Reimagined Finance: Investor Persona Interviews
Interview : #7 in a 10 part series
Introduction:
Hi there I’m @Abraxas_Seven and welcome to the seventh in a series of Investor Persona Interviews.
As CMO of Reimagined Finance, I have passion to uncover the major barriers for investors and understand how these can be overcome.
This week I interview @ness_locke who have been on the digital journey since the dotcom boom. Experiences of digital disruption are at the core of his journey. From major digital platform experiences through to be at the front and centre of trading and crypto investing.
The range of experience is enviable as it provides a very rounded view of our current environment from every angle. We will see if the constant themes with each $ReFi investor continue and how long term visions and buying strategies have helped @ness_locke get to this point in his extensive journey.
I hope these insights and key learnings help investors for their own approach. $ReFi is committed to not just managing and farming your funds across the #DeFi space but helping to educate our communities so they can make more informed decisions across the #FaaS space and create more secure, long-term portfolios with consistent ROI’s.
So let’s dive in! And if you would like to be interviewed for the Persona Series please DM me @Abraxas_Seven on Twitter
1. Please introduce yourself as you see fit and then provide your crypto experience and involvement to date.
My background is in technology and disruptive innovation. I helped to build a lot of web 1.0 businesses back in the dot com days including things you might recognize like Realtor.com, Priceline, and Sephora’s first online retail presence. I’m now an entrepreneur and investor.
While I’ve been aware of crypto for a decade (mostly because I know many of the early cypherpunks), I only became active as an investor in crypto in late 2020. I’m an equities investor and trader (and a community admin in an equities trading group), so it was a natural transition for me to venture into crypto trading as a pandemic hobby.
2. Could you please give us a 1-minute history of your general business experience and what you do?
I have over three decades of experience in business development and technology product strategy in multiple industries including education, real estate, and aviation. I’ve lived through — and participated in — many waves of technological disruption. I’m currently a co-founder in two technology startups. One is an SaaS company in aviation. The other is a services company that builds online and mobile platforms and products for startups and small enterprise clients. We work in education, finance, healthcare, energy, and other sectors. We are currently looking for more clients in blockchain and crypto companies to add to our prior experience with building a private blockchain-based carbon credit exchange.
3. How did you get involved with ReFi?
I’m a member of Pizza Mind’s crypto community and I became aware of $ReFi through his involvement in $ReFi. I watched from the side-lines for a few months and I was impressed with the mindset and maturity of the team and the overall transparency of the project. After a few months, I decided that I would invest given the right price and daily liquidity levels. That opportunity presented itself in March allowing me to average in to my position.
4. Do you have a crypto strategy and has that evolved since discovering $ReFi and if so how?
Over the last few years, I’ve primarily invested in layer 1s, defi, and business enablement (VET for example) projects and traded in altcoins. In the last few months, though, I’ve reduced my capital allocations in both my own active trading strategies and in longer term positions in individual coins and tokens. And I’ve increased my allocation to funds and managed strategies like $ReFi. In times of market decline or chop, I find that managing capital takes a lot more time and effort. My time is very limited given the work I do with my startups. So, I’ve moved toward having others — who live and breathe these markets every day — manage my capital for me. $ReFi fits perfectly into that approach.
5. What problems were you facing in crypto investing generally and how has $ReFi helped?
$ReFi has allowed me to focus on my businesses and clients more and to look at charts and research projects less. It is a perfect match for where I’m at in my journey as an entrepreneur. I love trading and researching, but my time is more effectively spent with my startups and I love having a team of professionals trading and investing for me.
6. What are the biggest mistakes you see when people engage crypto investing?
Investing takes patience. Crypto moves fast that tends to encourage impatience. And impatience tends to lead to emotional decisions, bad entries and exits, and “strategy schizophrenia” where investors change their approach too frequently for no good reason. If you are impatient, then more patient investors will generally end up with your capital in their account over the long run. Your thesis about a team and a project is what should give you confidence. Invest in quality projects and let time do its work.
7. What was your main concern that would have prevented you from investing And what put your fears to rest? In crypto and then $ReFi.
Crypto, in terms of long term innovation cycles, to me feels very similar to 1996–1997 in Internet time. I wanted to wait to invest in crypto until it was well established, less speculative, and clearly headed to mass adoption. From my perspective, 2020 — and especially 2021 — felt like that time. I believe we are really still in an “in between” time … where crypto is mature enough to invest in, but before it truly enters into the mass adoption phase and integrates broadly with traditional finance. Crypto’s mass adoption phase is, at this point, mostly just waiting for regulatory clarity. It is a great time to be in the space as an investor!
With respect to $ReFi, I wanted to see consistent behavior, mindset, maturity, and position management practices from the team over time (a few months at least) before I was ready to jump in. That period of time watching the project and the team gave me the confidence I needed to open a long term position.
8. What are three benefits you’ve experienced as a result of joining $ReFi versus other crypto platforms?
I love the transparency of the project and I really like the positions the team uncovers, how they go about vetting opportunities, and the positions they put on. If I were currently trading, the Alpha Channel — and watching the treasury wallets — would be providing enormous value. I wish I had access to those in 2021. It would have sharpened my trading considerably.
Since I’m not actively trading right now, and because I have confidence in the $ReFi team and their vision, the greatest benefit to me is being able to focus on what I’m good at and letting the team at $ReFi focus on what they are good at. Not having to worry about my positions on a day-to-day basis is a huge blessing that I’m grateful for.
9. What made you choose $ReFi over anything else you could have done? And how important was the management team in this decision?
The $ReFi team and the ethos of transparency they have created, along with the long-term mindset of the project, were very important to me. We all know that crypto abounds with scams, sketchy teams, and flash-in-the-pan memes. I look for the same qualities in crypto project teams that I look for in traditional companies. I look for evidence of shared values, mature mindsets, and execution discipline. I saw all of these in $ReFi and this sets the project apart from most crypto projects including competitors in the farming-as-a-service category. I also really value, as an long-time equities investor and trader, the team’s background in traditional finance, which I believe gives them an edge over teams of “crypto natives.”
10. How has crypto changed since you invested and what new barriers / challenges or opportunities do you see today versus when you started?
When I started investing, the entire market followed Bitcoin and Bitcoin dominance. My expectation as I started investing in crypto was that 1) volatility in Bitcoin and top projects would decrease as the market matured, 2) tools and instruments would mature to allow traditional equities traders to apply their approaches in the crypto ecosystem, and 3) sectors within crypto would mature and become less correlated with Bitcoin and the overall crypto ecosystem. I think we have seen all three of these forces in play over the last few years and I expect those trends to continue.
11. How has your personal life changed since joining $ReFi and using this system? For example — are you less stressed about investing has it helped you feel more optimistic or secure?
Honestly … I’ve been spending a lot less time looking at charts. I love letting the farming team manage trades. And I’m enjoying following along and learning while also not worrying about the market day-to-day.
12. What surprised you the most or made you the happiest about being involved with $ReFi?
So far … there haven’t been any real surprises. And that is how I like it. Slow and steady wins the race. If the team keeps doing what they are doing, I’m confident the project will be a great hold for long-term investors.
13. In a % how much has your investment grown with $ReFi versus your initial crypto investment?
I’m pretty much level less entry tax … or perhaps even a little down. But I’m invested for the long run, so I’m not really concerned about short term price action. The value in $ReFi, as I see it, is in the farm size and the performance of the farming team over time. Price matters somewhat for position entry, of course, but market fluctuations and price action are not highly relevant for long-term holders.
14. If you were to recommend $ReFi to your best friend, what would you say?
“If you want long-term exposure to defi yields and you want to get into a project early that has enormous long term potential, $ReFi is one of the best opportunities out there today.”
15. If someone was unsure about joining $ReFi, what would you tell them?
“Start by buying a small amount of $ReFi on the Binance Smart Chain and get involved in the community. Once you see how the team operates and how different — and great — the community is compared to most other crypto communities, you will gain confidence in growing your position over time.”
16. Is there anything you’d like to add either about your crypto investing experience as a whole or regarding your $ReFi journey to date?
I’m grateful to be on this journey with the $ReFi community! Since our community has embraced education as a shared value, allow me to share some advice …
Given the overall global macro environment, we may well continue to experience headwinds in equities and crypto. In any investment, whether in equities or crypto, just remember to stay focused on the long-term value of the underlying asset. And consider bearish market conditions and bearish price action to be an opportunity to acquire assets at a discount relative to their long-term value. As the famous investor Baron Rothschild reportedly said, “Buy when there is blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.” So, stay patient. Stay grounded. Accumulate when there is fear. And take profits when there is greed and euphoria.
Conclusion:
The last answer @ness_locke provided is one of the most powerful we have received in this series. A big thank you to @ness_locke for taking the obvious time and consideration in this process.
I would almost print and hang up this last sentence up in your work space:
“ In any investment, whether in equities or crypto, just remember to stay focused on the long-term value of the underlying asset. And consider bearish market conditions and bearish price action to be an opportunity to acquire assets at a discount relative to their long-term value.”
The considered view when it comes provides reassurance that a long term plan and sticking to it is the way the veterans have made had their successes!
Doing Your Own Research (DYOR) into the underlying value is a large part of @ness_locke’s message. We have seen constantly; undervalued assets in this market. If something is not new, shiny and of a 100x within a week it is widely discarded. The element of patience and research and with real understanding of underlying value is a big factor of success. I sometimes wonder if you were asked about the reasons for each of your investments how we well you could articulate the reasons and how it fits into a 5 year investment play.
I hope this has helped and you took value out of seeing how this long term journey has played out . $ReFi is committed to learning and educating about the #DeFi market which we believe will help $ReFi become a better project day-by-day! And hopefully you’re investment strategy.
See you next week where we will be providing more investor interviews and updates on product developments in the roadmap. Enjoy the weekend and I hope this helps when you #DYOR!
Have a great investment week!
