Introducing Spartan Labs: A $100M Venture-Building Studio Designed For Web3
Gm.
I am more than excited to share that I have joined The Spartan Group to head up Spartan Labs — a $100 million Web3 venture-building studio, launched under the Spartan Group.
If you hadn’t heard of the Spartan Group before (Asia’s leading crypto investment and advisory group, launched in 2017), you definitely heard about us last week. We launched a $110 million DeFi focused venture fund in 2021 and recently launched a $200 million Metaverse/NFT/Gaming fund with an emphasis on building virtual worlds that support digital ownership.
At Spartan Labs, we aim to transform how cutting-edge startups are founded — and slash the time it takes exciting Web3 projects to enter the market.
And with $100 million in dedicated capital to BUIDL in Web3, I am excited to be working alongside Melody, Casper, Kelvin and the rest of the Spartan Group team in helping to bring the decentralized future into the mainstream for as many users as possible, all over the world.
Quick Throwback
In Dec 2021, while I was still the VP of Growth and Ops at CoinMarketCap, what was initially a casual chat with the partners at Spartan Group became something much more when they shared their vision of Spartan Labs.
I was sold by that vision, along with their passion, tenacity and willingness to innovate, which has led them to where it is today.
After 2 incredible years leading Growth & Ops at CoinMarketCap where I had the opportunity to lead the post-M&A process with Binance and also built a global team to scale products that contributed to a 50x growth in web traffic, propelling us to an Alexa top 60 site globally, with a 4x growth in revenue, I felt it was time for a new challenge.
I’m a builder at heart, and that’s what Spartan Labs will be all about.
I’m excited to double down on what I’m most passionate about: attract and collaborate with the best minds to ideate, launch and scale cutting-edge crypto startups in Web3.
Ideate, Launch and Scale
Our new Web3-focused studio is tackling the biggest issue within venture capital today, where there is too much capital, too many great ideas to work on but not enough builders. And while most crypto projects can take up to two years to go from concept to public launch, we believe we can go to market even faster with our four-stage approach and our dream team of experts and specialists.
“Just imagine the smartest people working on the coolest stuff in Web3. That’s the dream team I’m talking about.”
- Conceptualize: Start with an idea from our internal database of potential Web3 ideas and flesh it out until we have clarity and conviction on the opportunity, go-to-market and skill set needed to lead the product
- Develop: Work in sprints across our in-house team of functional experts to build and test out the minimum viable product (MVP)
- Validate: Soft launch the MVP within our community of clients and portfolio companies to access market demand and get product feedback
- Fuelling: Once the idea demonstrates traction and product-market-fit, we will rapidly seek to fill management roles and key hires who can take over the helm and scale these companies. As the companies grow and mature, Spartan Group will also continue to provide support and resources in areas like fundraising, marketing, community building, recruitment, and business development.
Our goal is to rapidly build up our internal capabilities such that we can confidently launch 6–7 projects each year, while empowering our community of the best builders and operators with our capital, resources, networks, experience and expertise.
Our venture building model borrows the operational excellences from Web2 venture builders like Sutter Hill Ventures, which spawned cloud computing-based data provider like Snowflake, or Science Inc., which created the Dollar Shave Club, and BCG Digital Ventures which built OVO, Indonesia’s first fintech unicorn.
A Better Model for Founders and Investors
Web3 companies need a lot more than Web2 companies ever did — tokenomics, liquidity, multi-chain support….the list goes on.
With Spartan Group having advised and invested in over 100 portfolio companies in Web3 and DeFi since 2017, the Spartan Lab team already has some of the most crucial ingredients needed to build highly successful companies which individual startups tend to lack. These include:
- Access to talent
- A ready pool of customers
- Growth capital, and more importantly
- Insights into where market opportunities lie.
Building our own ventures in-house not only ensures higher quality at launch, but the continued support in fundraising, administration, and hiring allows the teams we bring on board to focus on growth and product development.
Looking Ahead
Over the coming months, we will be looking to build a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, product managers, UX experts, game economists, NFT strategists, growth and business builders responsible for venture building initiatives.
If any of the above resonates with you, submit your application below.
We’re calling all founders and operators in and out of web3. If you want to work in the best team, building and tinkering with the coolest stuff in Web3, we want to hear from you!
Application: HERE
We look forward to hearing from you and let’s start BUIDLing together.
You can also reach out to me on Twitter (@shaunhengcj) or join the Spartan Community on Twitter (@thespartangroup) for future updates.
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
