Syndicate

Syndicate positions itself as a decentralized investing protocol and social network, fundamentally altering how value is created and managed in the Web3 space. Founded in 2021 by Ian Lee and Will Papper, the company aims to simplify the creation of on-chain investing organizations, making it as straightforward as starting a group chat. The founders' backgrounds are deeply rooted in the crypto world; Ian Lee previously led crypto and blockchain initiatives at Citi and was a managing director at IDEO CoLab Ventures, while Will Papper has been involved in the decentralization space since 2013, including research at the MIT Media Lab. Their collective journey began with researching decentralized social networks at IDEO, where they identified investing as the primary application.

The firm's core business revolves around providing the infrastructure for creating and managing investment DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). It addresses key challenges in the Web3 development landscape, such as the inflexibility of existing smart contract standards and the high costs associated with implementing Web3 solutions. The business model is infrastructure-as-a-service, generating revenue by charging fees for its suite of tools and APIs that manage smart contracts, transactions, and wallets. This allows developers and communities, from startups to Fortune 100 companies, to build on-chain experiences more efficiently.

Syndicate's flagship product is 'Web3 Investment Clubs', a tool that allows any user with an Ethereum wallet to launch an investing DAO almost instantly, for only the cost of gas fees. This product automates on-chain processes and provides compliance tools to ensure operations align with regulations. Upon its launch, it saw significant uptake, with the platform facilitating the creation of 10% of all existing DAOs within just three weeks. The platform provides a dashboard for viewing the on-chain portfolio and uses "mirrortables" to automatically update cap tables in real-time, issuing ERC-20 "mirrorshares" to reflect each participant's stake. The company has secured significant financial backing, raising over $28 million from more than 300 investors, including notable names like Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase Ventures, and Snoop Dogg.

Keywords: decentralized investing, Web3 infrastructure, investment DAOs, on-chain social network, crypto investment clubs, smart contract solutions, Will Papper, Ian Lee, DAO creation platform, Web3 development, decentralized finance, crypto-native social investing, ERC-721M, Andreessen Horowitz, IDEO CoLab Ventures, digital asset investment, blockchain protocol, community investing, mirrortables, crypto capital coordination