jon gall

•You have a genuine, daily-use relationship with crypto that predates the pitch. He wants to smell the conviction, not hear a market size slide.

•You can articulate a specific, non-obvious insight about consumer behavior or crypto rails that explains why now is the moment. He backs contrarian theses, not trend followers.

•You are building something that cannot be copied by a fork or a bigger team. Novel mechanics, unique distribution, or a proprietary loop matter more than feature lists.

•You speak like a builder, not a banker. He wants to see the product in your hands, not a roadmap in a deck.

•**Not deeply immersed in crypto.** If you cannot name the three consumer crypto products you use weekly and why, you are out. Say instead: "Here is my wallet history and the exact friction I hit daily."

•**Lack of unique market insights.** If you repeat "crypto will onboard the next billion users," he checks out. Say instead: "Most wallets ignore X user segment because of Y assumption, and I have data proving that is wrong."

•**Copying an existing model.** If your pitch is "Uniswap but for X," you lose. Say instead: "The existing model breaks at this specific point, and here is the novel mechanism I built to solve it."

•**Anon or vague founder history.** He needs to trust the person holding the keys. Show your real identity, track record, or at minimum a verifiable trail of your work in the space.

1. What secret have you discovered that the market hasn't figured out yet? 2. How are you living in the future? 3. What consumer crypto product do you use daily that most people haven't heard of? 4. What is the specific assumption you are making that, if wrong, kills this business? 5. Who is the one competitor you fear most, and why haven't they already built this? 6. What did you personally build or break in the last 30 days related to this product?

Be direct, skip the warm-up, and get to the mechanics. He responds to energy and specificity, not hedging. Use concrete examples from your own usage and testing. Do not over-explain crypto basics; he lives there.

At PRE-SEED/SEED, lead with the team insight and the specific daily friction you have personally experienced. Then show any early signal: a waitlist, a pilot, or a single LOI. Traction is not expected, but evidence of your immersion and unique access is mandatory.

A PASS requires a demonstrable, non-obvious insight that you can defend under pressure, backed by your own daily immersion in the space. He benchmarks against founders who are already living in the future he wants to fund.