How to empower Web3 founders for long-term success? In this interview, Fractal ID and Outlier Ventures explore their collaboration for Web3 identity infrastructure and acceleration

Introduction

For Web3 founders looking to succeed in their journey, it’s important to have a reliable infrastructure. In this interview with Fabio Maffioli, Head of Accelerator Programs at Outlier Ventures we explore how the collaboration between Fractal ID and Outlier Ventures has helped Web3 founders to focus on their core offerings, allowing them to set strong foundations for long-term success.

In 2021, we partnered up to build a “frictionless ID for the metaverse”. How? By providing identity solutions for the teams onboarding into Outlier Ventures, mainly focusing on compliance and KYC/KYB. Today, Outlier Ventures is the world’s leading Web3 accelerator, and Fractal ID plays a key role in its due diligence process.

Questions and Answers

Fractal ID: Welcome, Fabio! There are few players shaping the ecosystem as much as Outlier Ventures. Has the ecosystem evolved in the way you expected it to?

Outlier Ventures: In some ways, it has, but in others, it has not. In 2019, we drafted a thesis called The Open Metaverse OS, where we outlined the necessary tech and steps to build an Open Metaverse. While the concept of the Metaverse gained a lot of interest in recent months, mainly through NFTs, gaming, and DeFi, there was also a lot of disinformation about what Web3 and blockchain actually enable. This led to opportunistic practices and incidents that took place within the industry. We believe that we need to go back to the basics of Web3, and we think decentralized identity is a core pillar to achieve that.

Fractal ID: We hear you loudly on the last point! Can you describe to our readers what Fractal ID is doing for Outlier Ventures?

Outlier Ventures: Sure! To this point, we are mainly working with Fractal ID in two ways:

1. As a KYC/KYB provider for us to onboard teams to our accelerator programs.
2. As a provider of identity solutions and support around identity topics for our teams during the program. Julian Leitoff, Fractal ID’s CEO, is a mentor in our programs.

Fractal ID: Identity is messy, and we love taking this burden from Web3 founders so that they can focus on the fun stuff. Was this partnership fruitful for the growth of your portfolio companies?

Outlier Ventures: You are working with several of our portfolio teams today, and I am sure you supported them with guidance around identity as well. We heard good feedback from our teams about your solutions! Projects like artpool, lomads, unbanx, interlock, DataUnion, Functionland, and more have used Fractal ID’s services for their private sales, while others like citizend have asked you for a uniqueness solution for their platform.

Fractal ID: Really amazing projects! We put lots of effort into our support and pride ourselves on having the best one, industry-wide. At OV, how can your portfolio startups access Fractal ID’s services?

Outlier Ventures: We work on a daily basis with our teams during the programs and are focused on helping provide the best support. We have a good idea of what support they need. If this is something beyond what is offered within the Base Camp program, we share a trusted database of external companies, with one being Fractal ID.

Fractal ID: What’s important for Web3 projects when choosing an identity provider (KYC, user onboarding, and more)?

Outlier Ventures: I believe projects may have a general idea of the high-level identity-related challenges they have, but not as much as what solutions they need. It is important to have access to a solution provider that can offer multiple inter-connected services from onboarding (e.g., KYC, proof-of-personhood) to access management and interoperability solutions. Many of these solutions are also pretty rigid, so flexibility, degree of customization, and quality of service are certainly very important.

Fractal ID: We couldn’t agree more! Customizing our offering is what we do on a daily basis — from new DID registries to bot prevention support. For all Web3 founders reading this: what advice, besides applying to the OV program, would you give them these days?

Outlier Ventures: We actually don’t “advise” them to apply to our programs. We show them how OV and our network can help them succeed in their journey and see if it is a match! We help our teams around many different topics, covering all important areas in Web3 across tech, product, legal, token, community, etc. One thing that we are always very insisting on is them setting strong fundamentals since the beginning, that will allow them to scale in several years’ time. Many people are seeking shortcuts when building startups, especially in Web3, and shortcuts eventually become problems. Having strong foundations around all key areas and working with strong providers and advisors is key, and that’s why we are happy to work together with Fractal ID and recommend you to our teams.

Summing up

Outlier Ventures is dedicated to building a sustainable Web3 ecosystem that can realize the potential of the open metaverse. Fractal ID’s commitment to providing customized and flexible identity solutions complements this vision and helps Web3 startups focus on their core offerings. As we move forward in this exciting Web3 space, it is crucial for startups to prioritize strong foundations and work with trusted partners like Outlier Ventures — Web3 Accelerator, and Fractal ID — Web3 identity provider. Thank you, Fabio, for sharing your insights with us today. Here’s to many more years of successful collaboration and growing the ecosystem together.