NYC + LONDON · OPERATING TEAM · AI · CRYPTO

Strategic operating team for AI and crypto founders.

House of Mavens is an operating team for AI and crypto founders, based in New York and London. We embed for defined sprints to solve the hardest strategic problems: the fundraise, the launch, the GTM rebuild, the positioning pivot. 

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// FROM THE FOUNDER

What worked before will not work again.

Our thesis on the new era of crypto, AI compounding the shift, and why operators matter.

Read the full manifesto →
// WHAT WE DO · THREE ENGAGEMENT TYPES

What we do.

01 / 03 TYPICALLY 6–8 WEEKS

The Foundation

Category, narrative, and the strategic foundation everything else compounds on.

Every engagement starts with one question: what is this company not?  From the answer, we rebuild the category, the master narrative, the moat, and the messaging — the same set of decisions investors, the market, and the next ten hires will all read from. We leave behind a strategic foundation, not a slide deck.

02 / 03 TYPICALLY 12–14 WEEKS

The Round

Capital strategy and the round itself.

Round architecture, investor sequencing, the strategic decisions that determine the comp set and the valuation, deal structuring, term-sheet negotiation, and the institutional relationships that close it. Where most firms hand founders a deck, we run the round. 

03 / 03 TYPICALLY 12–16 WEEKS

The Launch

Building marketing from scratch and the BD motion that makes it real.

Channel strategy, content engine, GTM architecture, founder branding, the BD playbook, and the hires made on your behalf. We design the system, kickstart the flywheels and onboard the team that will run it. 

We do the work that determines whether the next 18 months happen at all.

Across the portfolio.

// MAY 2026
$300M+
Capital raised across the portfolio.
$1B+
Volume driven through portfolio products.
1M+
Users onboarded in the portfolio.
14+
Years combined in crypto at executive level.
// SELECTED WORK

Selected work.

Brahma.fi Metronome 1inch OKX Yield.xyz Prestocks Bloq
Vesper LYS Labs Portfolio partner Atempora AI Polytrade
// SELECTED WORK · THREE ENGAGEMENTS · ANONYMIZED

Outcomes we've delivered.

i.

Raised an oversubscribed $7M Seed in eight weeks.

ProblemA Seed-stage DeFi protocol with no clear commercial positioning had stalled in conversations with VCs and was running out of runway to keep building.

InterventionRebuilt the commercial positioning, re-authored the deck and investor memo end-to-end, and re-sequenced the target list with a custom angle per fund. Coached the founding team on the talk-track so the narrative held across every meeting.

ResultClosed oversubscribed at $7M — 1.5× the original term sheet valuation, with a category-aligned lead.

ii.

Delivered 15x more users in a new category launch in 6 weeks.

ProblemDeFi protocol was repositioning to an agentic platform with a new B2B line needed a launch motion to reach users beyond its DeFi-native base.

InterventionLed the repositioning into the agentic category and built a four-stage engagement campaign that filtered DeFi-native users into the new B2B funnel. Each stage required deeper commitment, so only users actually willing to transact reached the final ask.

Result150,000 mints in 10 days against a 10,000 target. Over 75% of participants completed the full four-stage flow. APAC launch executed and in-house team trained and handed off.

iii.

Web3 Neobank zero to launch-ready  in 8 weeks: Strategy, Brand, Team

ProblemA pre-launch privacy-first stablecoin neobank bridging Web2 and Web3 users had no strategy, no positioning, no GTM, and no team.

InterventionBuilt the entire launch motion: positioning and messaging architecture, brand and visual identity, phased GTM plan, partnership frameworks, and community infrastructure. Hired and trained a three-person marketing team across content, community, and partnerships to take over post-engagement.

Result6,000 pre-launch waitlist signups. Strategic positioning that deepens with time. Geo-targeted GTM ready to deploy. Full marketing team hired, trained, and handed back to the founders at the end of the engagement.

// TEAM · 02

The team.

Andra Nicolau

Co-founder & CEO

Andra is the co-founder and CEO at House of Mavens, where she runs the strategic decisions that determine whether a company can raise, what category it actually competes in, and which investors will buy the narrative.

Prior to crypto she has spent seven years in Silicon Valley and nine years in crypto. $300M+ raised across four companies, two acquired. Built institutional BD with Tier 1 trading firms, asset managers, foundations, and wallets, the relationships most founders cannot get to on their own.

Jelena Keatley

Co-founder & CMO

Jelena is the co-founder and CMO at House of Mavens, where she runs the full marketing stack for AI and Web3 founders. Narrative, GTM, content, community, and the measurement layer underneath.

She has nine years of experience in marketing Web3 and 7 at the executive level. She has thrived through three cycles, eleven launches and one TGE that hit 15x its target on day one. Founders hire her when the in-house team is too close to the product to see the story clearly, or needs a sharper edge to cut through the noise.

Aarushi Arun

AI-NATIVE MARKETING

Aarushi is the AI-native marketing assistant at House of Mavens, where she builds and runs the AI tooling layer underneath every engagement. Workflow automation, attention monitoring, content systems, and the operational infrastructure that lets the team move at sprint speed.  

She is an attention economist and growth-first marketer who has driven $1B+ in transaction volume across Brahma.fi (acquired by Polymarket) and OKX. 

// FREQUENTLY ASKED

Common questions.

What does House of Mavens do?

We are an operating team for AI and crypto founders. We embed for defined sprints, typically 6 to 16 weeks, to solve specific strategic problems:  the launch, the positioning rebuild, the GTM motion, the raise.

We are not a marketing agency.

Marketing agencies sell execution, content, social, PR, paid. We sell the strategic decisions and systems that determine whether the execution is worth running at all. Marketing work sits inside our engagements where useful, but it is only part of the value add we bring..

We are not just a channel for introductions.

The Round is strategic work, positioning the company so the right investors lean in and warm introductions to our network that are passed to the founders for raising. 

We are not consultants.

Consultants produce reports. We embed, build the system, hire the team, and leave with the company running differently than when we arrived. We create focus, direction, clarity, and an operating system to guide, not decks.

Who do you work with?

Venture‑backed AI and crypto founders, seed through Series B. We work best with high‑conviction teams at moments where strategic clarity is the bottleneck.

What about AI? Can't I just prompt a model for this?

AI raised the floor for everyone. The deck, the memo, the positioning doc, are an afternoon's work in any modern tool. We get hired for the ceiling: which artifact is the right artifact, what belongs in it, which investors will actually buy the narrative, and what to do when the round doesn't move the way the deck predicted. Tools are a commodity. Operating judgment is not.

Do you take equity?

Selectively. Engagement structures range from fixed‑fee project work to equity‑inclusive engagements. We discuss structure once we know the fit.

What does an engagement look like?

Every engagement begins with a diagnostic session. We have a framework in place that we like to follow if the team doesn't have a clear ask. From there, defined sprint, named deliverables, hires made if needed, full handoff at the end.

Where are you based?

New York and London. We work with founders globally and we don't mind traveling on location for joint work as we understand that nothing will beat in person connection.

// CONTACT

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