Hundred enthusiastic builders coming together for a 24-hour marathon challenge to build for the next iteration of web3. That’s what Lightspeed saw over the last weekend of May when we along with our partners, Devfolio, and sponsors and mentors — CoinDCX ventures, IndiGG, Harbor, Brahma.fi, FTX Ventures, and Buidlers Tribe hosted builders, mentors, and speakers in Bengaluru for our in-person web3 hackathon — Warpspeed.
As things began to look up post-pandemic, we took a conscious call to host this event in person. When we put out the call for applicants, we knew that there would be interest. Yet, the number of applications surprised us. While we only chose 100 people, there were over 1,500 applicants keen to build at Warpspeed.
We kickstarted Warpspeed with the intention to form a community of builders who can connect with each other and seek inspiration from one another while solving some of the most interesting problems in web3. The impact was palpable. Some hacked it alone, while the others formed teams. The room buzzed with excitement and energy as new relationships were forged and online connections came face to face.
Meeting your web3 heroes
Warpspeed fostered a community, but it also did more. It also gave builders an opportunity to see and hear from the leaders in web3. The fireside chats with FTX Ventures Head Amy Wu on the ins and outs of building apps for web3, and another with CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta on building for the next billion users were a huge draw for the builders.
While Amy had sharp insights about the next wave of viral web3 apps (social, dating, gaming), Sumit shared his optimism for crypto in India as he talked through his inspirational journey of building CoinDCX and all the setbacks he overcame. They were augmented by a fantastic group of mentors who shared key insights with the builders on all things tech, product and market. The enthusiasm from the speakers and the mentors at the event showed that if you zoom out, the trend line of web3 is up and to the right, putting it in sharp contrast with the gloom surrounding the market today.
The biggest takeaway from the hackathon for us was that the ambition to build and solve challenges within web3 is not bound by institutional barriers. Talent abounds in this space and institutional gatekeepers are not going to be its guardians. This was evident from the builders we saw at Warpspeed — hungry, motivated and young, few even in high school, who had taught themselves to code.
Building for the future
India, already the fastest growing country by open source contribution, will also be home to the most of number of devs over the next couple of years. It is inevitable that this trend will play out in web3 as well. As blockchains become alternate rails for accessing the next generation of connected platforms, there is an opportunity to build transformational products.
We saw early signs of this potential at Warpspeed. Builders built solutions to develop on-chain identities, simplify blockchain transaction metadata to accelerate informed consent, create next gen social networks built on gaming, and many other solutions. The crazy, infectious energy which saw 33 final projects being built in a day is a testament to the fact that there are a lot more problems left to solve.
There is a lot of chatter about crypto markets losing steam of late. Gloomy predictions abound as erstwhile blue chip institutions suffer the consequences of the market drawdown. While this is a sobering reminder of the importance of the skill of survival and resilience as a startup, a look at the innovations over the last 2 years should leave an observer with plenty of hope. The wave saw a large segment of first-time crypto buyers enter the space. It unlocked and mainstreamed digital property rights. Last but not the least, the possibilities of permissionless finance protocols dawned on many. Web3 is here to stay, and the ecosystem is ripe for further disruption.
At Lightspeed, we are committed to fostering the web3 ecosystem and supporting the best founders and teams to unlock global scale. We are just getting started and there is a lot more to build. Events like Warpspeed show us what is possible when ambitious ideas merge with a crazy pace of execution. We are excited to back many more such dreamers!
About Lightspeed Crypto/web3 team: Lightspeed crypto/web3 team brings together decades of experience of prior founding journeys, business and product building, and investing across India and US markets. The team has backed the largest protocols and projects in web3 globally, such as Blockchain.com, FTX, Pintu, Alchemy, MagicEden, Aave, Solana, Near, and many more.
About Lightspeed: Lightspeed is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Crypto, Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Since 2000, Lightspeed has backed entrepreneurs and helped build companies of tomorrow, including Snap, Blockchain.com, Affirm, AppDynamics, OYO, Nutanix, Byju’s, and Udaan. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage more than $10 Billion across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in India, Silicon Valley, Israel, China, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
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