Why CIO in BETA?
Why this exists?
We will likely look back and realize that 2025 was a meaningful inflection year for venture building, investing, and the future of finance.Not because one technology won, but because the pace of change crossed a threshold.I did not set out to build a public point of view as for most of my career, I’ve privately worked helping institutions navigate growth and innovation before it became obvious or comfortable.What changed is speed.AI, programmable finance, and new infrastructure are moving faster than traditional institutional decision making can absorb. So I’ve decided to share how I’m thinking while applying these learnings in real time. Sharing in public, while the thinking is still evolving, is what BETA means.
The Future of Finance: ETH+AI
What has fundamentally changed is velocity.
AI compresses execution timelines.
Programmable finance changes how capital moves and settles.
New infrastructure is forming before policy, process, and governance fully catch up.
Recently, I co-created Highline Beta ETH+AI with Dima Buterin, focused on the future of finance at the intersection of traditional finance, AI, and Ethereum. This work sits directly inside institutional reality, not outside of it. The opportunity is not speculation. The opportunity is redesigning how capital is deployed, governed, and compounded.
A Bit of Context on Me
I’ve spent over 26 years as a serial tech entrepreneur, venture investor, and corporate-startup innovation expert.I’ve made over 80 early stage investments, largely at the pre-seed stage, with 12 meaningful exits. But more importantly, I’ve spent decades close to execution, learning how capital behaves when theory meets reality.
My journey started in the late 1990s at McGill University, where I studied behavioural economics, finance, money and banking. What fascinated me early was not just markets, but how people and institutions behave around money, incentives, and risk.At the time, there were no accelerators or incubators. I was deeply involved in building early entrepreneurial ecosystems, which shaped how I think about zero to one venture creation.
Over time, I learned that the most durable outcomes happen when early capital, venture building, and institutional distribution align.That belief led me to found Highline VC and later co-found Highline Beta with Benjamin Yoskovitz, built around a non consensus idea: institutions learn faster when they build & fund, not just invest. Since 2016, Highline Beta has operated as a corporate venture studio and institutionally backed pre-seed investor, working closely with leading enterprises to build, fund, and scale new ventures.I now sit daily at the intersection of capital allocation, company building, and institutional execution.
What I’m Seeing on The Ground
Family offices and financial institutions are not asking for more exposure to “crypto” or “AI.” They are asking:
- Where does capital learn the fastest?
- How do we get repeatable exposure without betting the franchise?
- How do we engage while preserving governance, trust, and reputation?
Most traditional funds struggle to answer this because they are structurally passive. They allocate. Wait. Report.
Ethereum matters because it is becoming financial middleware. It enables:
- Programmable settlement
- Coordination between institutions, software, and capital
- Embedded compliance
This is infrastructure quietly replacing legacy rails.
Looking Ahead:
I’ll go deeper on how Ethereum & AI together are changing institutional velocity & why that matters for the Future of Finance.
