#174 | Samuel Kronick | Beijing to Crypto

Investor Samuel Kronick on growing up in Beijing, venture capital, Tencent, and crypto fundraising at Bags. Samuel Kronick is born and raised in Beijing, China and has focused his role has an entrepreneur and investor focused on early-stage FinTech and Digital Assets. Samuel got involved early in this field with his the United States with his work at Greycroft, a venture capital firm, before transitioning to angel investing himself where he backed successful companies and funds at their earliest stages including Mysten Labs and Browder Capital. Samuel then decided to shift his focus back to China and worked at Tencent, investing in gaming companies; but eventually he returned to the US and joined Bags as Head of Business Development, a crypto fundraising platform that has processed over $2B in volume and helped creators raise $20M+ in the past four months covering late 2025 and early 2026. To learn more about Samuel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-kronick-65a579126 Chapters 0:00 Welcome Samuel Kronick 2:33 Two school systems in China 5:07 Growing up amid a building boom 7:40 International school friends 10:10 Forgetting his own surname 12:47 Choosing Northwestern 15:25 China and the financial crisis 17:59 Working at Tencent 20:31 Nine to nine, six days a week 23:05 Missing the intensity 25:40 Analysing Chinese tech in LA 28:15 Venture capital in LA 30:51 When the crypto market collapsed 33:21 Seven rounds of interviews 35:55 How Chinese tech pays 38:29 A struggling economy in late 2023 41:04 Farmland and food security 43:42 Competing for jobs 46:19 Four months in Shenzhen 48:54 Ryan covering Tencent and Alibaba 51:27 Yahoo's bet on Alibaba 53:59 Joining Mysten Labs 56:29 Meeting future industry leaders 59:00 A somber mood in China 1:01:34 Politics and investment in China 1:04:04 Teenage nightlife in China 1:06:34 How students see China 1:09:06 A new way to fund creators 1:11:39 Open-source AI 1:14:12 Earning from fee sharing 1:16:43 Talking to industry leaders 1:19:16 Market manipulation worries 1:21:50 Software anyone can use 1:24:25 Will the next generation only work in crypto? 1:26:56 Stablecoins and yield 1:29:29 Funding creators and AI agents 1:31:59 Real-world assets on chain 1:34:29 A generation's ecosystem 1:37:01 Keep building and shipping 1:39:35 Fear of changing rules 1:42:05 Why Chinese savers buy crypto 1:44:37 Why people hold crypto 1:47:14 Independent creators exposing wrongdoing 1:49:44 Monetising attention 1:52:22 Digital assets and governments 1:54:54 Inflation and money printing 1:57:24 Staying number one 1:59:55 Keeping the AI edge 2:02:25 Companies that took it too easy 2:04:57 Embracing AI 2:07:31 Data centres in space 2:10:05 Who wins in AI 2:12:42 Thanks for coming in The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com