The man who set up one of the first activism hedge funds in Hong Kong for CM Asset Management called the Shareholder Value Fund, has decided to embrace blockchain technology by launching SuperNode Community (SNC), a decentralized blockchain ecosystem to democratize the traditional venture capital (VC) model for startups.
“Blockchain’s potential in the venture capital game has yet to be realized. By streamlining the end-to-end seed incubation process, we envision that SNC will become the gateway to truly democratize access to opportunities in the venture capital space that have typically been out of reach for those who are not sophisticated institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals.”
SNC’s ecosystem aims to be the solution to the highly centralized VC model by allowing for participants beyond the traditional network to access a greater number of promising startups.
Through SNC’s ecosystem, better incubation decisions can be made by leveraging on crowd wisdom.
“Naturally, in the fragmented Asian market, VCs face significant hurdles around finding quality early-stage deals. Performing due diligence on projects can also be a challenge as qualifying blockchain solutions often requires in-depth expertise in the domain. SNC’s holistic solution tackles both these pain points and helps to instill confidence by using an ecosystem-approach.”
Not only will SNC help promising blockchain companies tap into much-needed capital but it will provide incubation support for projects from ideation to execution.
“Startups also benefit from this model by gaining access to the right funding, strategic resources and expertise to launch their projects,” said Mr. Lin.
Through a voting mechanism, SNC’s participants can back domain experts known as “SuperNodes” to act on their behalf to perform initial due diligence and vet blockchain startups applying for funding.
An Incubation Committee made up of 21 SuperNodes will then jointly decide on whether a project will be approved for incubation. Once chosen, funds will be allocated and distributed through SNC’s Foundation.
Lin brings with him a successful track record of hedge fund management experience stemming from his fundamental research-driven, “Tiger-style” value investment strategy, which led his activism fund to consistently deliver a year-round strong performance.
In 2017 he also raised one of the largest NASDAQ-listed cash shell companies that was sponsored by an Asian team demonstrating his innovative approach to fund management.
Lin’s extensive past experience also includes managing a US$500M China-focused active equity fund for State Street Global Advisors and performing fundamental investment research on Greater China companies at Joho Capital, LLC, the New York-based firm founded by famous ‘Tiger Cub’ Robert Karr.
Prior to starting SNC, Lin was Managing Director of CM Asset Management (Hong Kong) Company Limited, where he was the company’s first hire and was in charge of establishing and leading the team.
The SNC ecosystem also includes a services marketplace which enables the startups to engage services such as marketing, legal services, or business consulting, offered by the ecosystem’s community members.