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Xavier is equalising access to pre-IPO and pre-token markets with prePO.

After a stint living in Korea working as an experimental game developer, Xavier knew he needed to change profession as he was struggling to make a living. Fortunately at this point he was already using crypto zombies, which had a notification about a Bitcoin meet-up in Korea. Being interested in Bitcoin and Alt coins already, Xavier attended and the seed of working in crypto was planted.

Initially, Xavier came back to Australia to work as a Software Engineer at Canva, namely because he wanted access to the equity of the private company. It was at this moment he realised his friends and family were having similar issues; they all wanted to gain access to the upside of private companies prior to their IPO, however, there was not a widely available market. This lead him to found prePO, a decentralised pre-IPO and pre-token trading platform looking to democratise pre-public equity.

Along with Xavier's compelling story, he highlights the key features of prePO, as well as sharing how you can get involved at the ground level.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Xavier Ekkel.

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Find Xavier on Twitter: @XavierEkkel

Find prePO on Twitter: @prepo_io

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

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Born and raised in Russia, Roman Storm grew up in a low income, high crime environment. He always wanted to be a programmer but it seemed out of reach in his current circumstances. So after a stint in metallurgy, he knew he had to make drastic changes to make his dream a reality.

Roman immigrated to San Francisco where he immediately felt inspired by the seemingly endless abundance. With the determination to start his own business but without the idea, Roman attended various hackathons to find inspiration. It was at one of these hackathons where he met Vitalik, who suggested he try to solve privacy issues on Ethereum. This led Roman to create Tornado Cash, a non-custodial privacy solution with compliance.

On an ideology so fundamental to the cypherpunk narrative, it is refreshing to hear Roman's pragmatic take on on-chain privacy.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Roman Storm.

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Find Roman on Twitter: @rstormsf

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: koji.capital

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/vDMvPefS (https://discord.gg/vDMvPefS) (https://discord.gg/vDMvPefS (https://discord.gg/vDMvPefS))

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Jack is founder of Colony, who are building organisations for the internet.

Jack has always been magnetised by technology and its ability to create something new. He is well-known for his work in fine jewellery, where he used 3D printing technology to create some of most expensive pieces of art ever made. One notably was a diamond encrusted skull, selling for 100 million USD.

As the years went by, Jack got tired of attending fancy parties with Russian oligarchs. He was an artist, not a salesman and this cognitive dissonance lead him to be miserable. After being offered a blank cheque to effectively sell his soul, he was truly at crossroads.

It was this ultimatum that lead him to think of a way to align incentives so that he could focus on his art whilst others dealt with the business side. This lead him to found Colony, which effectively had a DAO structure before the term was coined. He then realised that if he could apply this to his thing, he could apply it others, with a generalised approach.

This is just one of many gems Jack reveals in this episode.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Jack Du Rose.

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Find Jack on Twitter: @jackdurose

Jewellery: https://www.pinterest.com.au/sovanlo/jack-du-rose/ (https://www.pinterest.com.au/sovanlo/jack-du-rose/)

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: koji.capital

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Farmwell knows what the people want and delivers.

Coming from a background of studying financial systems, Farmwell is fascinated by financial markets and their impact on society. He is also intrigued by incentives and their power to influence people’s behaviour. After working for a few years in enterprise software, he decided to take the plunge into DeFi.

Throughout his career, Farmwell has become increasingly magnetised by the innovation of online sports betting. This lead him to co-found Thales, a binary options platform built on top of the Synthetixs ecosystem.

With Thales having its vision set of permissionless sports betting markets, its demographic is set to expand immensely. As a sports fan himself, Farmwell is excited to be working on products that he enjoys and personally would use. NBA fans are already blowing up Thales DM’s about this exciting new idea.

Farmwell tells his story in High Definition

Find Farmwell on Twitter - @farmwell123

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Tascha defines her own success criteria.

After setting off to study chemistry at UC Berkley, she quickly realised this pathway was not right for her. By shifting her focus away from her culture’s standards, Tascha was able to find investment banking. Whilst studying this, she realised the potential of tech and Defi. However, it was quite overwhelming to decide where to go and what to do, as these factors provided endless possibilities.

Tascha overcame this by servicing tech clients from the finance industry, allowing her to gain tech exposure while working in the field she loves. As her appetite for tech grew, she took the opportunity to work in product management for Tencent Global. The contrast in servicing tech clients in the US to the more high-risk, competitive culture of this Chinese company allowed Tascha to gain a unique perspective. She used this experience to guide the co-founding Alpha Finance Lab, an ecosystem for DeFi products capturing unaddressed demand in an innovative and user-friendly way.

Tascha emphasises the importance of addressing the team and doing activities to boost internal morale. Following an unfortunate hack in February, she explains how a crisis can bring people closer, as it can highlight their dedication to work in DeFi and for the team. Tascha’s vision is a decentralised DeFi lab and she remains positive by viewing the hack as a necessary stage of development. “If there were no hacks at all, people wouldn’t take security seriously. We just have to get through this phase to be more robust”.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Tascha Punyaneramitdee.

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Find Tascha on Twitter: @tascha_panpan

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Joey has always believed that computers are the fastest medium to create an impact on the world.

His dad saw the technological spark in him and bought him an Apple IIGS at age 10, on which he learned to code. He continued with his passion by formatting hard drives whilst studying computer science at college. The idea that he could write a piece of software and have others immediately use it struck him as hugely powerful, and almost an addiction.

Throughout his career, Joey has become increasingly magnetised by decentralised applications. This lead him to co-found Augur, the global no-limit betting platform. It also drove him to co-found Eco, a balance that lets you spend, send, save and make money at the same time. Following both Joey's success in his ventures and his top-ranking AngelList Syndicate, he is now co-CIO at Pantera Capital, one of the largest blockchain-focused investment firms.

Joey believes in putting yourself in a position to benefit from randomness as much as possible. He encourages people to get involved in the space as there’s lots to do, such as technical architecture, token design marketing, strategies etc. From Joey’s extensive experience, he’s finds the projects with a strong community tend to be the most successful.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Joey Krug.

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Find Joey on Twitter - @joeykrug

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Twitter - @koji_capital

Website - koji.capital

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

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James Simpson is reimagining DAOs as the co-founder of mStable, an autonomous non-custodial platform for pegged crypto projects. Brimming with wisdom, James tells his story.

With an interest in Bitcoin formed throughout his economics studies at university, James found himself deep in the space at quite a young age. While living and working in Shanghai, he attended various Bitcoin and Ethereum meet-ups, where he became disenchanted with his 9am-5pm consulting job. This led to James taking risks, and finding success. In this journey to DeFi, he learned some valuable lessons.

James strongly believes in the need for genuine decentralised governance. For mStable, governance is designed in a way to reward commitment, meaning the longer you stake, the greater the staking rewards and voting power. As new governance structures play a part in the future of DeFi, he believes we’re in the golden ages, and encourages everyone to “Get up and build”.

James shares the stories that brought him to where he is today.

Join this Koji Conversation, with James Simpson.

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Find James on Twitter: @jronsim

Twitter: @koji_capital

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

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Dan Elitzer keeps all options on the table.

Dan saw potential in Web3 from his time working in international developments, where he did microfinance and mobile technology to empower people in Africa. Bitcoin flashed his radar in 2013 and he realised receiving, storing and sending value could now be done with open protocol. The idea that anyone could spin up a digital global banking account with zero marginal cost struck him as powerful.

Throughout his career, Dan has become increasingly magnetised by the possibilities of blockchain over the traditional closed-ended venture fund structure. This led him to co-found nascent (@nascentxyz), a multi-strategy crypto investment entity.

Dan enjoys getting projects off on the right foot and helping them navigate to next level. He encourages founders to enjoy the start-up phase. Personally, he has found that following his interests and passions has guided him well thus far.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Dan Elitzer.

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Find Dan on Twitter: @delitzer

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: koji.capital

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Tim Holmes-Mitra is an advocate of individual sovereignty and is on a mission to place privacy back in the hands of the individual.

Tim has always had a keen interest in technology, having spent almost a decade in the British army working on information security.

Throughout his time in the army and in the private sector, Tim has grown increasingly resentful towards ‘Big Tech’ for their ability to harvest personal data. This led Glimpse, a next-generation advertisement technology that promises a privacy-first, cookieless future.

From making fake ad servers at 14, to tapping into enemy communications in the army, Tim has always used his technological abilities to his advantage. Tim’s present focus is now on the betterment of society through blockchain technologies.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Tim Holmes-Mitra

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Find Tim on Twitter: @TimHolmesMitra

Twitter: @koji_capital

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Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)

Alex Svanevik is a pioneer of machine learning and DAO’s with a mission to surface the signal in blockchain data.

Alex seemed destined to find himself pushing the boundaries of analytics from an early age, displaying a proficiency in the sciences and steadily sharpening his analytical mind.

Throughout his ventures, Alex has become increasingly magnetised by the possibilities of blockchain technology while maintaining a deep interest in AI. This has culminated in rising to CEO of Nansen, a blockchain analytics company co-founded in 2019.

A particular corner of blockchain technology that Alex champions is DAOs. Alex believes this innovative alternative to corporate structuring have many advantages, including unparalleled transparency and powerful incentivising abilities.

Join this Koji Conversation, with Alex Svanevik.

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Find Alex on Twitter: @ASvanevik

Twitter: @koji_capital

Website: koji.capital

Email: [email protected]

Hosts: @Jack_Kji and @David_Kji

Discord: https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa (https://discord.gg/MThFGFfuRa)