Ash Egan Left VC Comfort to Build Archetype for Real Web3

• Ash Egan founded Archetype to support crypto-native infrastructure, prioritizing long-term tools over short-term trends.
• He avoids hype and focuses on early-stage teams building real-world solutions in Web3.

When most people were just starting to understand what blockchain was, Ash Egan was already reading the Ethereum whitepaper. Not because he was a visionary hungry for praise, but because there was something about the technology that he felt could not be ignored.

He was not the typical entrepreneur with ambitions to be prominent on social media, quite the opposite. Many of his moves were not widely publicized, but they had a real impact on an industry that was not yet fully mature.

Ash Egan: Turning Crypto Conviction Into Tangible Infrastructure

Before founding Archetype, Ash had worked in various venture capital positions. Starting at Converge VC in Boston, then building ConsenSys’ venture unit, and finally leading the blockchain investment practice at Accomplice.

He was not just an investor. He was often the first to spot potential projects like Dapper Labs, which later became known for NBA Top Shot, or Bison Trails, which was eventually acquired by Coinbase. Simply put, Ash Egan had a keen radar for distinguishing crypto projects that were just buzzing on X from projects that really had a backbone.

But the turning point came when he decided to found Archetype. A step that was not easy, because he didn’t just want to be an investor—he wanted to rebuild the foundation of Web3 itself. Archetype has had a pretty clear mission from the start: focus on infrastructure. But not just any infrastructure—it’s looking for tooling for crypto-native developers, tools to help build a more robust NFT ecosystem, and new ways to make protocols more open.

What’s more, Ash doesn’t just throw money around. He gets hands-on, talks extensively with project founders, and even helps write technical theses. His approach to investing tends to be tactical.

For example, in a recent post, he highlighted Lagrange—a startup at the intersection of AI and crypto—that was selected for NVIDIA’s accelerator program. Rather than just talking about market potential, he highlighted the importance of data validation and backend infrastructure. Things that other investors rarely look at because they’re considered less “sexy.”

Building in the Messy Phase Is Where Ash Feels at Home

On the flip side, there’s one interesting thing about Ash’s thinking: he believes that crypto isn’t about price, but about access rights. He loves public APIs, token standards like ERC-20 and ERC-721, and how they give anyone the opportunity to build. He once said in a podcast that the market will always be noisy and volatile. But infrastructure? That takes patience, like building aqueducts before a city can stand.

The road, however, has not always been smooth. Ash Egan has seen several projects he believed in fail. But he doesn’t mind. “That’s part of building something that doesn’t exist,” he says. After all, for him, failure is not a disgrace, but rather part of the learning curve.

Some of his recent investments—such as Octane, Stack, and Rated—show that he has remained consistent in the early stages of a project. He seems to enjoy that phase: when everything is uncertain, when code is still leaking here and there, and when developers are still sleeping on the office floor because the burn rate hasn’t reached the board meeting table. And maybe that’s precisely why many founders feel comfortable being helped by him.

Compared to venture capitalists in traditional industries, Ash’s style is far more flexible. He doesn’t like formal pitch decks. He prefers discussions via Discord, comments on GitHub repos, or just brainstorming smart contract designs. Amid speculative token trends and seasonal hype, this approach feels like a breath of fresh air.

Today, Archetype has backed more than two dozen Web3 startups. But for Ash, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about making sure the foundation of crypto is built by people who know what they’re doing, not just people who are jumping on the bandwagon. He knows the Web3 world is far from finished. But isn’t that what makes it so exciting?

And if we do one day see a more efficient and humane world of decentralized applications, perhaps some of its foundations will come from Ash Egan’s quiet decision—choosing to plant while others were busy harvesting.