Our Team
Vance Spencer is the co-founder of Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the crypto industry. Under the leadership of Vance and his co-founder Michael, Framework Ventures was arguably the first VC firm to “go all in” on the emerging Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) ecosystem, notching up major early investments in several multi-billion dollar apps and networks like Chainlink, Aave, Synthetix, The Graph, and more. Over the last few years, the firm has raised $400M for its third fund, and has also expanded into additional maturing verticals like AI, blockchain infrastructure, web3 gaming, and L1s. Before Framework, Vance and his co-founder Michael launched and sold Hashletes (2018-2019), a digital collectible startup with official licensing from the NFL. Before focusing on crypto full-time, Vance worked at Netflix (2015-2018) in Los Angeles and Tokyo, where he was part of the team responsible for the relaunch of the Japan business, eventually joining the team leading corporate development for most of northern Asia. He began his career at Monitor Deloitte (2013-2015).
Michael Anderson is the co-founder of Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the crypto industry. Under the leadership of Michael and his co-founder Vance, Framework Ventures was arguably the first VC firm to “go all in” on the emerging Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) ecosystem, notching up major early investments in several multi-billion dollar apps and networks like Chainlink, Aave, Synthetix, The Graph, and more. Over the last few years, the firm has raised $400M for its third fund, and has also expanded into additional maturing verticals like AI, blockchain infrastructure, web3 gaming, and L1s. Before Framework, Michael and his co-founder Vance launched and sold Hashletes (2018-2019), a digital collectible startup with official licensing from the NFL. Before focusing on crypto full-time, Michael served as a product manager at both Snapchat (2016-2018) and Dropbox (2013-2016), where he helped build out their monetization platforms.
Roy Learner is a Partner at Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the crypto industry. Roy has been involved in the crypto space since 2016, initially publishing market research as a part of Messari. Prior to Framework Ventures, Roy was a part of the founding team at Wave Digital Assets (2018-2020), where he helped deploy an actively-managed liquid crypto fund. Before he became an investor, Roy was a Market Development Manager with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (2018), where he worked with multiple Fortune 500 enterprises trialing new blockchain use cases. Prior to entering crypto, Roy worked as a Senior Manager at Optoro (2014-2018), a Kleiner Perkins-backed SaaS focused on the retail return process. He began his career as an analyst at Gartner (2013-2014).
Brandon Potts is a Partner at Framework Ventures. He has been an active researcher and investor in the crypto ecosystem ever since discovering Ethereum in 2015. Prior to Framework Ventures, Brandon was Head of Business Development at AnChain.ai (2019-2020), a blockchain intelligence platform for security, risk and compliance, and Chief of Staff at Startup Sandbox (2020-2021), a bioscience incubator affiliated with the University of California, Santa Cruz. Since joining Framework Ventures in 2021, Brandon has led several of the firm’s core investments into stablecoins, AI, energy, DeFi, security, and infrastructure. He began his career as an engineering project manager at Holland Partner Group (2016-2019), a real estate investment and design-build company.
Rajiv Patel-O'Connor is a Partner at Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the blockchain industry. Prior to joining Framework Ventures, Rajiv was a software engineer at Coinbase (2021), where he built out staking products. Prior to working in crypto, Rajiv began his career as a Growth Engineer at Eight Sleep (2019-2020).
Parker Edwards is a Principal at Framework Ventures, and the Director of Obex. Since joining Framework, he has invested across DeFi with a focus on stablecoins, capital formation, and credit infrastructure. At Obex, Parker works directly with founders to launch projects backed by real-world income—spanning traditional finance—in areas such as private credit, asset-backed lending, and compute and energy finance. Before Framework, he co-founded Proxy (HF0 S23), a fintech recognized by OpenAI and the Bezos Earth Fund for its work at the intersection of AI and energy, and served as an Innovation Partner to the U.S. Department of Energy.x
Monique Horton is the Chief Compliance Officer at Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the blockchain industry. Prior to Framework, Monique served as CCO (2020-2022) at Abbott Capital Management, an investment management firm that specializes in private equity opportunities. Prior to Abbott, Monique served in various compliance roles at Invesco (2017-2019), ACA Compliance Group (2016-2017) and Royalty Pharma (2012-2016). She began her career at Bear Stearns.
John DiCerbo is the Chief Financial Officer at Framework Ventures and has 18+ years experience in alternative investment management operations and finance across multiple asset classes within hedge funds, private equity and venture capital. Prior to Framework, John served as CFO at Numerai (2017-2020), an AI-powered, crowd-sourced hedge fund backed by Paul Tudor Jones, Naval Ravikant and Howard Morgan. Prior to Numerai, John spent 10+ years in New York working as the Controller at Litespeed Management and in prime brokerage at UBS Investment Bank.
Eric Swartz is the General Counsel at Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the crypto industry. Prior to Framework Ventures, Eric began his career in the private equity group at Goodwin. Eric spent the first eight years of his career facilitating private equity transactions for major sponsors across both the valuation and majority/minority spectrum. In an effort to pursue a legal career working on digital asset transactions, Eric joined Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in 2021 to lead the legal and geopolitical research efforts across its digital assets strategies, including liquid trading, early stage venture capital and pre-IPO venture capital. While at SIG, Eric negotiated some of the earliest institutional investments into digital asset projects and formulated the regulatory and compliance strategies that allowed for the launch of SIG’s decentralized trading strategies. At Framework, in addition to Eric’s role as General Counsel, Eric leads Framework’s policy efforts, guided by his foundational digital assets policy experience hosting federal senate campaign fundraisers for digital asset advocate members of US Congress and fire side chats for University of Pennsylvania digital assets symposia.
Adam Badrawi is head of comms and PR at Framework Ventures. Prior to Framework Ventures, Adam began his career at Wachsman, a large tech-focused PR firm, where he led a team that provided services to over a dozen applications.
Boris Lindenau is the Controller at Framework Ventures. Boris joined Framework in 2021 and has helped in the operational, accounting and financial flow + the organization of Framework’s funds and management company. Prior to Framework, Boris was a fund accountant at MG Stover & Co., a pioneer in the crypto/blockchain fund administration space, and helped build out the tools used to reconcile and manage the portfolio accounting processes across MG Stover’s crypto hedge fund, private equity and venture capital clientele (2018-2021). He holds a BA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Mitchell Wong joined Framework Ventures in 2023 serving as its finance manager, and is responsible for supporting all facets of the corporate accounting, operations, financial matters, treasury and tax strategies at the firm. Prior to joining Framework, Mitchell spent four years at KPMG in its alternative investment tax practice, focusing on real estate and private equity funds, and two years at Deloitte in its blockchain and digital assets tax practice, focusing on crypto investment funds and protocols. Mitchell graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He is currently based in San Francisco and is a licensed CPA in California.
Jessica Duncan supports the Co-Founders of Framework Ventures as the Executive Assistant, bringing a strong background in administrative and executive support. Prior to joining Framework, she was the Executive Assistant to the CEO of The Gores Group (2016-2020) where she was responsible for managing high-level operations, including complex scheduling, event planning, and coordination of both business and personal affairs for the CEO. At Framework, Jessica leverages her experience to help streamline operations and support the company's leadership.
Arielle Ruiz is the office manager at Framework Ventures, one of the largest VC firms in the blockchain industry. Prior to joining Framework, Arielle was the Office Operations Lead at Paradigm,a research-driven crypto investment firm that funds companies and protocols from their earliest stages. Arielle began her operations focused career at KKR, a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions, where she held multiple positions during her time. (2014-2022).
