90% of “investment strategies” explained.
The other 10% is just luck.

❄️ Winter Demo Day for Web3 Founders is Coming!

As promised, we continue to roll out sessions that connect web3 startups with active investors. And the next one is just around the corner.

📆 Winter Demo Day by EasyMM x InnMind is taking place on December 10, 17:00–18:00 CET.

A fully virtual event bringing together TGE-ready founders and top investors, launchpads and exchanges actively deploying capital in Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.

What to expect:
A sharp, fast-paced and investor-heavy demo day connecting strong web3 products with real decision makers deploying capital this upcoming season.

Whether you want to pitch or watch the session live, you can secure your spot now.

👉 Register or Apply to pitch here

Let’s kick off winter with a powerful boost to deal flow between founders and investors.❄️🚀

🔥 Velvet Capital Did 5X in a Bear Market. Yes, Really.

Most projects collapsed this year. Velvet Capital didn’t. They grew 5X after the TGE, even as the market was bleeding. If you are building in Web3, you need to understand how they did it.

This interview hits hard.
No hype. No magic. Just strategy, discipline and execution.

You’ll see how they built a community that didn’t disappear after launch, structured tokenomics without destroying momentum, and kept growth alive when everyone else was fighting for survival.

Every founder planning a 2026 launch will feel this. It is packed with lessons you can actually use.

If you want to build something that lasts, start here.

👉 https://youtu.be/ZQH0hzL5CQU?si=YCu-kACWbj6RSPZz

🔥 Claimr: Your Shortcut to High Engagement 🔥

Every growing Web3 startup needs a way to turn passive followers into active users. Claimr makes it simple with gamified experiences that boost traction from day one. And now you can try it on special InnMind terms with 10% off for a full year + 3 free months on the Basic plan.

Here is why founders love Claimr👇
▪️ Gamified quests that turn onboarding into a fun, fast experience
▪️ Reward mechanics that keep users coming back
▪️ Social leaderboards that drive friendly competition
▪️ Campaigns that help you acquire, activate, and retain users
▪️ Easy setup so you can launch interactive flows instantly

This perk is perfect for founders preparing for fundraising or pushing early growth. It helps you save budget while boosting adoption with tools your users will enjoy.

🚀 Claim the perk and start building engagement

🔥 50+ Active Web3 Grants You Can Apply For Right Now

December starts strong. We just pushed a major update to InnMind’s Ultimate Blockchain Grants List 2025.

📌 Fresh programs added. Dead ones removed. Every link and deadline is verified by hand to give founders the most reliable grant resource in Web3.

What’s inside the updated version:
▪️ 15+ new active grant programs added this week
▪️ Ecosystems like Ethereum, Base, Solana, Polygon, Starknet, zkSync, BNB and more
▪️ Clean breakdown of grant sizes, eligibility and requirements
▪️ Real application links, not screenshots or outdated forms
▪️ Spreadsheet structure for planning your funding pipeline

Grants are one of the few capital sources still moving in 2025. Use them strategically.

👉 Access the updated Grants List

Founders who act early get funded early. Move fast, apply smart, keep building forward.

📘 Web3 Grants in 2025 Are Tough. Here’s How to Navigate Them

Grant programs tightened their rules this year. Forms got longer, requirements got stricter, and most founders waste days applying to grants that are already outdated or irrelevant.

Here’s what actually matters now:

🔹 Relevance beats volume
Apply only where your product clearly fits the ecosystem.

🔹 Cold forms rarely work
Warm intros and community presence drastically increase your chances.

🔹 Documentation is key
A clean deck, milestones and a transparent budget speak louder than promises.

🔹 Avoid grant hopping
Switching chains every quarter kills focus and builds tech debt fast.

We summarised all practical tactics, founder mistakes and ecosystem tips in one guide.
👉 Read the full article

Execute smart and keep moving forward.

🌓 The Real State of Web3 Grants in 2025

Grant applications today feel like a full time job. Milestones, reports and long forms replaced the easy 2021 days and too many founders get ghosted after doing all the work.

Our video breaks down the real problems and what actually works:

🔹 Grant hopping drains teams
Rebuilding for every new chain kills momentum.

🔹 Inner circle bias exists
If you’re not active in the ecosystem, your form often disappears.

🔹 Traction wins
Even small real usage matters more than any pitch deck.

🔹 Strategy matters
Choose one ecosystem, get warm intros and treat guidelines seriously.

The video explains all of this with real founder stories and sharp takeaways.
👉 Watch here

Stay focused founders. Smart strategy beats grind.

4️⃣ Critical Tokenomics Metrics Every Founder Should Model Before Fundraising

In 2025, investors evaluate tokenised projects very differently from previous cycles.

They don’t care about “big supply” or “cheap token price”. They care about fundamentals that show whether your token can survive unlocks and real market behaviour.

Here are the four metrics that matter most:

▪️ Distribution & Vesting: how balanced the early allocations are and when each cohort unlocks
▪️ FDV/MC Ratio: whether the project is structurally overvalued at listing
▪️ Token Velocity: whether users hold or immediately sell the token
▪️ Network Usage: whether real product activity creates actual token demand

If these four are not modelled clearly, founders end up negotiating from a weak position — and investors walk away.

Get the detailed explanations and examples from real Web3 use cases inside the article.
👉 Creating Successful Tokenomics in 2025: Key Metrics to Consider

The New Visibility Layer for Web3 Projects 🌟

In Web3, you are not only building tech. You are competing for visibility. SEO, AEO and GEO form a powerful funnel that works 24/7. SEO builds trust, AEO wins the answer box, and GEO gets your project inside AI search results like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

One of our latest articles breaks down why classic SEO fails in Web3: people no longer search. They ask AI and expect a direct answer.

For founders, this means one thing:
📥 Engine Optimisation puts your startup inside the conversations users and investors already have with AI tools.

Visibility is not luck anymore. It is an infrastructure choice⚡️

💬 Founders & marketers — quick question: tried AI optimization already?

👉 Share your experience in the comments — what worked, what didn’t?
Let’s learn from each other. 🚀

🙈 Don’t Design Tokenomics Blindly in 2025

Too many founders still build tokenomics on “gut feeling” instead of real metrics. The result is predictable: sell pressure at every unlock, broken FDV/MC math, and price collapsing before the product even gains traction.

If you're working on tokenomics, make sure you understand how distribution, velocity, liquidity depth, buyback logic and network usage interact. This new article breaks down the fundamentals every Web3 founder must control in 2025 — in a way that actually maps to investor due diligence.

Here is what the article helps you clarify:
▪️ how your vesting schedule affects sell pressure
▪️ why FDV/MC misalignment kills listings
▪️ how to model unlock scenarios and real demand
▪️ what “healthy” token velocity looks like
▪️ when burn or buyback makes sense economically

➕ And once you understand the logic behind these metrics, there is a tool that helps you calculate everything without guesswork: the Tokenomics Calculator Template PRO (2025 Edition).

It’s the same model used by 200+ funded startups to build investor-ready tokenomics, complete with automated dashboards, liquidity modelling, valuation logic and cohort-based sell pressure simulations.

The article gives you the framework. The calculator helps you apply it with precision.

👉 Read the full breakdown: Creating Successful Tokenomics in 2025: Key Metrics to Consider

🍫 Saturday Tokenomics Snack: The Only Metric Founders Forget

Most tokenomics fail not because of hype, supply numbers or narrative. They fail because founders ignore how fast their token moves.

➡️ High token velocity = constant sell pressure = no price stability.
➡️ Low velocity = healthy holding incentives and real demand.

If your tokenomics doesn’t control velocity, unlocks will control your price. And they don’t play nice.

The new article breaks down the essentials you should keep an eye on (in the simplest way possible 😊).

👉 Read the guide: Creating Successful Tokenomics in 2025

🚀 Demo Day Recap — what a session!

We hosted an online Demo Day with Easy MM where Web3 startups pitched their projects directly to investors — and the energy was on point ⚡️

Quick highlights:
• 8 warm investor intros
• 400+ live views
• 40+ startup applications
• Plenty of strong new connections made 🤝

Huge thanks to all founders, investors, and partners who joined us and made this session valuable and dynamic.

👀 Stay tuned — we’ll be announcing the next pitching session soon.
If you’re building in Web3 and want to pitch your startup to investors, make sure you don’t miss the next application window.

More to come 🚀

150 DePIN Investors. Zero Guesswork. Ready to Use 📥

Fundraising for a DePIN startup should not mean weeks of messy spreadsheets, outdated blog lists, and cold Googling partners who never invested in infrastructure.

We just added a powerful new document to the InnMind Knowledge Base:
▶️ DePIN Investor Database 2026 updated December 2025

This is a clean, action-ready Google Sheet with 150+ verified DePIN-focused investors who actually back compute, GPU networks, connectivity, IoT, mapping, storage, energy, and real-world infrastructure.

What makes this different is execution speed.
▪️ You get real decision-makers, not info@ emails.
▪️ You see real DePIN bets, not vague “Web3 interest”.
▪️ You get direct outreach paths and source links to validate fit fast.

➕ Instead of building a list from scratch, you can filter by your sub-vertical, shortlist 30–50 investors, personalise your message, and start outreach the same day.

You can spend weeks recreating this yourself. Or save that time and start fundraising smarter today.

👉 Get instant access here

Built for action. Use responsibly. Good luck raising in 2026 🚀

DePIN Fundraising Playbook 2026 is Live 🚀

Earlier we shared a ready-to-use list of 150+ verified DePIN investors. This article is the practical extension to that database. It explains how DePIN fundraising actually works in 2026 and why most founders waste months pitching the wrong investors.

Inside the playbook:
• What DePIN investors really care about today
• Why revenue beats node count and hype
• Which DePIN sub-sectors are getting funded right now
• Real valuation and traction benchmarks for seed and Series A
• How to turn an investor list into real conversations and term sheets

If the database answers who to contact, this guide shows how to convert.

Required reading for founders building GPU compute, wireless, sensors, energy, mapping, storage, or real-world infrastructure.

👉 Read the full article here

Built for serious DePIN founders. Good luck raising 💪

“Not enough traction” = the #1 vague pass reason from VCs. Here’s what investors usually mean 👇

Let’s dive into deals in the #DePIN vertical. We analyzed early-stage rounds closed in 2025 (plus investor conversations + what they backed and why) to answer one practical question:

What revenue traction (or revenue-adjacent proof) typically becomes “good enough” to unlock a check at each stage?

Here’s a rough benchmark we keep seeing across DePIN deals - patterns from real fundraising outcomes:

Pre-Seed: LOIs or pilot revenue
Seed: $50K–$500K ARR or a clear enterprise pipeline
Series A: $500K–$2M ARR + growth trajectory
Series B: $5M+ ARR + path to profitability

Why this matters: once you’re past pre-seed, “nodes deployed” or “token narrative” rarely substitutes for demand-side proof (who pays, why they pay, and whether it’s repeatable).

We broke down all you need to know about fundraising for DePIN startups in the full playbook: lane-specific KPIs (compute vs wireless vs sensors/data vs energy vs storage), valuation logic, and how investors actually make decisions.

➡️ Read Full guide: https://blog.innmind.com/depin-fundraising-playbook-2026/

& let’s discuss: What stage are you fundraising at, & what traction question keeps coming up in your calls? Feel free to share your InnMind startup profile for visibility!

New Perk for Web3 Founders 🚀 Token Utility That Actually Works

Meet FOLIO — a plug-and-play prediction games platform that helps Web3 projects turn community attention into real engagement and token utility.

Instead of quests and giveaways, you launch prediction campaigns around roadmap events, ecosystem milestones, or market outcomes. Users participate, compete on leaderboards, and come back again and again. Your token becomes an access key, not a passive asset.

No engineering. No complex setup. Launch in minutes and measure engagement that matters.

🎁 InnMind Perk
Selected startups from our community get access to a free trial of FOLIO’s token-gated prediction campaigns. Perfect for testing engagement loops before scaling.

👉 Activate the perk here
Build smarter engagement. Move fast. Test real token utility 💥

🔎 AI Visibility Is the New SEO for Web3 Founders

In the last weeks, we’ve seen strong interest from our community around one topic: project visibility. Not just ranking on Google, but being discoverable where decisions now actually happen. Inside AI tools used by users and investors.

Search has changed permanently. People no longer browse pages. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and act on the answers they get. If your Web3 project is missing from those answers, it is effectively invisible.

⚡️ We’ve published an in-depth guide that breaks down this shift and explains why traditional SEO is no longer effective for crypto startups. The article demonstrates how AI agents read, rank, and recommend projects, and outlines what founders can do now to adapt in 2026 and beyond.

If visibility matters for your growth or fundraising, this is a must-read.

👉 Read the full article here

🎁 Bonus for InnMind founders
Inside our Perks Club, we also offer an exclusive deal to help projects act on this immediately:

▪️ Free LLM SEO audit
▪️ 25% off AI optimisation services
▪️ Focused on visibility inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI agents

This is AI Agent Optimisation, not old-school SEO.

👉 Check the perk here

Clear signals beat hype. Make your project readable for machines and trustworthy for humans 🚀

Merry Christmas to the InnMind community 🎄

This year wasn’t loud — it was real.
Building through uncertainty. Learning through friction. Shipping when it wasn’t obvious.
That’s what progress actually looks like.

If you’re still here — refining your product, talking to users, thinking long-term — you’re already doing the hard part right.

Thank you to every founder, investor, advisor, and partner who made InnMind a place for substance over noise.
We’re proud to build alongside you.

Take a breath, recharge, and come back with clarity.
2026 has work worth doing. ❤️