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Ten Pages Deep: An Exploration of Emerging Trends in Tech
Talks about Venture Capital, Web3 and Crypto
JB
Jarrod Barnes
Founder of NEAR Foundation
Brooklyn, New York
Overview
Jarrod Barnes is the Head of Ecosystem at NEAR, demonstrating expertise in entrepreneurship, startup development, and brand development. With a background in sports management and a Doctor of Education degree, he has held key roles at organizations like the Los Angeles Rams and has contributed to various ventures in the sports industry.
Work Experience
Founder
2025 - Current
At Arc, we're building the foundational memory layer for modern software engineering. Our mission is simple but powerful: ensure engineering teams never lose the critical "why" behind their code. As AI-driven development accelerates, engineers produce code faster—but without capturing the vital architectural context behind their decisions. This leads to technical debt, fragmented knowledge, and costly inefficiencies. Arc solves this by embedding a structured, queryable memory directly within the developer's IDE. Our temporal knowledge graph captures architectural decisions, system evolution, and contextual insights in real-time, transforming scattered institutional knowledge into actionable intelligence. Arc empowers engineers to move faster, smarter, and with greater confidence. Visit us at www.arc.computer to learn more and join us as we redefine the future of software development.
Lead, Developer Guild
2024 - 2025
Open source contributor and Lead for the Protocol Labs Developer Guild, a strategic initiative focused on scaling open-source contributions and accelerating development across core Web3 infrastructure projects.
Protocol Labs is a research, development, and deployment lab for network protocols.
Raised $10,920,000.00 from Holon Global Investments, Kosmos Ventures, MRTNZ Ventures, BlueYard Capital, Boost VC and FundersClub.
Head of Ecosystem & Developer Engagement
2023 - 2025
Technical leader focused on empowering developers and scaling open source AI ecosystems. At NEAR, I architect developer tooling while leading the Founder Success team, the driving force behind ecosystem growth, developing strategic partnerships, and implementing initiatives to retain and support developers. Active contributor to core protocol improvements and developer infrastructure. NEAR Foundation's founder success team has facilitated over $100M in external funding for NEAR Protocol-based projects, with dedicated support through hackathons and direct founder engagement. The NEAR Foundation is the non-profit organization behind the NEAR blockchain, responsible for the development and maintenance of the NEAR Protocol and its associated ecosystem.
Clinical Assistant Professor
2022 - 2023
Courses Taught: Entrepreneurial Thinking, Entrepreneurship Incubator, The Business of esports, Crypto-Native Bootcamp, The Science of Fandom.
Adjunct Professor
2021 - 2022
Co-Founder
2020 - 2022
Compass was a mental health platform that provided tokenized rewards for improving mental fitness. Our mission is to was create a zero-barrier to entry point for quality mental healthcare. We built an “engage-to-earn” blockchain based platform that nudges users towards practicing daily mental health routine and provided tokens as rewards. Tokens were used to access therapy services from our provider network. Ultimately, we wound down the company due to market conditions and challenges with building sustainable tokenomics. I led the technical implementation of reward mechanisms and engagement analytics, If you're a current founder and want to chat about lessons learned, fundraising advice, hiring, or user acquisition, please reach out and I’d be happy to chat.
Investor, Early-Stage Investments
2021 - 2022
Emerson Collective deploys a wide range of tools—from impact investing to philanthropy to advocacy—in pursuit of a more equal and just America. We focus on creating systemic change in education, immigration, climate, and cancer research and treatment.
Emerson Collective strengthens schools, secures rights for immigrants, and restores relationship between humanity and nature.
Investment Partner
2020 - 2021
Dorm Room Fund is a $10 million venture capital firm focused on investments in student-run startups alongside firms like a16z, Sequoia, GV, Floodgate, YC, etc.
Dorm Room Fund is the strongest community of entrepreneurial students in the nation.
Venture Analyst
2020 - 2021
Unshackled Ventures is the first and only early-stage venture capital fund focused on retaining foreign talent in the U.S. By investing in immigrants and helping them to secure visas, the firm has tapped into undiscovered super-talent in helping foreign-born founders turn their innovative ideas into the next great American company.
Unshackled Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund for immigrant-founded startups.
Player Marketing Manager
2019 - 2021
Collaborated at the intersections of media, marketing, and sponsorship to integrate Rams players into existing and emerging campaigns and activations.
Strategic Advisor
2019 - 2020
Founder & CEO
2016 - 2019
Prime U is a learning and development platform for sport organizations. We assess learning analytics and design research-backed programs to improve information retention, skill attainment, and athletic performance.