OpenSea’s co-founder, Devin Finzer, has announced that a16z’s Chris Dixon will join the OpenSea Board of Directors, taking over Katie Haun’s seat.
On Saturday, OpenSea’s co-founder, Devin Finzer, took to Twitter to announce that a16z’s Chris Dixon has joined the NFT trading platform’s board. Dixon will take over the spot vacated by former a16z venture investor Katie Haun.
In a separate announcement posted on OpenSea’s blog, Finzer expressed his excitement in formally welcoming Dixon to the OpenSea Board of Directors. According to Finzer, Chris Dixon “has been extremely influential in shaping [his] views on Web3.”
Finzer claims he has been a staunch follower of Dixon since he fell down the “crypto rabbit hole” and has personally met the latter in 2021 when a16z made its interest in investing in OpenSea known. Per Finzer, he and Dixon have spent “a ton of time together,” with Dixon serving as a consistent thought partner and advisor to OpenSea.
Chris Dixon Takes the Reins from Katie Haun
As mentioned in the get-go, Chris Dixon will be taking over Katie Haun’s seat. Haun was a former a16z venture investor who joined OpenSea’s board in July 2021 after the firm led a $100 million Series B financing round.
She left the crypto investment practice at a16z to launch Haun Ventures, which purportedly raised fresh funding worth $1.5 billion. Nevertheless, according to Finzer, Haun will continue to be an investor in OpenSea, this time through her own firm. He even shared that the transition has been smooth, given the existing relationship between Haun and Chris Dixon.
“Katie has been another invaluable source of wisdom for OpenSea over the years,” Finzer wrote. “And thanks to her long-standing relationship with Chris, she was able to execute a smooth handoff and remains close to us in her capacity as an investor through Haun Ventures.”
“We’re grateful for all that Katie’s done for OpenSea over the years and couldn’t be more excited to build for the future of the NFT ecosystem with Chris on our Board and Katie by our side,” Finzer continued.
The Decision to Take on Chris Dixon
Finzer describes Chris Dixon as “a principled, rigorous, and intellectually honest thinker,” constantly pushing them to “zoom out and make sure [they’re] solving for the long-term arc of the NFT space.” He said Dixon had not made it a habit to join many boards, opting instead to go “deep into the weed” where he can “build continuous context on the business and provide strategic and relevant recommendations.”
He said that Chris Dixon’s transition to the board had been nothing short of a wonderful experience since it has allowed them to spend more time together and dive deep into OpenSea’s product roadmap and business strategy. The entry of Dixon could spell a reprieve from the slew of controversies that plagued the NFT marketplace in the past couple of months.
Early in June, a former product manager of OpenSea was charged and subsequently arrested for insider trading. Then, before the month ended, OpenSea users’ information was reportedly compromised by an employee of its email delivery vendor. Midway through July, the company announced that it was laying off 20% of its staff due to the crypto winter.
Indeed, OpenSea, valued at $13.3 billion during a funding round in January, is one of the many companies going through a rough patch, no thanks to the crypto winter and the bear market for NFT trading. The company has also seen volumes drop steeply since the start of the year. So, Finzer is optimistic that Chris Dixon’s entry could help steer things for the better.
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