Hey Stackers, after 8 years in this ecosystem going all the way back to the Blockstack days, I have some news to share: I'm joining Stacks Labs. Before diving into what's ahead, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we've built together at the Stacks Foundation.

I've had the privilege of being one of the first team members at the Stacks Foundation, and most recently, Executive Director. I’m so proud of what this team pulled off: finding creative ways to consistently punch above its weight and steward the Stacks ecosystem and its many types of members through both bulls and bears.

The Stacks Accelerator was one of those early bets; we helped launch an intensive program that brought in founders from all over the world and an incredible roster of mentors to give early teams building on Bitcoin and beyond a real shot at success.

The Mintery was another one of my personal favorites; a hands-on program we built specifically for artists and creators to help them learn how to leverage new opportunities in Web3 and build new audiences. We brought in a wonderfully diverse cohort: musicians, painters, tattoo artists, psychotherapists, jewelers, and more. It was a vivid reminder of how wide the tent of this ecosystem truly is, and how much opportunity exists to bring creators into Bitcoin and Web 3 in a meaningful way.

Events, everywhere. In 2024 alone, the Foundation sponsored over 80 major industry events (Token 2049, Consensus, PBW, KBW, SmartCon, bitcoin++, and many more) and produced over 200 total, including large summits like Bitcoin Builders Conference in Nashville, Bitcoin Unleashed Amsterdam, and a full calendar of Building on Bitcoin events around the globe. Going back further, events like Unmuteable brought together two passions of mine in a ‘music meets blockchain’ event that featured platinum-selling artists, music industry executives, and Web3 leaders. We truly never stopped looking (and won’t!) for new communities to invite into this ecosystem.

Grants that fueled every corner of the ecosystem. From the early grants program, which helped seed projects like ALEX, Arkadiko, early bridge integrations, and international community chapters from China to Latin America, to Critical Bounties that funded the sBTC Bridge, the sBTC Rewards Portal, Signer and Stacker Tools by Degen Labs, Stacking Tracker by StackingDAO, Stackspulse, and more, to the community-driven DeGrants program that put funding decisions directly in the hands of Stackers. Every corner of Stacks has a grants story, and most of them started with someone taking a chance on an idea and the Foundation finding ways to say yes.

The team. These incredible people, plus a network of world-class contractors around the globe, showed up every single day to do work that was often invisible but always essential. They adapted, pivoted, and gave their days, nights, weekends, you name it, to stretch into everything we possibly could to show the community love and support. I could not be more grateful that I get to continue working with them directly in my new role. More on this later.

As many of you know, SIP-031 passed with a record-breaking turnout and 97%+ approval, creating two new entities to help power the next phase of Stacks growth: the Stacks Endowment and Stacks Labs.

More specifically, SIP-031 was designed to enable the right people, in the right roles, to do the work they're best suited to do. I’m headed to Labs because the growth and product oriented work that Stacks Labs is built for is squarely where my skills and energy are best deployed.

A few highlighted areas (non-exhaustive) I'll be focused on in my role at Stacks Labs:

• Welcoming mature teams to Bitcoin. Through work we’ve already got a jump on with our friends at the Stacks Endowment, I'll be helping make the ecosystem more accessible and attractive to established, experienced teams that are ready to build on Bitcoin. This builds directly on the founder-facing work I've done in a previous life at Techstars, giving me even more time and resources to help teams thrive. I can’t wait to have you meet some of the teams we’ve already identified!
• Developer relations. Stacks being ranked the #7 fastest-growing developer ecosystem in Electric Capital's report was a proud moment for all of us. I plan to keep pushing that number in the right direction — working with the team at Stacks Labs to deepen our dev community, support tooling, and making Stacks one of the places serious builders want to be. I’m looking forward to contributing to the next wave of efforts to keep Stacks an outsized player in the global developer community.
• Supporting the marketing team. Stacks Labs has assembled a phenomenal team and is bringing on a new fractional CMO. I'm looking forward to doing whatever I can to help drive launches and sharpen our narrative, putting more of my marketing background to full use as a resource behind our leads.
• Sticking close to Governance: Throughout all of this, I'll be maintaining a close relationship with the Stacks Foundation, Stacks Endowment, the various governance processes, the Treasury Committee, and our beloved SIP framework. My role within Stacks Labs includes dedicated time to be sure I can focus on driving broad community alignment (roadmap workshops being a concrete example), supporting ever-improving connections between key contributors, and ensuring a consistent and caring flow of information throughout the ecosystem.

One more piece of news worth celebrating: Claire Gadd is stepping into the Executive Director role at the Stacks Foundation. Claire has led our communications work the past 3+ years, represented the Foundation at events and town halls, and more recently has been deeply invested in Governance upgrades alongside key community leaders, partners, and our team. She's been building close connections with the community along the way and has an open door for anyone who wants to reach out (send a note to community@stacks.org to get in touch). You can read more about the Foundation's priorities for 2026 here.

The Foundation has done a lot with a little by design. It reflects the character of this community and its members: resourceful, creative, and unflinchingly committed to what we’re building. If you’ve been around Stacks a long time, you may be getting the same sense I am…the signs we’ve seen before big moves…the tingling of the right things coming together before a leap forward. I’m honored to continue serving Stacks. Thank you to the Stacks Foundation team for having me and to Stacks Labs for welcoming me for this next era.

Different email, same mission, bullish as ever. 🧡