After 15 years of writing about startups, tech journalist Monty Munford became an entrepreneur. More than a decade spent reviewing story presentations and connecting founders with investors and buyers has given him the motivation to pursue his own successful venture as co-founder of Sienna, a privacy-focused cross-chain DeFi (decentralized finance) platform that enables personal sharing, lending, and conversion of crypto tokens into personal equivalents. the dangers of “front execution,” where long-term transactions can be overshadowed on public DeFi blockchains.
Munford’s transition from journalism to entrepreneur didn’t happen overnight. While appearing for Forbes, The Economist and other media outlets, Munford straddled the world of media and startups, when he created Mob76, a consulting firm that operates with only a handful of corporations. at the same time to raise the profile of a company and make high-impact introductions. boost investment cycles (A
It was Munford’s ability to effortlessly network that helped him the most, holding normal meetings in central London motivated by business interests, but in a quiet social environment. He has also become a sought-after speaker and moderator at global generation events, ten times his network. Ultimately, his prestige as a superconnector paved the way for his role with Sienna.
As a co-founder and lead evangelist, Munford continues to work to raise the company’s profile, adding his recent launch of SiennaLend, a personal crypto lending platform that claims users can earn interest and borrow on the platform. In a recent interview, Munford explained how he became a co-founder and recommended other news hounds make the switch.
Amy Guttman: What was the first thing that made you move from full-time journalism to venture capital and then to the entrepreneur?
Monty Munford: I got tired of a dying job. Also, the venture capitalists and marketers I met and interviewed didn’t seem smarter or more motivated than I did and I got tired of being deficient and treating myself as such.
AG: How herbal is the change?
MM: Not herbal at all and it took time, however, it didn’t take me long to move into meetings as a speaker, facilitator or moderator. In fact, it sped things up and being a curious herbally user meant that replacement was quick, if not entirely herbal.
AG: What surprises you most about an entrepreneur?
MM: The instant popularity that you weren’t a journalist that other people didn’t have to distrust.
AG: The challenges?
MM: I don’t write regularly, everything I still miss and evidently started over as an older person. In addition, other people who sought press release submissions for percentage investors were more or less similar, but took even longer.
AG: Did you have to kiss toads before discovering the opportunity/partners?
MM: The frogs I had to kiss and the nonsense those frogs co-killed; there were ponds. There are so many other stupid and stupid people in the global VC and salespeople who think they speak like gods. . . and are 99% white men. I’m also a white man, but not like many of them. However, princes and princesses, when you locate them, are remarkable and inspiring and make me better.
AG: Why Siena?
MM: I didn’t expect to be a part of something like Sienna Network and, in fact, not cryptocurrencies. In the past, I had been the victim of a $500,000 theft that was stolen from my online wallet to the Binance exchange, which still refuses to reimburse me or settle for any liability. I think crypto was a nest of vipers.
Sienna’s team of advisors convinced me to come back; the other smarter people who knew much more than I did and who believed they were literally turning the global in a positive way and believed in privacy into cryptography, very different from anonymity. We raised $11. 2 million when we expected $500,000 to $700,000.
Then we did what we promised, we introduced a decentralized exchange called SiennaSwap and last month SiennaLend, where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies privately in the same way without others seeing what’s going on on a blockchain and hijacking and disrupting those transactions.
AG: What recommendation do you have for other hounds making the transition?
MM: Be original and say what you think. Be free, don’t worry about what others think, even if you’re new to the game. Continue to grow your netpaintings so that the transition is quick. If you think he’s an idiot, don’t tell him or anyone else. to yourself, but never paintings with them. Don’t talk. . . as hounds like to do.
It’s thanks to the network you create and a reputation as an original user that he’s never afraid to speak his mind without being offensive.
AG: Future goals?
MM: I would like to do this for a few more years, however, the dream would be to transition into the art world, just to own or exchange beautiful things purchased from artists at the beginning of their careers to help them in their development. to know everything about it.