Sarah Adams

First Round is a venture capital firm that works with founders exclusively at the earliest stages of company building, often when all they have is an “imagine if.” We fill in where we can until the team is filled out, tackling crucial early hiring and equipping those who are great at building product with the skills to sell it, too. By getting the foundational firsts right, we increase the odds of finding extreme product-market fit. Our founders’ “imagine ifs” have turned into companies like Notion, Roblox, Uber, and Square.

Atlas Crypto was a double-sided marketplace that connected power companies with cryptomining companies. Cryptomining rigs accessed heavily discounted power prices by offering to quickly turn on and off as a demand response participant. They could easily absorb excess power or reduce their demand for power within minutes. This enabled power companies to optimize their generation by flexing the cryptomining rigs instead of ramping their power plant up and down to meet grid demand.