Hack VC Co-founder Alexander Pack: Hasn't Spoken Directly with Hsin-Ju for Over 10 Months
Hack VC co-founder and managing partner Alexander Pack expressed shock and sadness over the news of former partner Hsin-Ju Chuang's death in a social media post. He stated that the team had not spoken directly with her for over 10 months and was unaware of the specifics surrounding her death. He did not provide further information and requested that the public respect the grieving family and friends.
This statement is Hack VC's second response. The first statement noted, "We have substantial differences in our understanding of the events and do not wish to discuss details publicly at this time," which was quickly deleted. Hack VC later explained that the post was removed due to the direction of public discussion, with some responses becoming increasingly hostile toward her.
Hsin-Ju Chuang, 37, was found dead in the Mojave Desert in California, near the Fields Road exit off Interstate 15 in Newberry Springs. The daytime temperature was around 108°F, with nighttime lows still above 80°F. The California Highway Patrol and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office are investigating. Authorities have not found signs of homicide, and the coroner is still awaiting autopsy results. According to local customs, death investigations requiring toxicology and histology testing typically take 6 months to a year.
Before her death, she publicly shared her experiences at Hack VC on social media, targeting Alexander Pack and partner Daniel Bulaevsky. She claimed that during serious health issues, she was still required to work long hours and faced pressure from being blacklisted in the industry. She also mentioned delays regarding her post-employment health insurance, with the dispute eventually entering private mediation. She rejected a settlement agreement containing confidentiality clauses and posted publicly on the same day. These allegations remain unverified, and there is no evidence linking this dispute to her death.
Her career spanned several leading projects. In 2017, she served as the head of growth at the Stellar Development Foundation. She joined Solana in 2018 when the company had about 10 employees. She later hosted Ethereum community events through Dystopia Labs. In 2021, she joined Hack VC as a part-time partner, later becoming a full-time partner and head of the platform. In 2024, she worked at the privacy computing project Fhenix.
From a funding and reputation perspective, this is not a transaction-driven event; the pressure primarily falls on institutional reputation and fundraising. Hack VC's funds come from external LPs, with the 2022 $200 million seed fund involving Sequoia Capital, Fidelity, Marc Andreessen, and Chris Dixon. Public workplace disputes and post deletions will be scrutinized during due diligence on institutional governance. On the other hand, founders of invested projects will also consider the stability and reputation of the platform team when selecting investors. In the short term, the main pressure is on Hack VC and the two named partners.
Source: Public Information
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Alexander Pack is one of the early institutional promoters in the crypto venture capital space. He previously worked at AngelList and Huobi, later serving as a director of investments at Bain Capital, where he led the establishment of its crypto investment business. He co-founded Dragonfly with Bo Feng, a crypto fund with a presence in both the US and China, which later managed billions of dollars. After leaving Dragonfly, he joined Hack VC as a managing partner, co-managing the fund with Ed Roman. Hack VC claims to have participated in and guided over 100 Web3 projects and operates the Hack.Summit event for developers, claiming to cover over 130,000 blockchain developers.
Hack VC primarily invests in infrastructure-level projects. In 2022, it launched a $200 million crypto seed fund, with LPs including Sequoia Capital, Fidelity, and a16z's Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon. It later raised $150 million during a bear market, bringing its total assets under management to approximately $425 million. Representative investments include the re-staking protocol EigenLayer, Layer 1 blockchain Berachain, rollup-as-a-service platform AltLayer, and Crusoe Cloud, which has a valuation exceeding $1 billion. In this "infrastructure + incubation" strategy, the "platform head" is a core position: post-investment services, community events, and developer networks are all connected through this role, which Hsin-Ju Chuang held at Hack VC.
The closest historical reference comes from Silicon Valley venture capital. In 2012, Ellen Pao sued Kleiner Perkins for gender discrimination, losing in the first trial in 2015, but the case prompted industry scrutiny of partner culture. In 2017, Binary Capital co-founder Justin Caldbeck was publicly accused by multiple entrepreneurs, leading to the fund's rapid dissolution and subsequent fundraising halt. The similarity lies in the fact that small partnership funds' governance heavily relies on a few partners; once public personnel disputes arise, they directly affect LP follow-on investments. Crypto venture capital is now transitioning from an expansion phase to a consolidation phase, with leading institutions relying on brand fundraising, while mid-sized funds have the weakest capacity to absorb reputational risks.
Structurally, this incident relates to regulatory changes, primarily concerning tightened confidentiality agreements. In 2022, California's SB 331 (Silenced No More Act) took effect, limiting employers from using confidentiality clauses to prevent employees from discussing facts in workplace discrimination and harassment settlements. The same year, the federal "Speak Out Act" also restricted the effectiveness of pre-signed confidentiality agreements in sexual harassment disputes. The underlying mechanism is that, in the past, "paying for silence" allowed institutions to turn workplace disputes into private costs. Laws and social media have transformed these private costs into public reputational costs, shifting pricing power from institutions to individuals and public opinion who can speak out. Refusing to sign confidentiality agreements, posting publicly, and institutions deleting posts are typical pathways of this shift.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
- Confidentiality clauses can buy silence, but not trust.
- An institution's reputation asset is priced by the weakest employment relationship.
- Once private costs become public, they are re-priced at compound interest.
Reminder: Public information mentions she had health issues before her death, and the cause of death is still under investigation. I did not speculate on the cause of death or write about her health details in the main text.