Personal Information
Discourse ID: @0xK
Twitter: x.com
Name: Karl-Martin Ahrend
Email: karl@web3-studios.com
Educational Background: Master of Finance and Private Equity at London School of Economics; Bachelor in Business at University of Mannheim
Professional Background: TradFi degen who founded a leading investment bank for crypto. Previously 5 years Private Equity Investor at Blackstone. Prior to that Investment Banking at JP Morgan and Finance at Rocket Internet
Nomination Statement
I apply to manage the ApeCoin DAO treasury fund and set up transparent decision-making structures to allocate the treasury’s assets. For this, I’ll use my experience from Blackstone and JP Morgan (+5 years), leading NFT communities (Punk holder), and my own investment activities in leading web3 start-ups (25+ investments).
Motivation
I breathe finance through and through - after getting my Masters in Finance from the London School of Economics, I spent five years on the investor side at Blackstone building financial models for some of the biggest deals in the world. After falling in love with crypto and managing many assets in DeFi, I got deeper and deeper into the NFT space and decided to bring what I learned in TradFi to crypto - at the highest professional level. It would be a great honor for me to bring these financial and asset management skills to ApeCoin DAO and take on the responsibility of managing the treasury.
Rationale
(1) Class-A Finance Background: Previously Investor at Blackstone (5+ years). Prior to that Investment Banking at JP Morgan and Start-up Finance at Rocket Internet. Holding a Master in Finance from London School of Economics.
(2) Experience in Managing Investments and Supporting Start-ups: Done a series of own investments across NFT infrastructure start-ups, DeFi, and NFT collections. Additionally, supporting founders on their growth and capital raising activities (e.g., Zerion in their latest Series B), which comes in handy for the projects we support within ApeCoin DAO.
(3) Strong Partnerships Network: Working together with many major players in the crypto ecosystem across NFT communities (Punk DAO), Metaverse companies (Sandbox, Improbable), Gaming (5+ Investments), and Investors (most major VCs).
Specifications
Active contributor at Punk DAO. Founder of LSE DAO. Managing own Finance Talent DAO. Ideas for improvement:
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Long-term Ecosystem Fund Strategy: Having a clear view of the long-term strategy of the fund business model and evaluating strategic directions. This is a key exercise as it influences a lot of the set-up decisions in Treasury Mgmt (e.g., short-term capital needs vs. flexibility to allocate long-term capital).
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Treasury Research and Strategy: Structuring allocation strategies, allocating treasury into selected strategies, and managing these allocations to unlock the economic potential of the treasury holdings while ensuring operating expenses are covered with downside risk mitigated. This largely depends on risk-appetite of the ApeCoin DAO, and should be treated rather conservatively.
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Financial Reporting and Tracking: Creating standards for financial reporting and delivering periodic financial reports, incl. forecasts to establish transparency for the DAO members and act as decision-making support. This is largely underdeveloped for many DAOs and holds uncanny potential for creating clarity.
Concluding Statement
I bring class-A finance and investment experience (Blackstone, JP Morgan, Own Investments) and a strong network (Punk DAO, Leading Crypto Comps and VCs) to set up the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund for future success.