Five exits, and what each one taught me about structure
Each case study names the counterparty and, where the record has it, the year. I have written them as accounts rather than announcements — what the deal was, what I chose, what it cost.
What I learnt → — one lesson per build, each with what it cost, and the ones still owing a write-up named rather than left out.
Exited
Metaverse Group → Tokens.comCo-founded a virtual real-estate company and sold it to an acquirer listed in Toronto and New York. I took the position rather than the cash, which turned an exit into a holding. Merged
MLG Blockchain → GDA CapitalMerged my advisory firm with Secure Digital Markets, a trading desk. Advice plus liquidity is a merchant bank; neither half was one alone. Operating
Since 2016 GDA GroupThe merchant bank the merger produced. More than seventy portfolio companies have passed through it. The firm describes itself better than I can — gda.group. Founded
Bitcoin CanadaFounded early, when the argument still had to be made from first principles to people who had never held the asset. Inside
TD BankFirst enterprise blockchain developer at the bank. The constraint that shaped everything after: a regulated institution cannot adopt a technology it cannot audit.
Metaverse Group → Tokens.comCo-founded a virtual real-estate company and sold it to an acquirer listed in Toronto and New York. I took the position rather than the cash, which turned an exit into a holding. Merged
MLG Blockchain → GDA CapitalMerged my advisory firm with Secure Digital Markets, a trading desk. Advice plus liquidity is a merchant bank; neither half was one alone. Operating
Since 2016 GDA GroupThe merchant bank the merger produced. More than seventy portfolio companies have passed through it. The firm describes itself better than I can — gda.group. Founded
Bitcoin CanadaFounded early, when the argument still had to be made from first principles to people who had never held the asset. Inside
TD BankFirst enterprise blockchain developer at the bank. The constraint that shaped everything after: a regulated institution cannot adopt a technology it cannot audit.
Acronym Asset Management is in the record and needs a line from Michael before it gets a row. Portfolio companies stay at gord.holdings/portfolio/ — one list, one owner.