Details
Taariq Lewis is the CEO and founder of VolumeFi, a cross-chain product lab that is debuting their cross-chain messaging layer, Paloma (palomachain.com). He was also the co-founder of Sommelier Protocol with Zaki Manian and Jack Zampolin and led product management and product marketing for Sommelier. He is a serial entrepreneur who has also founded several successful fintech and blockchain products - Promise, Aquila, and SericaPay. Taariq also helped bring Bitcoin and blockchain engineering to a global audience with numerous educational events.
Work Experience
Relevance Person
Unique Divine
Unique is co-founder and Lead Software Engineer at Nibiru Chain, a layer 1 blockchain built on Cosmos. Prior to Nibiru, he was part of the Sommelier Protocol team, where he was able to leverage his skills in Golang, Cosmos SDK, Python, Solidity, TypeScript, and Google Cloud Platform. Before that, he was a data scientist at IBM. Unique studied at Columbia University and has a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics.
Joseph Terrigno
Joseph Terrigno is the co-founder of Veda and the co-founder and Chief Technology officer of Seven Seas Capital. He graduated from Columbia University and Fordham University.
Sunand Raghupathi
Sunand Raghupathi, co-founder and CEO of Seven Seas Capital, was previously head of research and development at Sommelier. He graduated from Fordham College and Columbia University.
Stephanie Vaughan
Stephanie Vaughan is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Veda and the co-founder and Managing Partner of Seven Seas Capital. Previously, she was the Head of Operations at Sommelier. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
Arun Devabhaktuni
Arun Devabhaktuni is a professional with a background in systems biology, physics, and biology. He is currently a Lead Researcher at Mirana Ventures and an Angel Investor at Valhalla Capital. He has also served as the Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of ZenMaid Software. Arun has received a PhD in Systems Biology from Stanford University School of Medicine and a BS in Physics and Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Theo Diamandis
Theo is pursuing an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science PhD at MIT, where he works on algorithms for and applications of mathematical optimization. These interests inevitably led to him being nerd sniped by Guillermo into working on crypto. When he’s not working on optimization solvers for DeFi-related applications, Theo can be found backpacking or skiing in the California Sierras.
Dan Roberts
Dan is the Editor in Chief at Variant. He has been writing about crypto since 2011. Prior to joining Variant, Dan was Editor in Chief at crypto news site Decrypt, where he recruited a team of writers and editors, led the site’s news strategy, created and hosted the gm podcast, planned and emceed live events, and moderated panels at conferences around the world. Before that, he spent five years at Yahoo Finance and five years at Fortune. He has written about tech, sports business, and books for a broad range of publications including Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vice, Air Mail, The Guardian, The Paris Review, NPR, Deadspin, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Morning News, and many more. He is the primary author of the 2013 book “Zoom: How to Supercharge Your Career.” He graduated from Middlebury College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Kevin Zhang
Kevin has led early-stage investments in financial technology and developer products since joining Bain Capital Ventures in 2017. Prior to Bain Capital, Kevin was the first business hire and Head of Product at Fundera, a lending marketplace acquired by NerdWallet (NASDAQ: NRDS). After hard weeks in the email salt mines, Kevin likes to catch Magic: the Gathering prereleases and watch Team Liquid play Starcraft.
Nitya Subramanian
Nitya Subramanian is the founder of Capsule. He was the former product lead of Celo. Nitya Subramanian graduated from MIT.
Max Crown
Max Crown is CoFounder and Chief Finance Officer at MoonPay. Max started his career in 2004 with Mercedes-Benz McLaren, and has garnered experience across various finance, operations, and risk positions for over a decade and a half, spanning three distinct nations. Between 2008 and 2010, he took on the mantle of CFO for a high-end real estate firm operating in both London and Brazil, overseeing the entirety of its financial, tax, and regulatory frameworks. On the academic front, Max completed his Bachelor of Business Studies from City University, London in 2004, followed by a Master of Finance from London Business School in 2009. He later received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School in 2014.