What to look for in DePIN projects: Tribe Capital VC

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe . If I were to boil it down, I’d say there are three key reasons why Tribe Capital’s Evan Park is bullish on DePIN. The use cases, sustainability, and — of course — the revenue potential. Tribe’s backed a few DePINs including Wynd Networks (the company behind Grass ), flight tracking project Wingbits and Akash. When looking at DePIN projects, Park’s biggest question is whether or not the project is “solving a problem where real demand can be generated.” Specifically, when Park is being pitched, he’s skeptical when a project shows him revenue figures that aren’t necessarily coming from the underlying network. I asked him what makes him call bullshit on a DePIN pitch and he told me: It’s “important to distinguish revenue in crypto, but also in DePIN.” He wants to know where the revenue is coming from, essentially. Are the users also validators? Are individuals “contributing to the network and their data, is that the thing that’s making revenue?” He also keeps a close eye on organic growth and gets validation on potential demand. But a good team, and a founder “deep in the space” are huge green flags for Park. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because Wyatt Lonergan of VanEck Ventures told us that he also pays close attention to project teams last month. “It’s a consideration that’s more important in DePIN than any other sector. But also having domain expertise, or having advisors and team members that have that domain expertise in your given industry, while bridging that with crypto native experience. It’s not enough to have one without the other,” he noted. And there’s your insider scoop for the day. Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter . Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter . Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more. The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.