From Engineer to Crypto Entrepreneur: The Founder's Journey of Nansen.ai
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From Engineer to Crypto Entrepreneur: The Founder's Journey of Nansen.ai
The essence of cryptocurrency development is co-creation. Ownership and product creation are decentralized through tokens, and things are built publicly using open-source code and protocols. Anyone sufficiently skilled can contribute to building the protocols.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsText: Alice
Translation: Noodle, TechFlow
Nansen is one of the most powerful on-chain data analytics platforms.
It tracks and analyzes public blockchain information from approximately 90 million Ethereum wallets, providing data and insights to individual and institutional crypto traders and investors so they can make better decisions.
Nansen’s clients include cryptocurrency-focused funds such as Polychain, Three Arrows Capital, Pantera, and Defiance Capital.
Founded in 2020, Nansen has raised a seed round and a $12 million Series A, totaling $13.2 million in funding. Its investors include prominent crypto investment firms such as Coinbase, QCP Capital, and a16z.
Headquartered in Singapore, Nansen has a team spanning over 20 countries. I sat down with Alex Svanevik, a world-traveling entrepreneur and founder, to discuss his insights on cryptocurrency and blockchain.
From AI Engineer to Crypto Entrepreneur
Born in Norway and trained in artificial intelligence (AI), Alex worked across Europe in data science and consulting. In 2017, he discovered Ethereum and became deeply fascinated by cryptocurrency and blockchain.
"For a long time, I ignored Bitcoin because there wasn’t much to play with. But Ethereum was a completely different story. So many possibilities, so many applications. For the first time ever, I truly understood the full significance of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. From an AI perspective, the concept of smart contracts was also incredibly appealing," he said.
Alex quit his job to work full-time in crypto. His first role was as Chief Data Scientist at Coinfi in Hong Kong, a market intelligence platform offering professionally curated research, analysis, trading signals, algorithms, and news for crypto asset investors.
This was in 2018, toward the end of the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, when many companies attempted to raise funds through ICOs. With low compliance standards and poor delivery, sell-offs ensued, triggering the great crypto crash.
Coinfi turned out to be one of the losers of that cycle. It had raised $15 million, mostly in ETH. When ETH plummeted from $400 to $80, the company no longer had enough funds to pay its employees.
"I was stuck because I had signed a two-year contract with Coinfi and was living in Hong Kong—one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. Yes, I was one of the victims of 2018, but also one of the survivors," he said.
According to Alex, Coinfi failed due to chaotic and ineffective management. It did not responsibly manage its treasury. The company lacked a clear roadmap and product vision. What it excelled at was marketing and fundraising.
Indeed, this has long been one of the biggest doubts and disgraces associated with the crypto industry. The ease of raising funds via ICOs meant a lack of compliance, regulation, and low barriers for anyone to launch unqualified projects—whether due to incompetence or fraudulent intent. The market was flooded with scams, frauds, and failed projects, which explains why traditional finance investors have long shunned the crypto market.
"Well, it's a nuanced situation," Alex responded when I pointed this out. "Yes, you have many hardships and failures, but on the other hand, you also see a lot of genuine innovation. There are many companies and protocols that are revolutionary."
Alex added that despite hitting rock bottom in 2018, he never reconsidered working in the crypto industry. "I never doubted the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain," Alex said firmly. "As an engineer, I understand how revolutionary this technology is. This is the future. Getting there might not be the smoothest trajectory, but we will get there."
To illustrate just how optimistic he is about the crypto industry, 99% of his personal assets are invested in crypto—including his equity in Nansen.
"I learned a lot from my experience at Coinfi," Alex said. "It was interesting to see how a startup collapses from the inside. Now, as a founder, I make sure this doesn't happen to Nansen."
After Coinfi’s failure, Alex set out to build Nansen—a refined and upgraded version of Coinfi’s product. This time, he was determined to do things differently.
First, Alex ensured strong oversight of the team and anticipated every possible scenario. He didn’t want layoffs due to poor management or mismanagement of funds. He built the company with long-term resilience in mind and committed to building the best company and product.
He also decided to adopt a private limited corporate structure rather than a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Traditionally, he raised funds from angel investors and venture capitalists instead of launching an ICO.
"The problem with ICOs is that often you have to find a way to incorporate a token into the product. So many companies end up designing suboptimal side products just to justify the token. I didn’t want to worry about all that. I just wanted to build a product that helps grow the crypto ecosystem."
Thus, unlike many other crypto companies, Nansen is not decentralized. However, Alex still embraces many principles applicable to DAOs, such as transparency, collaboration, and co-creation.
What It Takes to Build a Crypto Company
According to Alex, the biggest challenge any crypto founder faces is lack of focus.
"The crypto space is evolving at an extremely fast pace. Every day brings new inventions, new companies or DAOs being formed, new ICOs launched, new protocols initiated, and new trends emerging. As a result, founders can easily get distracted."
The essence of crypto development is co-creation. Ownership and product creation are decentralized through tokens, and everything is built publicly using open-source code and protocols. Anyone sufficiently skilled can contribute to protocol development.
"As a crypto founder, you almost have to throw away the old playbook. Everything is transparent, but that also makes it more chaotic and messy. There are too many distractions and possibilities, making it hard for anyone to stick to a long-term plan and vision. You can't really plan ten or twenty years ahead in crypto. Infrastructure, protocols, market sentiment, and even regulations change too rapidly every day."
Some general principles of building tech startups apply to crypto startups as well—such as team and culture building, efficient management, and fundraising. However, crypto founders need to be more agile, adaptable, curious, and innovative than typical tech founders.
"The barrier to entry for creating a crypto company or project is low, which makes the space more democratic and full of innovation potential, but also flooded with scams and incompetent founders. Becoming a crypto founder is easy, but becoming a good one is not," Alex said.
Easy fundraising, lack of regulatory enforcement, and low operating costs all contribute to lower entry barriers. For example, projects often don’t need large teams because they’re creating a smart contract that, once deployed, can exist on-chain forever—so many DeFi protocols require no maintenance or operational expenses.
"A great crypto founder needs to be flexible in responding to change while maintaining intense focus and commitment. That’s the secret to success."
Courage, Transparency, Speed, Curiosity
The name Nansen comes from a Norwegian polymath, symbolizing an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian.
Nansen’s core values are courage, transparency, speed, and curiosity.
"Again, although Nansen is a traditional private limited company, we do many things in ways inspired by the crypto and blockchain space," Alex explained.
"First, creating entirely new products in new markets requires courage—the courage to pursue your vision and beliefs regardless of others’ opinions. Second, I always default to transparency. Transparency makes things fairer and more efficient for everyone, especially in communication across the entire company. Everyone gets informed at once; everyone knows what the game plan is. Then we have speed and curiosity, both crucial for staying competitive in this field. As I said, things are moving at lightning speed, so you must act quickly and stay curious about the latest developments and innovations. I prioritize hiring people who are naturally curious."
Alex draws much inspiration from innovator Elon Musk, who started as an engineer and became one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. "I now see myself as a well-rounded person, more of an entrepreneur than an engineer," Alex told me. "I'm not a fan of Elon, but I find his way of doing things very visionary and unique, which contributes to his success—and I appreciate that. I think Elon embodies some of Nansen’s values, like courage and curiosity."
Since 2020, Nansen.ai has become one of the fastest-growing crypto startups globally. It has been praised by many sophisticated crypto traders and investors of all sizes as an excellent and useful product. Alex said his family and friends, who were skeptical when he left everything behind in 2018 to work in crypto, now fully support him.
Future Outlook for the Crypto Space
Looking ahead, Alex envisions building a data analytics platform friendly enough for mainstream users. "Right now, Nansen is quite niche—only useful to more sophisticated and wealthier investors, like large funds. But my goal is to develop the entire crypto ecosystem to support all other ordinary traders and investors as well. Information is power, and I want to empower everyone."
Alex said it’s okay to initially build products for wealthy customers, then create a roadmap to develop accessible products for everyone else. "Like Tesla—they started with the Roadster, affordable only to wealthy enthusiasts. But their goal was to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream, so they aimed to reach as many people as possible. We feel the same at Nansen. Our goal is to use profits from our current product and audience to build something more mainstream."
When I asked Alex what excites him most about the development of Web3.0, he said that in the long run, he looks forward to seeing cryptocurrency go mainstream. He’s glad to be part of making that happen. "It won’t happen overnight. I don’t expect a billion crypto users next year, but we’ll gradually get there."
"In the short term, I’m excited about developments in the NFT space. NFTs will be a key driver in making cryptocurrency and blockchain technology more mainstream and accessible to everyone. People care less about finance, but in pop culture, gaming, entertainment, music, and art, NFTs make crypto more appealing and trendy to a broader audience," Alex said.
When asked what concerns him most about Web3.0, Alex said he isn’t someone who worries too much about anything. "I find it useless to worry about things that might or might not happen," he said.
"What’s the point? When a problem arises, either it’s already beyond your control, or you respond and mitigate it as best as you can. But worrying or expecting the worst before it happens is pointless—and counterproductive."
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