Samuel Harrison is a crypto-native venture capital investor at Faction who discovered Bitcoin in 2011 while working at traditional banks like Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland, giving him an unusually long view across multiple crypto cycles and over $500M deployed into flagship blockchain companies like Aave, Arbitrum, and NEAR. He personally tests products before investing and only backs blockchain applications where the technology is genuinely required rather than blockchain in search of a problem, combining his early crypto conviction with hands-on product evaluation and a strict filter for technological necessity.

• Strong conviction in decentralized finance acting as invisible infrastructure rather than facing the consumer directly. He suggests that the most successful consumer teams will build superior products on top of decentralized layers to outcompete centralized systems, citing portfolio companies deploying zero-knowledge chains as a positive development.
• Emphasis on the fundamental financial health of protocols, specifically looking at tokenholder revenue relative to emissions. He appreciates analytical models that track the correlation between token price movements and actual project earnings to determine true market maturity.
• Advocacy for non-custodial solutions and robust custody tooling to address major security pain points. He frequently critiques the failures of centralized intermediaries and ego-driven figureheads, reinforcing the idea that the industry must rely on transparent blockchain fundamentals rather than trust in individuals.
• Appreciation for consistent, data-rich investor updates as a signal of operational excellence. He has observed a strong link between high-quality startup execution and founders who send regular, short-form updates containing detailed key performance indicators.
• Focus on data-driven decision-making for early-stage companies. He expresses concern regarding founders who operate for years without implementing internal analytics or dashboards, indicating a preference for teams that prioritize measuring their business metrics from the start.
• Interest in the intersection of traditional asset classes and web3 technology. For example, he views music royalties as a passive income asset class similar to real estate, noting that blockchain technology can make these yields accessible to retail investors in a way that was previously impossible.
• Long-term perspective on market cycles, advising against getting caught up in the extremes of over-exuberance or doom-mongering. He suggests that the quiet periods between violent market swings are the best times for builders to focus and enjoy the peace before the hype returns.