o dYdX, fantastic team.
Switchboard, Synfutures, XVERSE, Umee - you guys have been on fire lately. How do you explain such an intense activity?
These companies fit into our investment thesis at CMS. As of now, we are prepping for (and betting on) a multi-chain universe where different protocols seamlessly interact with each other. In terms of speed of investments, there is so much innovation going on in this space. Each week there seems to be a new trend or breakthrough that warrants deep research and due diligence. Our team works the vast majority of our days vetting projects that we’d like to support. We aim to connect with projects that fit into this thesis, have a high-potential impact, and have a great development team.
Thanks Kevin for taking the time to share such valuable insights.
See you on Tuesday for Dove Mountain Weekly #9,
The Dove Mountain Team