Bitcoin-powered, not Bitcoin-first

Solve a real problem.
Let Bitcoin supercharge it.

I back founders in India and Africa building sustainable businesses.

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9 teamsIndia's first Bitcoin accelerator

400 daysCairo to Cape Town, ten countries

2 booksOne on Africa, one on Bitcoin for beginners

5 keynotesStages across four continents

The gap

The talent isn't the problem.

I watched ten teams pitch with great ideas and solid engineering. Then a judge asked how they'd make money, and the room went quiet.

What's missing isn't talent, it's a path to a business that pays for itself.

The Bitshala BOSS Summit accelerator community in Goa

The Student of Bitcoin accelerator cohort

What I do

Twelve weeks to kill or commit.

Hard questions every week, and an honest answer about whether what you're building is a business or a pet project. The worst outcome isn't killing an idea early, it's spending three years on one that was never going to work.

See who I've backed →

How it began

I started with a whiteboard.

I was curious what Bitcoin looked like to someone who'd never heard of it, so I started standing on the street in Calgary holding a whiteboard: "Bitcoin, ask me anything."

Santosh holding a Bitcoin, ask me anything sign outside Bankers Hall

Illustration of two silhouettes walking toward a continent-shaped moon, for the book Cairo to Cape Town

Cairo to Cape Town — the bookOut this year

The lesson

We went looking for Bitcoin. We found Africa.

After ten years of corporate life, my wife and I sold our home and left for Africa. Four hundred days, ten countries, mostly overland. Life would never be the same.

A pattern emerged in the communities we visited: people were chasing grants, and not many were building a sustainable business.

The portfolio