Quadrillions: The New Wall Street | Nick Shalek & Mathew McDermott
In the Quadrillions finale, we map the power shift from crypto building parallel markets to institutions integrating onchain rails into traditional finance. With Ribbit Capital’s Nick Shalek, and Goldman’s Mathew McDermott, we break down why the last wave of adoption stalled, why distribution beats ideology, and how networks like Canton are building from the inside out. This is the blueprint for “The New Wall Street.”
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Follow Canton: https://x.com/CantonNetwork
Follow Nick: https://x.com/nshalek
Follow Jason: https://x.com/JasonYanowitz
Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod
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Join the Empire Telegram: https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Introduction
(1:37) Ribbit Capital's Tokenization Letter
(4:22) FinTech Companies Moving Onchain & Institutional Adoption
(15:01) Crypto at Goldman Sachs Today
(17:53) What Held Crypto Back?
(20:33) What Canton Brings to the Market
(29:25) Crypto's Institutional Pitch
(33:14) Permissioned and Permissionless Chains Are Symbiotic
(39:23) Closing Comments
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Disclaimer: “Quadrillions” is a mini-series produced by Blockworks, and is sponsored by Canton Network. Nothing on this show is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. It’s for informational purposes only, and the views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice or necessarily the views of Blockworks.
Our hosts, guests, and the Blockworks team may hold positions in companies, funds, or projects discussed, including those related to Canton Network.
20VC: Ribbit Capital's Nick Shalek on How To Think Through Ownership and Price Sensitivity, When More Money and Pre-Emptive Rounds are Good vs Bad & Investing Lessons from Yale's David Swensen
Nick Shalek is a General Partner @ Ribbit Capital, specializing in fintech they are one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Robinhood, Coinbase, Revolut, Nubank and more. As for Nick, he started his career as a Senior Analyst @ Yale Investments Office before moving to the world of operations as Director of Business Operations @ Verne Global, a provider of 100% carbon neutral data centers.
In Today's Episode with Nick Shalek You Will Learn:
1.) How Nick made his way from Senior Analyst at Yale's Investment Office to be one of the leading fintech investors in the world with Ribbit? What were Nick's biggest lessons from his time working with David Swenson @ Yale? How would Nick summarise Yale's investment algorithm?
2.) Entering Venture and Advice: Why does Nick tell many friends entering venture, to not join a new fund? What does Nick believe is takes to build an enduring firm in venture? What were the core reasons and inflection points in the success of Ribbit? What have been some of the biggest challenges in the professionalisation of Ribbit over the years?
3.) Pricing and Ownership: Is Nick concerned by the levels of pricing we are seeing in fintech today? How does Nick analyze his own relationship to price? How does Nick view the importance of ownership? Is it possible to build ownership across rounds? How does Nick advise founders now receiving very fast offers to pre-empt their rounds?
4.) Investment Decision-Making: How does Ribbit structure its investment decision-making process for initial investments? In what way does this process change for re-investments? Why does Nick believe in the benefits of not having attribution within venture partnerships?
5.) AMA: What has been Nick's biggest miss? How did it change his investment decision-making process as a result? What does Nick know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture? What have been Nick's biggest lessons from his working with Micky?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Nick Shalek
Nick's Favourite Book: A Piece of the Action: When the Middle Class Joined the Money Class
Nick's Most Recent Investment: Kavak