Plebapalooza⚡️Bitcoin Week Las Vegas ⚡️Satoshi Rockamoto

Wasssssup! Well, it’s finally here. The world’s largest Bitcoin event, and they’re even attempting a Guinness World Record for Bitcoin transactions. It will be an epic week in Las Vegas, and we’ll keep the chit chat to a minimum to get you some of what we’ve got cooking. Reminder! If you will be in Las Vegas and want to meet up with the Lightning Ventures or Thunder Funder gang, respond to this email, join our Telegram Channel, or flash a Bat signal for some in-person hang time.

We’re super excited about Bitcoin2025; many of our portfolio companies will be there with booths. To name a few: Start9, Foundation Devices, Scarce City (Official Art Gallery), Blockstream, Theya, Unchained, etc. Besides the booths, check out the Bitcoin Bazaar for more fun stuff. You can buy anything from seed plates to panties in the bazaar. Oh, and the Orange Pill App to connect and find your tribe.

Portfolio Founders in the house! To name a few: Ken Kruger, Lyle Pratt, Abhay Agarwal, Adam Back, Jack Mallers, Andy Schoonover, Matteo Pellegrini, Chris Hunter, Joe Kelly, Matt Hill, Roy Sheinfeld, Smeet Bhatt, Stephen Dodge, Zach Herbert, and probably a slew more that I forgot to include!

There are too many parties to list! So let’s start with our Satoshi Rockamoto, which is NOW ON THURSDAY NIGHT! 

Satoshi Rockamoto is hitting the main stage on Fremont Street in fabulous downtown Las Vegas! Sit in with the Satoshi Shredders or sign with a live backing band. Can you jam? Can you dig it? See you there. Rain or shine. The show must go on. These amps go to 11. Thanks to Pubkey for scoring the stage and putting this all together.

FREE SHOW! JUST SHOW UP

We’re going to have some awesome shirts and posters. While supplies last, of course.

🔥 OTHER TOTALLY RADICAL SIDE EVENTS 🔥 

Mandrik’s Bitcoin Meat Up @ Fogo De Chao. Tonight, Monday the 26th. The BEST CARNIVORE side event. Where everyone takes over the restaurant! Not sure if there is room, but Fogo will be insane tonight—6 PM. See you there.

NOS VEGAS NOSTR MEETUP & PARTY. Wednesday, May 28th. Put on by Tunestr, and this is the official NOSTR event of the week. Downtown at We All Scream Nightclub, three floors. Lots of fun. $21.21 for a ticket.

Hestiia is a clean-tech heating business that mines Bitcoin! You won’t find Bitcoin in their deck or website, but this is what they’re doing. €1.4 million backlog (2,000 units) sold across 15 real estate developments. Sales pipeline currently represents €11 million in potential backlog. NOIA Capital is leading this round with a $2M investment. Hestiia is a European company focused on capitalizing on the region’s path towards decarbonization and adopting heat pump technology in buildings. Hestiia has made heat pumps obsolete by replacing conventional electric heat with computing hardware, effectively recycling the waste heat from calculations and MINING BITCOIN.

Hestiia offers real estate developers and project owners an easy-to-install and app-driven hardware device that a) eliminates space-consuming collective heating systems in the buildings they are developing and b) is up to 3x less expensive than competitors.

• 🔑Invest in Foundation Devices🔑

• Follow-on round for Lightning Ventures portfolio company Foundation Devices! Arche Capital is leading this $3 million Seed+ Round with participation from Polychain Capital, Third Prime, Greenfield, and other existing investors. Co-syndication with our good friends at Gaingels/FlightVC. 

• 8,500+ devices sold across two prior Passport hardware generations

• 1,400+ devices sold in the last 60 days, generating approximately $365K in revenue

• Targeting 10,000 Passport Prime units sold by end of Q2 2025, projected to reach breakeven profitability

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 74, reflecting strong customer satisfaction

• Fully open-source software (KeyOS) and hardware, distinguishing it from closed-source competitors

• Introducing Foundation Shield, a subscription service that provides magic backups, extended warranty, transaction intelligence (AI), and priority support for recurring revenue

• Check out the deal memo -> Invest in Foundation Devices

🍊💊Invest in Orange Pill App🍊💊

• The Orange Pill App is profitable with over 16k users. 2024 revenue was $282k (+123%). OPA holds ~4.2 BTC on their balance sheet and recently launched a Bitcoin wallet inside their app with “Geozapping.” We’re excited about the roadmap, which includes ticketing, video calls, voice calls, and more. OPA is building the social layer for Bitcoin.

Ready to Raise? Let’s Make It Happen.

If you’re a founder who is building on Bitcoin, are you ready to level up? At Lightning Ventures, we work with the best builders in the space, helping them connect with investors who share their passion on all things Bitcoin. Whether you’re developing on Lightning, exploring Taproot Assets, or crafting the next-generation Bitcoin product, we want to hear from you.

Applying is easy — just fill out this form and tell us what you’re working on. We’re here to support bold ideas, spark big conversations, and help you find the right backers to fuel your vision. Let’s build the future together.