Daniel Zakrisson, ICONOMI’s head of investment evaluation
Over the last two months we have been evaluating potential ICOs and talking to almost 20 different teams. We have concluded that to ensure maximum profitability for ICONOMI.performance fund, we need clear evaluation standards for due diligence and the assessment of ICOs. As announced in a recent blogpost, Daniel Zakrisson (Linkedin) is joining us as head of investment evaluation for the ICONOMI.performance fund.
Daniel, welcome to the team. Can you introduce yourself in a few sentences?
I’m a very curious person and used to describe myself as a problem solver, entrepreneur and blockchain enthusiast. That last part is changing now as I’m committing myself 100 % to working with blockchain tech and businesses. I started my university studies by pursuing an engineering program in biotech and bioinformatics, but I’ve always found business really interesting and ended up graduating in business economics as well. I have been involved in the crypto space in different forms since 2014, initially as a small time miner but later more involved in different projects. It was after the DAO that I started to think about the crowdfunding process, how it compares to “normal” startup funding and how to evolve this into something that takes the best from both traditional venture capital and the possibilities of the new crowdsale opportunities.
What drives you, and why did you join ICONOMI?
The blockchain and related technologies will change our lives. We are just at the beginning of a fundamental shift in how many different markets and sectors work. Blockchain tech and Ethereum in particular attract so many talented people and through Ethereum I’ve come to know some of the smartest and most skilled people I’ve ever met. My personal driver is that this is happening now and we are all in the middle of this technology shift, and I see areas where I think my efforts and experience can make a difference. I want to see new technologies, companies and platforms built on Ethereum and other blockchain tech become successful and I will do everything I can to make this happen.
The fundamental reason I started to publish “The Crowdsale Analyst” ICO evaluations was that I saw a need for unbiased, structured evaluations during the ICO frenzy that happened this summer. I saw discussions around the Internet on different projects, and they would mostly get stuck on some specific aspect of an ICO, and not dig down and evaluate the project as a whole. Often they were also missing some key points that are common knowledge when evaluating a business, such as evaluating the team and the business proposal.
Then I got in contact with the ICONOMI team and it turned out that we have very similar views of where this space is today and where we are going over the next few years. We had a common view of how we should evaluate best practices from traditional venture capital and learn and methodologically analyse the successful and not so successful ongoing ICOs. We quickly got into a discussion about the need for and how to build tools, processes and best practices to evaluate and work with upcoming ICOs.
We also share a common view of how the new economy will work. Today’s internet titans were all founded and are based in a few tech hotspots around the world. This will change. The new economy will be truly international, borderless and decentralised. This economy will present huge opportunities for those who can build businesses that take advantage of this. When a global business can be run from any country in the world, recruit the best talent for each specific job, and operate with a fraction of the resources needed in the old economy, we will see new companies form and evolve, and these companies will compete on a level playing field.
Tell us a bit about your past work experience
Most of my professional life I’ve been working in the transition space between software development and business development in startup companies, with operations, tactical work and strategic work. I’ve worked in several startups through the whole process of company formation and bringing a product to market, and raised risk capital in several different ways in different environments. For the past six years I’ve been the CTO of a software medtech company and previously I was the CEO and co-founder of a personal genomics company.
The operational experience I have gained gives me a very good understanding of the actual process of starting and running a startup. I’ve been through all the typical startup stages several times, I’ve spent a lot of time with the funding process and worked with different kinds of capital and investors. We are creating a new economy, we must be open to experiment and learn but that doesn’t mean we should not learn from the old ways of doing things.
How do you spend your free time?
My free time and work time tend to blend. I’ve always chosen to work with things that I’m deeply interested in, even if all jobs naturally have some tasks you enjoy more and some not so much. My intellectual free time interests over the last few years have mostly revolved around blockchain tech and machine learning, and books and movies (see next question :-)).
Other than that, I have a family with two kids who are very important to me, and I’m also an endurance athlete, regularly participating in triathlons and other endurance-style events. The other sport I really love is downhill skiing, even if Sweden (where I live) is pretty flat.
What are the last book you read and the last movie you watched?
I love reading books and watching movies. For me there are basically two types of books/movies I enjoy. They either make me learn something new, or take me somewhere I’ve never been or cannot go (other times, cultures, perspectives, universes..). That means there are things in most genres I enjoy — fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction but also history, travel, essays, fantasy, biographies and more.
The last book I read was The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron and the last movie was a rewatch of Interstellar. The Shadow Of The Wind takes place during the first part of the 20th century. I didn’t care too much about the story, but it was great in how it let me experience the sounds, smells, street life and the daily life of that time and place and therefore I liked it. Interstellar, on the other hand, is a clear favourite. What is so great about good science fiction is that it shows us the big ideas and makes us think about their implications, things I think we have lost during the last 30 years. We used to dream about space travel and making major technological leaps. It is only in the last few years that we have been getting back to dream about these things again :-)
