Blockchain Investment Manager Career Development Path Guide
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Blockchain Investment Manager Career Development Path Guide
Insights from interacting with investment managers and GPs, reflections on career development paths for blockchain industry investment professionals.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsDuring recent project financing efforts, I've had the privilege of interacting with numerous investment managers and GPs. Through in-depth conversations with them, I've compiled some insights on career development paths for blockchain investment managers, which I hope will be helpful to others.
The blockchain industry is closely tied to capital and also relatively accessible for social mobility. Beyond ordinary users, most industry professionals operate primarily as project teams. Each practitioner typically has one or more backgrounds rooted in project teams.
Investment firms themselves can also be viewed as a type of project team, and large-scale projects often have their own internal investment divisions. For example, public chains, exchanges, and well-funded projects usually participate in first-tier market penetration through investments.
As executors within investment institutions, investment managers sit downstream in the organizational structure. They generally lack decision-making authority and are mainly responsible for reviewing projects and conducting initial communications with project teams. Due to abundant capital in the industry and a growing number of investment firms, there are many investment manager positions available. In reality, many investment managers do not possess extensive professional experience or project track records. Opportunities to become an investment manager vary widely; to advance, one must fully leverage personal strengths, continuously expand capabilities, and simultaneously address weaknesses.
Based on my understanding, blockchain investment firms can generally be categorized into the following types (for reference only, no ranking implied):
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Blockchain divisions of traditional investment firms, such as Sequoia, Union Square Ventures, A16z Crypto
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Funds dedicated exclusively to blockchain investments, such as ParaFi Capital, Multicoin Capital, Paradigm
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Investment arms of public chain projects, such as Polychain Capital, Solana Ventures
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Exchange-affiliated investment departments, such as Binance Lab, KuCoin Ventures
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Investment departments of project teams, such as Animoca Brands, Mask
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Investment firms founded by partners from exchanges or major projects, such as ABCED Capital
- Investment divisions of high-traffic media platforms
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Investment arms of mining hardware manufacturers
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Investment arms of mining pools
The above classification represents broad categories of current investment funds or departments that come to mind—there may be omissions, and additional suggestions are welcome in the comments section.
To become an outstanding investment manager and gain entry into top-tier investment institutions or platforms, it's not just academic background that matters—personal resources, cognitive ability, and practical experience are equally important. Because this industry is flush with capital and fundraising is relatively easy, the quality of investment managers varies significantly.
To advance, the most critical factor is inherent capability—specifically, level of cognition. However, cognition is a skill that requires continuous input across multiple dimensions including talent, opportunity, trial and error, time, and information. It cannot be rapidly improved in a short period and isn't something that effort alone can overcome.
Therefore, what follows are some strategic approaches that can help you progress further in your role as an investment manager from alternative angles.
As an investment manager, you review various project pitch decks daily and have opportunities to interact with founders or developers. Through extensive communication, you can uncover several key insights:
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Characteristics of strong teams versus common issues in underperforming ones.
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Competitive advantages and potential risks of project products.
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Current valuation and funding needs at different project stages.
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Status of leading projects in the same domain and how they differentiate themselves competitively.
Based on these general observations, I’ll offer some perspectives to deepen your understanding.
To achieve a breakthrough in your career as an investment manager, the most direct and effective path is identifying high-growth-potential projects and deeply engaging throughout their fundraising process—even participating actively in each round of financing.
Some might argue this is obvious—everyone wants to back fast-growing projects. But how do you find projects that are both promising and reliable? Don’t worry—I’ll provide concrete guidance. The answers lie hidden within previous points discussed.
As an investment firm, you likely have access to a vast amount of project data, possibly including projects from the last bull market or currently active ones, along with early-stage pitch decks of high-quality ventures.
If you were among the first investment managers to engage with a successful project, conduct a thorough post-mortem analysis. Ask yourself: Why did this project succeed? What qualities did the team demonstrate? How was the negotiation conducted initially? Did the project meet or is it close to meeting its promised milestones at this point in time? Reflect on the traits the founding team exhibited early on—were those characteristics or team DNA crucial to their eventual success?
If you weren’t among the first contacts, try to identify who was. Reach out to other investment managers in the space to learn about the initial engagement, reconstruct the process as accurately as possible, and complete the retrospective analysis outlined above.
As an investment manager, you must clearly understand the project team’s fundraising requirements and valuation rationale—why they need so much capital and why the project is valued so highly.
For high-growth projects, especially those in early stages, there is typically little room for excessive premium in funding needs. Most often, they require just enough capital to survive and achieve the goals promised by the team within limited financial support. Consider this: if a project claims ambitious objectives but requests relatively modest funding, you—as an investment manager—should ask the following questions:
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How exactly will such grand goals be achieved?
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How much funding is needed at each stage? Has this been sufficiently considered?
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Is there a clear and feasible implementation roadmap?
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What challenges might arise? Are solutions already in place?
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In this competitive field, can the product offer sufficient differentiation?
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How will users be attracted? In other words, why would users choose this product over alternatives?
Building on this foundation, let me provide a sector-specific example using the data analytics industry:
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What server capacity, memory, and CPU power are required? What performance level must be achieved? What is the associated cost?
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Will servers be rented or self-hosted? If rented, how much funding is needed and for how long? If self-hosted, what hardware must be purchased, who will maintain it, and where will it be hosted?
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What is the minimum team size required, and what percentage of raised funds will go toward salaries?
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How will operations be executed and coordinated?
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What advantages exist in the data analytics direction? Are there demonstrable results? Is the solution easily replicable?
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Where does the team plan to establish its operational base?
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What are the next-phase plans?
- Are revenue models diversified?
If the project team can provide reasonably satisfactory answers to the above questions, then as an investment manager, you should reflect on how you can maximize value for them. This is what I mean by deeply aligning yourself with the project team. If you can help ease their fundraising burden or bring in additional resources—such as talent, strategic thinking, or partnerships—the founding team will likely welcome deeper collaboration and grant you preferential access.
In such cases, you’re no longer merely an investment manager representing an external fund—you may also serve as a fundraising advisor to the project itself. If this is a high-growth project, your close relationship with the team will likely connect you with higher-level professionals during subsequent funding rounds, significantly enhancing your knowledge and network. As the project grows, you too can achieve upward mobility. Of course, while leveraging the project’s resources during this process, remember that these resources belong to the project—not to you.
As an investment manager, you should aim to discover multiple high-potential projects. This is undoubtedly a challenging and time-consuming task. However, if you manage to identify even one or two such projects within a single cycle, your reputation will rise quickly. You may even spin out independently to become a GP, as your track record of spotting high-potential projects early will serve as strong credibility when raising your own fund. At that point, you’ll truly complete a class leap—from investment manager to GP—gaining full decision-making authority over capital rather than just advisory influence.
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