HOW TO BUILD A VC FIRM

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi shares how the firm grew from a first-time manager in the 2018 crypto winter to a $4 billion platform launching Fund IV at $650 million by finding the east-west arbitrage edge nobody else wanted due to punishing hours, then optimizing like a startup with rigorous feedback loops and data tracking rather than "vibe investing." The non-consensus right deals principle drives portfolio construction as venture returns follow power laws, where the top three investments outperform everything else combined, making hit rate irrelevant compared to taking big swings on idiosyncratically underpriced opportunities like Ethena's seed post-Terra collapse and Polymarket before the 2024 election. Institutional brand-building requires distributing through individual team members' public voices, cultivating platform power to move things for founders, and fundraising when markets are hot, while deploying when prices are low, despite LP psychology almost always running opposite to optimal timing.