Author: mable.sol (Mable Jiang, former partner at Multicoin Capital)
Compiled by: Ken, Chaincatcher
Each person can only excel at one type of game. You should spend half your time figuring out what game you're good at, and the other half focusing entirely on playing it well.
Kyle Samani knows exactly what his game is.
His strategy is to first conceive a theory, then find suitable projects—and patiently wait for the theory to be validated (while periodically assessing whether the theory still holds true). Regarding the idea of building an "on-chain Nasdaq" using Solana, he saw this argument from the beginning (even though Solana is still some distance from this vision, but that's not the point), and executed this strategy by leading multiple rounds of funding—even participating in discounted off-exchange rounds long after Solana's mainnet launch. He did everything in his power to promote Solana's development.
His core strategy lies in finding asymmetric opportunities, that is, non-consensus betting. Haseeb is right: probably no one is better at this than Kyle.
People question why Multicoin hasn't captured any top projects or related infrastructure for perpetual contract decentralized exchanges this cycle. No one knows better than me that Multicoin was a staunch bull on perpetual contract decentralized exchanges long before anything else existed this cycle. Even before many in the industry understood how a central limit order book works—you might be surprised, but it's true, after all, many of us started as cypherpunks and only later adapted to being trading experts (laughs). Multicoin has meticulously studied virtually every perpetual contract decentralized exchange and analyzed the trade-offs involved. There have been numerous blog posts about design space and why certain designs are better—you can find them at multicoin.capital.
So why did they "miss out"? Because perpetual contract decentralized exchanges and on-chain liquidity—these are no longer non-consensus betting. Of course, they still have huge growth potential. But consensus betting holds no appeal for Kyle. That was never his game.
Moreover, for a fund, the goal is to make money for the limited partners. Therefore, simply managing a fund in a conventional way is no longer the game Kyle wants to focus on. Running a data company might be what interests him—something no one has ever successfully done before (if you're interested, you can probably listen to the podcast I did with him on FWRD). There are still many asymmetric opportunities in the world waiting to be discovered. Kyle knows what his game is, so he decided to focus on playing the game he's good at and interested in.
No one needs to worry about who might switch to another area. Once you understand what your game is, you should focus on playing it well and aiming to win. Winning itself isn't the whole goal, but developing a winning strategy is part of the gaming experience.
Many people worry about what Multicoin will be like without Kyle. But I'm not worried because I know the opportunity facing us all lies in the strengths of Tushar, Brian, Spencer, Shayon, Vishal, Matt, Greg, and the rest of the team: on-chain transactions, artificial intelligence, and compliance. As long as the team focuses on playing the game correctly, it will remain a top player in the industry.
For me, I've been a doer for almost four years now. Looking back, my time at Multicoin has been unique—intense debates with Kyle at investment committee meetings, strategic exchanges with Tushar, and exploring the design space of many things with each member of the investment committee. I know I can't be as good as any of them, but I've found my passion and my niche in gaming.
For Kyle, the dream of Web3 has become nothing more than cold ledgers. For me, in this highly commodified world, these ledgers encapsulate the transfer of real value. When all other filtering mechanisms completely fail, money becomes the only relatively scarce resource in the world that can be used to express opinions—and in the near future, perhaps even money itself won't be enough. That's why I'm building an asset generation protocol (@trendsdotfun).
We never need to agree on what games to play. But we genuinely wish each other well and will cheer for each other from the sidelines.
You only live once, so focus on the game you're best at.
I'm just playing a game, but I play to win.
Relax, but don't let your guard down.
