3 Lava Investors On What Went Wrong

Show Notes

Three early Lava investors - Steve Lee (Spiral), David King, and Max Webster (Hivemind) - discuss the company’s abrupt shift from self-custody to a custodial model: what changed, why it matters, and how communication missteps created a crisis of trust. They break down the DLC tech debate, onboarding issues, product decisions, and where Lava goes from here. Timestamps: 0:00 - Why we invested: DLCs & how Lava was supposed to work 03:15 - Early product experience: KYC-optional loans and early UX 04:57 - Design issues: single oracle & iPhone-only custody 06:55 - Pivot to custodial and zero-communication “upgrade” 10:05 - Communication failures, balances showing zero, and bad migration UX 14:15 - DLC “vulnerabilities,” trust fallout & how Lava should have explained the shift 19:20 - Could the pivot still make sense? 🎧 From the PBJ podcast recorded at 📍Presidio Bitcoin 🔗 Full episode: https://youtu.be/_FwG1hkNVUE 🌐 Learn more: https://www.presidiobitcoin.org/