Maximum Frequency Ventures — Investment Thesis & Preferences

01Investment Thesis

MFV backs operator-first founders building programmable financial infrastructure, AI-crypto convergence products, and token-native consumer applications across the US and Asia.

Exclusion Criteria

No passive investments, no late-stage companies, no Web2-only businesses, no projects prioritizing short-term token events over long-term protocol development.

02Investment Team

MS

Mo Shaikh

General Partner

NH

Neil Harounian

General Partner

AT

Alexandre Tang

General Partner

JO

Jerome Ong

General Partner

03F4 Research Brief

Maximum Frequency Ventures Research

Overview

Maximum Frequency Ventures (MFV) is a $50 million operator-led venture fund and company-creation engine launched in October 2025 by four former Aptos Labs executives. The firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, and operates globally with a particular emphasis on Asia. MFV combines the discipline of a venture fund, the urgency of an accelerator, and the hands-on rigor of a studio — embedding directly with founders from day zero through scale rather than functioning as a passive capital provider.

The name "Maximum Frequency" reflects the firm's core philosophy: helping each founder hit their maximum frequency of iteration, execution, and growth.

Investment Thesis

MFV's thesis centers on the belief that "applications are interfaces; protocols are the product." The firm believes that programmable protocols will displace legacy financial infrastructure because they enable faster, cheaper, and more composable value flows. Their investment thesis spans four interconnected areas:

Financial Markets & Payments: Stablecoin infrastructure and blockchain-based settlement systems replacing traditional fintech rails. They see significant opportunity in markets with $130B+ annual remittances and in underserved cross-border payment corridors across Asia.
Next-Generation Consumer & Community Apps: Token-designed cultural and entertainment platforms — gaming, social, and community applications built natively on crypto primitives rather than bolted-on token structures.
AI-Crypto Convergence: Autonomous agents, coordination protocols, and AI-native marketplaces. MFV sees agents as the next class of economic actors requiring new financial execution and risk frameworks. Q1 2026 deployment data confirms this focus with investments in an agentic OS for the one-person company economy and AI infrastructure for embedded systems.
Founder-Protocol Alignment: Visionary builders deeply committed to solving specific problems through protocol-first thinking and cross-cultural fluency.

Stage Focus

MFV is an early-stage fund, writing first checks at pre-seed and seed stage. They position themselves as the first institutional check into portfolio companies. The fund has deployed approximately $5–7M across six to eight early-stage companies since its October 2025 launch, implying typical check sizes in the $500K–$2M range. They maintain reserves for follow-on.

Lead Tendency

MFV leads rounds or co-leads as the first institutional investor. Their embedded operating model requires lead or meaningful ownership positions to justify the hands-on support they provide.

Operational Model & Programs

MFV distinguishes itself through three structured programs:

Founder Residency: For operators and technologists validating ideas and building MVPs. Participants receive market validation support, help shipping first products, team recruitment assistance, and initial capital upon graduation.
Invest & Embed: Early investment paired with structured 12-week operating sprints. MFV teams work side-by-side with founders on product loops, token mechanics, go-to-market strategy, market structure, and regulatory pathways.
Beyond the Prototype: Extended partnership supporting product iteration, team building, token economics refinement, and customer acquisition at scale.

The firm's "MFV Sprints" involve one-to-two intense days of collaborative strategy work covering product, token design, go-to-market, market structure, and regulatory path — compressing processes that typically take months into days.

Team

All four General Partners are former Aptos Labs executives who collectively helped build Aptos from concept to a top-10 Layer 1 blockchain with a $20 billion peak valuation and 200+ ecosystem projects:

Mo Shaikh, General Partner: Co-founder of Aptos Labs; prior roles at Meta, BlackRock, and BCG. A systems architect by background and one of the most prominent figures in the Move ecosystem.
Neil Harounian, General Partner: First employee hired at Aptos Labs, former Head of Ecosystem. Prior experience at RBC Capital Markets, White Star Capital, and Exponential Ventures. Deep network in both institutional finance and crypto ecosystems.
Alexandre Tang, General Partner: Former Head of APAC Institutions at Aptos; BCG background. Leads MFV's Asia institutional relationships and APAC strategy.
Jerome Ong, General Partner: Former APAC Ecosystem Lead at Aptos; prior roles at GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) and Cloudkitchens. Strong Southeast Asian network and traditional finance credentials.

The team's collective experience spans Goldman Sachs, GIC, BCG, Meta, BlackRock, Cloudkitchens, RBC, and White Star Capital — giving them rare credibility across both TradFi and crypto-native communities.

Geographic Focus

MFV has a deliberate East-West strategy, positioning the US and East Asia as co-equal pillars. Limited partners include family offices from the US, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Portfolio companies span Texas, South Korea, Abu Dhabi, and Greater China. Alexandre Tang and Jerome Ong specifically cover APAC, while Mo Shaikh and Neil Harounian anchor the US presence. The firm describes itself as "bridging East and West."

Portfolio Companies

MFV's publicly disclosed portfolio companies all operate at the intersection of blockchain technology and consumer applications:

BLINK (blink.trade): A high-performance exchange for spot and perpetual trading
BLUFF (bluff.com): A next-generation casino and sportsbook building culturally native betting experiences
Enhanced (enhanced.finance): A DeFi platform for structured yield and wealth products
Klickl (klickl.com): A universal payment backbone moving money across currencies, borders, and chains
Moonshot (themoonshot.xyz): A next-gen mobile gaming playground redefining how we play

Additionally, Q1 2026 disclosures reference two investments in a Greater China-based agentic OS company and a US-based AI infrastructure company for embedded systems.

Fund Status

Fund I ($50M) was closed in October 2025 and is actively deploying. As of Q1 2026, the firm characterized the market as bifurcated: early-stage processes are less competitive with longer timelines, while capital concentrates in AI infrastructure, agent-driven systems, and physical compute. MFV is using this environment to access deals earlier and at favorable valuations, focusing on digital assets infrastructure, agent economies, and the application layer.

Decision Process

MFV operates as a partnership with four General Partners. Given the embedded operating model, deals likely require partner alignment. The firm targets what they call "Squirrley Operators" — teams that iterate quickly with incomplete information and operate in playbook-free environments.

Anti-Thesis

MFV avoids passive investments without operational engagement. They are not a check-writing fund. They do not invest in late-stage companies or businesses without crypto-native mechanics. Traditional Web2 businesses, pure hardware plays disconnected from blockchain infrastructure, and projects prioritizing short-term token events over long-term protocol development are outside their mandate.

04Selected Portfolio