Init Intelligence Atlas

Matthew Lewis

2 min read

Matthew Lewis

Investor @ Banter Capital — joined Feb 2025.

Snapshot

Background

  • Banter Capital (Feb 2025 → present): Investor; works alongside founder/partner Heston Berkman.
  • “Venture Capital at Various Platforms” (Jan 2021–Jan 2025, 4 years, NYC):
    • Select investments per LinkedIn: K2 Space, Antares Industries, After Thought, HappyRobot, Polyphron, Framework Automation, Muse Software, The General Intelligence Company of New York, Pure
  • PJT Partners — investment banking
  • University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business — business administration + finance, minor in computer science

Personal narrative (LinkedIn About)

“I have always found success by cutting against the grain of traditional thinking and innovating in unique ways… My entrepreneurial drive fuels my various passions for data management, digital privacy, and market efficiency. Following my graduation in May 2021 [^[ambiguous — likely a stale LinkedIn ‘about’ written years ago], I hope to begin a defining career that encompasses all of my interests and solves the greater macro problems that the world faces.”

Firm: Banter Capital

⚠️ CRYPTO-ONLY — not a fit for init.inc.

  • VC arm of Crypto Banter (crypto media + education platform founded 2021)
  • $18M fund under management
  • 51 portfolio projects across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, Web3 infrastructure
  • Check sizes $1-5M
  • Seed and early-stage Web3/crypto protocols
  • Long-hold strategy (retain + stake early investor tokens)
  • Offices: New York, Miami, LA, San Francisco
  • Founder/Partner: Heston Berkman (California-based)
  • Crypto Banter media platform leveraged for deal sourcing + portfolio promotion

Public voice

  • Blog post 2025-02-17: “Letter to the Banter Founders” — “Last week, I joined Banter Capital. I’m beyond excited to work alongside Heston Berkman in pursuit of ‘the weird and the wonderful.‘”

Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)

  • 2026-05-27 18:40 UTC — Sent LinkedIn InMail to Sazzad’s personal Gmail (sazzadi.cc9@gmail.com):

    “Matthew Lewis: Hey Sazzad — Hope you’re well! I was candidly chatting with a friend of mine this morning when he mentioned you. One look at your background, and I knew I had to reach out…” (subject: “A Bit of Banter”)

  • Mutual connection: unnamed friend who mentioned Sazzad
  • ⚠️ Out of thesis — Banter Capital is crypto-only. Init.inc is enterprise AI-MSP. Politely decline or non-response is appropriate.

Cross-check vs existing wiki

  • No prior wiki mention. Banter Capital firm page does not exist yet.
  • banter-capital ^[needs-page] (firm)
  • Heston Berkman ^[needs-page] (founder/partner; no page — out-of-thesis crypto fund)

Graph View

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