Conversation with Dragonfly Managing Partner: How to Achieve Sustainable Success in the Crypto Assets Field

In the field of Crypto Assets investment, finding the next hundredfold return opportunity is every investor's dream. As one of the world's top Crypto Assets investment funds, Dragonfly is known for its unique investment vision and deep technical understanding, with a portfolio that includes many star projects such as Avalanche, Near Protocol, Monad, and Athena.

In a recent podcast episode, Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi shared his legendary journey from a professional poker player to a top Crypto Assets investor, as well as how to establish a lasting impact in this rapidly evolving industry. This article provides a written compilation of this podcast episode.

Personal Background

Haseeb Qureshi is currently the managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, a global Crypto Assets investment firm managing billions of dollars in assets. His career has been quite dramatic: starting as a professional poker player, transitioning to a software engineer, then becoming an entrepreneur, and finally entering the VC industry for over six years. Among all his career experiences, investing in Crypto Assets is the most challenging field, but it is also the choice that he finds most valuable and meaningful.

Haseeb made a radical decision at the age of 23: he only kept $10,000 for basic living expenses, donating the rest or giving it to his parents as retirement funds. He wanted to force himself to start over in this way. This decision gave him a new perspective. While working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, his annual income was about $100,000, which is much less than when he was playing poker. But interestingly, his sense of happiness didn't change much. Because what truly brings satisfaction is learning new knowledge, achieving personal growth, and building genuine connections with those around him.

Similarities and Differences between Poker and VC

The most essential difference between venture capital and poker lies in the length of the feedback cycle. In a poker game, the correctness of a decision can be verified in a very short time. In the field of venture capital, the quality of an investment decision often takes six to seven years to become truly clear.

In poker or trading, the rewards of correct decision-making are immediate and intense, producing an instant rush of dopamine. However, in venture capital, success is a gradual process. It is more like nurturing a tree: there are no dramatic climactic moments, but rather a need for continuous patience and investment.

This process requires investors to have strong patience and perseverance. Unlike the quick win-or-lose judgments in poker, venture capital is more like a marathon, testing the spirit of long-termism and the ability to create value continuously. It is precisely this gradual growth process that makes venture capital work particularly meaningful.

Investment Judgment

In the field of venture capital, judgment of people is often more critical than the analysis of business models. Although investment giants like Naval Ravikant and Chamath Palihapitiya often emphasize breaking through stereotypes, the actual judgment process is much more complex.

Beginner investors typically need to undergo a cognitive process: understanding that business models and technological innovations indeed require continuous learning and in-depth research, which often necessitates building a systematic analytical framework through studying the history of technology and business. Interestingly, understanding human nature is an innate ability we possess.

As you accumulate experience, you will gradually realize: you need to learn to trust your intuition. The key is to see through the superficial social validation and perceive a person's essential characteristics, considering the choices they might make when faced with pressure, uncertainty, and moral dilemmas. Generally, your first instinct is often correct.

investment motivation

The fields that Haseeb is involved in, whether early poker or now Crypto Assets, have two notable characteristics: high chaos and creativity. This is fundamentally different from traditional linear development fields.

The crypto industry does not have a so-called "nobility class". Unlike traditional VCs, you do not need a prominent background or a vast network of connections, nor do you need to have experience in founding billion-dollar companies. Sincere effort and continuous hard work are the keys to success.

A bear market is like a mirror that reveals the truth, clearly showing who comes with sincere intentions and who quietly perseveres. Each bull market attracts a group of successful Web2 entrepreneurs with substantial funds, but in the end, those who remain are often considered "alternative" or "crazy"; they are the ones who truly build valuable projects.

Some Thoughts

Structured Learning

Haseeb believes that learning can be divided into two types: structured learning and unstructured learning.

The characteristics of structured learning are clear learning paths and tool support. Taking chemistry as an example, it has a complete textbook system and supporting learning resources, allowing learners to follow the established path step by step.

In real professional environments, especially in positions that can create high added value, there often aren't ready-made manuals or training materials. This requires practitioners to continually explore and learn in unknown areas, even if there are experts in the field, they often do not have enough time for systematic knowledge transfer.

This type of unstructured learning is often the most valuable and yields the highest market returns. Those who are able to harness this way of learning typically receive the highest rewards, which is precisely what formal education has not taught us.

Money cannot buy happiness

Haseeb believes that money can indeed solve your financial problems, but research shows that once income exceeds a certain level, for example, 50,000 to 100,000 dollars a year, the increase in happiness will drop sharply. People's happiness comes more from personal progress, growth, and connections with others - friends, family, and relationships.

( Effective Altruism

For the effective altruism (EA) movement, Haseeb believes that we are currently in a bear market for EA, which is somewhat healthy. When EA is "cool," people tend to doubt the motives of those who join. But now, those who identify as EA are the ones being questioned, which can actually test people's genuine belief in these ideas.

View on Crypto Assets

Haseeb believes that the core of Crypto Assets is a philosophy. It raises a fundamental question: Should the flow of value and funds be at the discretion of individuals, or should it be controlled by the state?

Crypto Assets are essentially disruptive. Just as YouTube disrupted the monopoly of traditional television stations, Crypto Assets are creating "user-generated currency." If currency were inherently free and programmable, we wouldn't need Crypto Assets at all. Its existence is itself a response to government restrictions.

In contrast, Crypto Assets may be the only significant technological innovation in the past 50 years that truly serves individuals rather than nations.

Key to Success

The key principles for success in the Crypto Assets field include:

1. Improve technical understanding. Although everyone has different levels of technical expertise, Crypto Assets are essentially a technological innovation. Without understanding the technology, it is impossible to establish a robust mental model to predict the direction of industry development.

2. Start writing and sharing publicly. Many people feel they have no new ideas and want to wait until they have enough knowledge before they start sharing, which is a huge mistake.

Newcomer Suggestions

For new investors, the most important thing to recognize is that almost all significant Crypto Assets projects are created by industry natives, not by elites from Google or Harvard.

How to become a native of Crypto Assets? The key is to find your unique advantage. Don't try to completely transform yourself into another Vitalik, or to learn complex zero-knowledge proofs. Instead, you should:

• Identify your area of expertise
• Maximize this advantage to the fullest
• Find the crypto project or person that needs this skill the most.
• Prove your worth with real actions

Number of fans ≠ Influence

In the Crypto Assets circle, the real way to establish influence is:

• Create value for the industry
• Help founders solve problems
• Doing meaningful things behind the scenes
• Provide value in every interaction.

This is indeed much harder than just posting, which is why most people cannot truly build influence ------ because most people are takers rather than givers.

Experience and Reflections of VC

Venture capital plays a unique role in the Crypto Assets industry; it is essentially a zero-sum game. VCs drive team success by identifying talented individuals and providing necessary support. The success of VCs is entirely dependent on the success of the entrepreneurial teams, which transforms the original "single-player game" into a "multiplayer game."

) Impostor Syndrome and Self-Perception

Haseeb stated that the feeling of Impostor Syndrome has always been present. The key is not to overcome this feeling, but to learn to coexist with it.

When you provide suggestions as an investor, you often receive special attention. This "magic" partly comes from the external perspective of the investor, which is not influenced by the company's internal "gravitational field."

Success VS Failure

In venture capital, there is no such thing as a "big breakout moment". VC is a day-to-day, continuous accumulation process.

In the VC industry, the biggest mistake is often not making a wrong investment, but missing out on a good project. Because VC follows a power-law distribution, missed opportunities are more fatal than failed investments.

The Eternal Dilemma of Investment

As an investor, you will never be completely satisfied because:

• Either regret missing out on a good project
• Either regret not investing more
• Either worry about selling too early or too late

But this discomfort is normal and even a good thing. If you are too comfortable, it might actually be a warning sign.

Maintenance of public image

As a venture capitalist, how others view you is indeed very important, as this is your business. But the best way to deal with this situation is:

• Maintain transparency
• Speak your true thoughts
• Continuously create value

When faced with controversy, you can ask yourself: "Is this a battle I truly care about?" If not, remove the controversial content and move on. In this fast-evolving industry, there is no need to get caught up in every dispute.

Future Outlook

Looking to the future, Haseeb believes that:

• The market direction will largely depend on the Federal Reserve's policy trends.
• The institutionalization process of Crypto Assets is an irreversible trend, but this process will be relatively gradual.
• The growth trend in the next two to three years will be more rational.
• Maintaining a cautiously optimistic attitude towards the Crypto Assets market, but expecting the volatility to be less than in the 2021 cycle.