Three venture capital firms investing in the Stellar ecosystem discuss their investment thesis for early-stage blockchain startups, emphasizing founder quality, execution ability, and sustainable revenue over roadmap promises.
At a Stellar ecosystem panel in Rio, three VCs from Marcos Fernandez Ventures, Clarabay Capital, and Onigiri Capital discuss their investment approach for early-stage blockchain companies. Key themes include the importance of founder-market fit and execution over pure vision, the need for founders to demonstrate traction and real customer validation rather than just roadmaps, and the critical role of distribution advantages over product alone. The panelists emphasize that sustainable revenue matters more than inflated numbers, warn against cycle-driven use cases, and stress the importance of founder communication through regular progress updates. They advise founders to show humility about challenges, build support networks, and focus on underlying metrics like monthly active users and virality rather than vanity metrics.