Arianna Simpson

•Crypto must be the core product, not a bolt-on. She backs companies where the token, protocol, or chain is the reason the thing works at all.

•She thinks in 10-year cycles. She wants businesses that survive bear markets because the underlying primitive is necessary, not trendy.

•Defensibility comes from network effects, liquidity, or protocol lock-in, not a feature. If a fork or a bigger team can copy you in a quarter, you are not building what she funds.

•She bets on the team as much as the idea. She needs to believe you have unique insight or access that others don't.

•Saying "we use blockchain for transparency" without explaining why that changes the economics. Instead: name the specific cost or trust friction that only a decentralized ledger removes.

•Showing a single-use case with no path to compounding. Instead: show how each user or node makes the network more valuable to the next.

•Ignoring regulation. She will ask. If you have not mapped the worst case, you look naive. Instead: state the regulatory risk and your mitigation plan clearly.

•Claiming a moat that is just "we are first." Instead: show the switching cost or the data/network effect that accumulates.

1. What does this look like at 10x the current user count? Walk me through the bottlenecks. 2. What is the regulatory path, and what is the worst-case outcome for this business? 3. Why is this team uniquely positioned to win this, and who else is trying? 4. If a major exchange or protocol copied your core feature tomorrow, what do you still have that they cannot take? 5. What breaks in your token design at scale, and how do you fix it? 6. What have you changed your mind about in the last six months based on user behavior?

Be direct and technical. She is optimistic about the space but sharp on mechanics, so skip the mission talk and get into design tradeoffs. Do not overhype; she is patient and will wait for substance.

At SEED, lead with early signals: who is on your waitlist, what pilots are live, and what retention looks like even if small. Then show the 10-year vision and why this primitive becomes more essential over time. Close with your specific edge: what you know or can access that a generalist team cannot.

A PASS requires proof that the crypto mechanism is load-bearing and that you have a credible path to network effects that compound over a decade. A single clever feature or a hot narrative will not clear it.