Felix Hartmann
Felix Hartmann
Hartmann Capital Website
YouTube
YouTube - Hartmann Capital
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Where Crypto Meets AI — Unlocking the Intelligent Internet with Cookie3 | Frontier Forum
Free to Play — The New Frontier of VR Gaming | Frontier Forum
The Future of Fashion is Digital with DRESSX | Frontier Forum
My favorite part of the story is not the juicy headline…
My favorite part is that the big investor (Stan Bharti) who gave me the confidence to start, never ended up signing the check. I ended up launching with a tiny fraction (6 figures) I scrapped together of what I thought I’d launch with. And I’m so happy he never did…
Had he given me the money I’d likely have over hired in the bear market and actually wound up dead like so many other funds. Because he didn’t I was forced to start lean as a one man show with virtually infinite runway other than rent and lentils. Because I ran a one man show I had to learn every skill from ground up. Investing, risk management, capital raising, fund admin, investor relations, research etc. Grueling hours, but I couldn’t imagine guiding my team today if I hadn’t done all their jobs myself in the past.
Ultimately I succeeded without “being given a chance” and had to pull myself up by the boot strings. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take the signal from him that I was “ready”… something similar happened again years later when (watch the last 10 minutes of my podcast with Mark Yusko for another cool story of how I entered the world of institutional investors).
So often we wait for permission, someone up higher to
26Last week we celebrated the launch of my second fund, Hartmann Metaverse Ventures I.
I’ve made enough money at this point to comfortably retire, so this is about more than just another business venture.
This is about mission.
Almost exactly 5 years ago today (2016) I sat down, and outlined my next novel which would lay the foundation for my life’s mission. A mission to guide the world away from a self-inflicted dystopia and towards a thriving future.
2017 I quit everything and dedicated my life to decentralization. 2018 I hired a videographer making content, warning of the risks of a Facebook owned metaverse (see YouTube Dawn of Man). 2019 I took meetings with politicians from half a dozen countries, urging them to ease up on decentralized tech as a natural counterbalance to big techs rise. 2020 I took off the training wheels and began to scale my firm re-investing everything I had made into growth once again. 2021 I watched us grow 1500%, grow the team (slide 2), and build a name, while never losing my compass and true north when institutional bozos started knocking, trying to make me more like them.
I never wanted to run a firm that offers ‘financial products’, aka nicely packaged crap with fancy marketing. I always wanted to run a firm that’s investing into the ‘crazy’ ideas and founders that will
26There’s a difference between subtly experiencing growth, and then seeing it materialized. The relationships, the nuance of conversation, the production, the team, the founders, the caliber of LPs, it permeates through every angle of the business and the experience.
The last 18 months due to global macro have felt a bit like running on a treadmill. Speed and incline went up, but on a mark to market level, I’ve gotten no “richer” despite the ~ eighty 100-hour work weeks I’ve put in. That can seem frustrating. Most wouldn’t do it. But growth is not always linear. Sometimes your growth is financial, sometimes your growth is intellectual, sometimes your growth occurs in your network. But it takes phases of growing the latter two that will enable you to experience breakthroughs on the first. Even after “you made it”. The cycles of bottlenecks and breakthroughs will run with you no matter how far you make it.
The 2023 Frontier Summit was a beautiful reflection of all we’ve pulled off.
26What a ride it’s been… 4 and half years ago I incorporated my firm and exactly 4 years ago today I was warming up to have my first professional trading day June 1.
My favorite part of the story is not the juicy headline…
My favorite part is that the big investor (Stan Bharti) who gave me the confidence to start, never ended up signing the check. I ended up launching with a tiny fraction (6 figures) I scrapped together of what I thought I’d launch with. And I’m so happy he never did…
Had he given me the money I’d likely have over hired in the bear market and actually wound up dead like so many other funds. Because he didn’t I was forced to start lean as a one man show with virtually infinite runway other than rent and lentils. Because I ran a one man show I had to learn every skill from ground up. Investing, risk management, capital raising, fund admin, investor relations, research etc. Grueling hours, but I couldn’t imagine guiding my team today if I hadn’t done all their jobs myself in the past.
Ultimately I succeeded without “being given a chance” and had to pull myself up by the boot strings. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take the signal from him that I was “ready”… something similar happened again years later when (watch the last 10 minutes of my podcast with Mark Yusko for another cool story of how I entered the world of institutional investors).
So often we wait for permission, someone up higher to
8 months ago
The past year might have been my quietest year on social media, yet it perhaps has been my most defining.
Last week we celebrated the launch of my second fund, Hartmann Metaverse Ventures I.
I’ve made enough money at this point to comfortably retire, so this is about more than just another business venture.
This is about mission.
Almost exactly 5 years ago today (2016) I sat down, and outlined my next novel which would lay the foundation for my life’s mission. A mission to guide the world away from a self-inflicted dystopia and towards a thriving future.
2017 I quit everything and dedicated my life to decentralization. 2018 I hired a videographer making content, warning of the risks of a Facebook owned metaverse (see YouTube Dawn of Man). 2019 I took meetings with politicians from half a dozen countries, urging them to ease up on decentralized tech as a natural counterbalance to big techs rise. 2020 I took off the training wheels and began to scale my firm re-investing everything I had made into growth once again. 2021 I watched us grow 1500%, grow the team (slide 2), and build a name, while never losing my compass and true north when institutional bozos started knocking, trying to make me more like them.
I never wanted to run a firm that offers ‘financial products’, aka nicely packaged crap with fancy marketing. I always wanted to run a firm that’s investing into the ‘crazy’ ideas and founders that will
8 months ago
Progress happens slowly, day by day, but only materializes to the eye in bigger leaps. This week was a great example of that. Nearly 18 months ago we hosted our last event, back then, announcing the launch of our first Metaverse VC. This week, we hosted our first annual Hartmann Capital Frontier Summit, a tradition I hope to keep and grow, to one day, be of the size and stature of a Berkshire annual meeting or Apple developer conference.
There’s a difference between subtly experiencing growth, and then seeing it materialized. The relationships, the nuance of conversation, the production, the team, the founders, the caliber of LPs, it permeates through every angle of the business and the experience.
The last 18 months due to global macro have felt a bit like running on a treadmill. Speed and incline went up, but on a mark to market level, I’ve gotten no “richer” despite the ~ eighty 100-hour work weeks I’ve put in. That can seem frustrating. Most wouldn’t do it. But growth is not always linear. Sometimes your growth is financial, sometimes your growth is intellectual, sometimes your growth occurs in your network. But it takes phases of growing the latter two that will enable you to experience breakthroughs on the first. Even after “you made it”. The cycles of bottlenecks and breakthroughs will run with you no matter how far you make it.
The 2023 Frontier Summit was a beautiful reflection of all we’ve pulled off.
8 months ago