May 13, 2022
Hi, I’m Gavin Birch 👋
It’s been over three years since I was hired as Figment’s first employee. It’s been an empowering and formative opportunity, because my position at Figment has enabled me to direct my personal growth and the company’s growth. Being rooted in Figment has enabled me to be unbounded in so many ways. Now we’re both completely different from when we started, and I’m setting off to plant new roots.
Today is my last day at Figment. I’ll remain aligned with Figment’s mission, invested in the company and its people. I’m founding Knowable–a compass to help maintain our course toward a Web3 that’s essential to a better society.
In March 2019, Figment founders Lorien and Andrew reached out via Twitter the day that I published this article about Cosmos and staking: https://medium.com/@gaving/proof-of-stake-supply-side-services-430a0b4d0f52 At that time I thought that my path to a flexible, impactful, and well-paying career was in medicine. I’m glad that I reconsidered and eventually accepted this position at Figment, because I think that it’s been so critical to the path that I’m on now.
Being in a space that’s so experimental and speculative means constantly evaluating and re-evaluating what it is that we pay attention to, and the work that we’re doing to achieve our goals. The Figment founders have enabled us to engage in this exercise as peers from Day 1, and have empowered us to lead when ready. I like to think that we’ve gotten comfortable with uncertainty, and we’ve honed our abilities to weigh and make high quality decisions in the absence of complete information.
When you get to do whatever you want, it can feel unnerving, because it’s hard to know what you should be doing. Nothing in my previous life really prepared me for how challenging this can be. But I embraced it, and now I can’t imagine living or working any other way. Nobody asked me to work on Cosmos governance–I just did it, because I thought that it was important and valuable. And the Figment founders backed me. (Some examples here, here, and here)
Important how? The direction (and thus future) of these chains is dependent upon their values, vision, and governance processes, and Cosmos chains tend to launch with no structure beyond a formal token-voting mechanism.
Valuable how? Quality governance efforts have historically been unpredictable in scope, with little financial incentive. We had lots of guesses and no certainty about the value, and I had the social and economic security that I needed to explore that while at Figment. I like to think that our contributions have been critical to the Cosmos ecosystem (and hopefully beyond), and important for our reputation, differentiating us from other validator operators and contributors.
Perhaps the most powerful thing that I’ve developed (from being empowered and free to engage) is an internal compass rooted in first-principle values. Amidst the noise, I like to think that we’ve had the security and flexibility that we’ve needed from the Figment organization to identify and candidly discuss what’s most important, and the confidence to stay the course. And that we’ve made high-quality decisions because of that.
I’ve worked and chatted with so many of the people moving the needle in Web3, especially the folks from the Cosmos Hub and Cosmos ecosystem. I consider Cosmos my home, and I look forward to an interchain future together.
I like to think that I’m a better person because of the people I work with–Jim and I leveling up in all ways, values & unique perspectives with Elizabeth (still working on that), mind bending concepts & values with Park, first principles with Joseph, prolonged chats with Nathan under his wealth of off-chain experience, and clarifying ideas together with Nick. You really care about your work and impact, and I love that. And so many other colleagues at Figment, too–know that you can always DM me. You’ve been so patient and considerate amidst the/my chaos 🙂
Working with the founders has been like working with colleagues, putting aside egos to improve their mental models. Always scouting to improve their resolution while mapping the unknown. I like to think I’m more rational from Lorien, more pragmatic from Matt, more confident & inquisitive from Andy, and more considerate from Ryan. The founders’ dispositions were key to enabling candid discussions and criticism–Figment was my first experience with leaders that openly received and valued criticism, while always moving toward what they wanted.
I like to think of my role at Figment as a kind of sherpa in this shifting, rocky terrain. Probably my biggest change has been moving towards a more balanced perspective of what it means to be critical and to offer criticism. Criticism should be about identifying and envisioning a path to growing and sustaining what’s “critical”--what’s most important. As Bill advised me: rather than moving away, what is it that we’re moving toward?
Today is my last day at Figment. As my role at Figment draws to a close, I remain aligned with Figment’s mission to support the adoption, growth and long term success of Web3 - the next generation of the Internet. I intend to advise the Figment Fund, which has been an incredible opportunity to develop with James Parillo. Together, we meet and think with the project founders who are building the foundation for the open, reliable, and decentralized Web3 that we all envision.
As Figment and I transition to the next phase of our growth, I'll remain a Figment ambassador, invested in Figment as a company and in Figment the people. I like to think that we’ve shared an important role in a small space that may make big waves for generations to come. And there’s still a lot more important work to be done.
We’ve experimented with laying the foundations, and now it feels like the time for the next phase in our Web3 journey. Toward the long-term, decentralized Web3 that all of us want to benefit from. Amidst the excitement of this journey, let’s remember what’s intrinsically valuable about this technology for our world ✨
Decentralized tech could enable each of us to have the same strong guarantees of autonomy, together–a reliable autonomy over what’s ours, what we share or access, and our power to consent to exchanges. Like me, many are attracted by this tech community because of what it promises. That’s because we know how important these promises are for enabling a better world, a healthier society.
I see Web3 as the economic (and potentially the coordination) part of a better set of games–games that we can make and play that lead to a net benefit for all of Earth's inhabitants. If Web3 is to be essential for a better society, we’ll need a compass to help maintain the course. This will be my mission going forward–to help the people of Web3 to keep their promises. This is why I’m founding Knowable with my long-time friend, Ian.
Knowable is a Web3 community participant (not a business). Instead of value capture, our priority is to develop relationships and a reputation with high-integrity, values-aligned Web3 contributors and their communities. Friends like the folks at Agoric, Connext, the Cosmos Hub, and many more. We’re optimizing for impact, advising and working with people that share our vision of an open, decentralized, sustainable Web3.
If we’re to make it to the next level in this journey, I think we’ll need to be intentional about how we organize ourselves, what we value, how we communicate, and above all, how we can grow our values and organizations sustainably. With clearer values, better games, and better stories, together we can make a more beautiful game.
If that sounds about right, reach out to chat! Our DMs are open 🤗
Wishing my friends and colleagues at Figment way more than luck 🙂