- Jesse Walden built Variant Fund to support Web3 startups focused on empowering users through ownership-based platforms.
- He transitioned from managing musicians to quietly shaping Web3 through investments and simple, relatable ownership ideals.
When Jesse Walden first became a household name in the Web3 world, many would have guessed that he was more familiar with music than code or protocols. Early in his career, Walden managed artists like Solange Knowles and Blood Orange through his agency Cool Managers.
He was not just a manager, but also a bridge between musicians and new technologies. At the time, his goal was simple: help artists gain more control over their work.
Jesse Walden: From Music Manager to Web3 Investor
But life can be funny. His interest in technology that could empower artists led him far from the music industry. He soon discovered that blockchain could be a much more powerful tool than just a means of distributing music.
From there, Walden founded Mediachain Labs, a blockchain startup focused on tracking the ownership of digital media. Mediachain wasn’t just any project—Spotify was interested enough to acquire it in 2017.
After joining, Walden led blockchain research and development there. But yeah, if you already have a vision for the future of the internet, working at a big company can sometimes feel limiting.
On the other hand, the experience gave him insight into how centralized systems work from the inside. And interestingly, that’s where his belief in the importance of ownership in the digital ecosystem emerged.
After leaving Spotify, he joined Andreessen Horowitz and helped launch the Crypto Startup School. This is where his career really took off in the crypto space. He mentored new startups, but also saw a big gap: not many investors really understood the potential of user ownership of digital platforms.
Thus was born Variant Fund—a venture capital firm that he founded with several colleagues. Its focus is simple, but quite revolutionary: funding Web3 projects that build an ownership-based economy. No longer just monetization, but making users the owners of the platform.
However, the mission does not stop at investment. Walden also actively writes and speaks about the concept of the “ownership economy.” For him, Web3 is not just hype. He believes that the internet should not be owned by a handful of companies, but by the people who make it live.
The projects he has funded through Variant are quite telling. Uniswap, Mirror, Flashbots, and Foundation—they all have one thing in common: empowering users. Walden doesn’t want to just follow trends. He wants to help reshape the relationship between platforms and their users.
Quiet Influence, Lasting Impact in the Ownership Era
Interestingly, his approach isn’t overly technical or intense. In interviews, he often conveys his ideas in simple language. He even likens Web3 to a small community where everyone has shares in a local coffee shop. The difference is, what’s being built isn’t a hangout place, but a digital infrastructure.
Now, through Variant and Web3 Studios, Jesse Walden continues to work behind the scenes. He doesn’t always appear on stage, but his footprint is clearly visible on many big projects.
And judging by the way he chooses projects, it seems like he’s sticking to the old principles of the music world—namely, helping people have control over the work and value they create.
Sometimes we forget that a lot of great technology comes from people who didn’t start out in tech at all. Jesse Walden is an example. He didn’t come out of Silicon Valley with a backpack full of code, but he came with a spirit of ownership. And in the still-shaping world of Web3, that kind of spirit is perhaps what is needed most.
