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(This story is the primary in Capital.com’s new weekly characteristic Ladies on Crypto. Tales will profile the comparatively few ladies who lead firms within the male-dominated cryptocurrency sector. This week’s story is on Li Gong a parter with enterprise capital agency Youbi Capital.)
Meet Li Gong: An exception to the rule about ladies in crypto.
Gong is a accomplice with enterprise capital agency Youbi Capital. She is amongst comparatively few ladies who play an energetic position of their corporations’ investments and government management. As a rule, most different firms’ key selections are made solely by males.
DOT to USD
Face of Youbi
“I’m the face of Youbi,” she instructed Capital.com. “I’m the one who will supply offers and do the same old resourcing for the agency. Principally, I’m working as a scout.
“I’m the one who’s going out and searching for good tasks. I often would be the first particular person a mission [developer] talked to in our agency. And, I additionally take part within the funding decision-making course of.
However, I’ll say, my foremost position is extra relationship-driven in our agency.”
Gong has been working in crypto since 2017, when she “fell into this rabbit gap” via her friendship with two classmates from Fudan College in Shanghai, together with CEO Chen Li.
Gong, Chen Li and the opposite classmate studied chemistry in school in China, and he or she additionally obtained a Grasp of Enterprise Administration diploma from the College of Michigan and labored within the auto business.
The opposite classmate launched a profitable bitcoin-mining business in China.
ICO growth
When an preliminary coin providing growth occurred in 2017, the opposite classmate requested Gong and Chen Li to help him periodically.
“We labored like a small funding group,” she stated.
When Gong’s household relocated to the San Francisco Bay from Detroit in 2018, she joined Youbi on a full-time foundation. Gong, who has much less technical experience than Chen Li, stated she entered the crypto business at a “good ftime,” as a result of most tasks “had been simply primarily based on paper and concepts” and little or no technical due diligence may very well be accomplished.
Comfy studying curve
“So my studying curve [was] actually very comfy in the beginning and, after 4 years, proper now on the business, you truly are having extra supplies to learn and examine while you begin to have a look on a mission,” she stated. “[You’re] not restricted to the technical aspect.
“You do have a variety of issues to have a look at on the enterprise aspect when it comes to, for instance, income fashions and even income projections, that did not exist again in 2017,” she stated.
Youbi has centered its investments on the infrastructure aspect of the crypto sector.
The corporate has invested closely in layer-one, or public, blockchain tasks and their cryptocurrencies, equivalent to polka dot (DOT), avalanche (AVAX) and FLOW, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Yield Guild Video games, a play-to-earn crypto gaming guild that backs the YGG coin.
She stated Youbi is most happy with DeBank, which offers traders with a dashboard that tracks the decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolios.
YGG to USD
Firm seeks lacking items
“Lately, we’re extra into the social-buying sectors,” she stated. “We’re looking for the lacking items within the business. For instance, the newest deal we closed is a decentalized [identification] and key-management answer.
Fortunately, she stated, Youbi has “simply wager on the best sectors.” Youbi additionally tries to distinguish itself from different VC corporations by being amongst a number of pioneers who wish to introduce high Chinese language crypto tasks to the West. Though the core group relies within the US, it has a “very tight connection to the Chinese language crypto neighborhood.”
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Based on Gong and different ladies interviewed by Capital.com, females face a glass ceiling in the case of advancing within the male-dominated crypto business.
Crypto’s glass ceiling
“I believe that is form of a legacy from the tech business … and has one thing to do with the very early stage of our business,” she stated. “Within the very starting, you’ll see a variety of one-man groups – only one man and their mission. And, more often than not, that may be a programmer.
“Positively, there are far fewer feminine programmers within the tech business. So I believe it is fairly regular [that] you see only a few ladies founders in our business.
However over the 4 years I have been with the business, I’ve began to see extra ladies be part of into the house, as a result of because the business matures, these tasks additionally take off, so [a company will] develop into a a lot bigger, bigger group. So, it can have completely different job alternatives and profession choices.
That can present a variety we’d like.
“The second motive [for fewer women leaders in crypto] is, I believe, by some means primarily based in our genes. I imagine a lot of the ladies are extra risk-averse. So they’re form of reluctant [to get involved] on the early stage of a brand new business.”
Gong acknowledged that she is risk-averse, however stated she didn’t really feel that she was taking a significant threat in becoming a member of Youbi as a consequence of her connections to Chen Li and their classmate. As a result of she was allowed to work parti-time initially and her firm needed to relocate to the Bay Space, the profession transfer occurred very naturally and was a “comfy selection.”
‘Good initiatives’
Youbi’s small government group truly has extra ladies than males. However she hardly ever encounters ladies who’re founders of different firms. And, executives that she meets typically have a stereotypical view of her.
“They simply assume you’re in a enterprise improvement position,” she stated.
Gong is already seeing “a variety of good initiatives internally from the business” in the case of attracting and recruiting extra ladies.
“For instance, on the NFT aspect, which is the most popular subject proper now, there [are] artwork collections and tasks centered solely on the ladies’s aspect,” she stated. “So it’s truly very thrilling to see that folks truly notice the significance of girls on this business.
Feminine focussed DAOs
“And, we now have some organizations like DAOs [digital autonomous organizations, decentralized collectives that act like companies] finding out DAOs and social-networking occasions solely focused on ladies to assist them develop their networks and get educated on the Web3 aspect. That’s truly very nice.”
However she wish to see an “exterior push” to deploy atmosphere and social governance (ESG) ideas – “like the normal world does.”
Gong additionally serves as a part-time world funding advisor with HashKey Capital, the operator of one of many largest crypto funds in China, which concentrates on digital banking and monetary expertise (fintech) firms.
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