Mahesh Murthy

Building funding infrastructure at @karmahq_

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

I'm excited for this next chapter of Karma. We've been iterating closely with web3 ecosystems, have a solid roadmap and it's all coming together: helping projects get visibility and communities fund effectively and grow. Excited to work with builders and funders in web3 and beyond! 🎉

[Karma @karmahq_]

We're reintroducing Karma with a new website today!

What was Karma GAP is now Karma, where builders get funded and ecosystems grow.

Built on our proven registry and impact measurement, now with complete funding capabilities.

Here's what you get 🧵

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

The last couple months I've spent a lot of time with nonprofits and foundations. The problems they're working through are remarkably close to what we've been solving at Karma in web3, just at a much larger scale.

Excited to start working on this side too. First free tool for nonprofits and foundations is live: https://t.co/op6pu0qzSU

[Karma @karmahq_]

https://t.co/yqkQhzYZr9

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@hatsprotocol 🫡

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@devanshmehta Let me know if you need help with this. Karma has funds distribution module and KYB tracking already. We can fairly easily add redistribution logic.

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@ttunguz Can you share what local models you use and your laptop hardware spec?

[Karma @karmahq_]

https://t.co/NdJe0Klbik

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

If you are an R&D funder, highly recommend this tool.

And special shout-out to the website designer 🫡

[Matt Esche @matthewesche]

At @IFP, we’ve spent the past 3 years thinking about all the different ways the US government & philanthropy fund R&D.

Until now, R&D funders haven’t had a systematic way to match the innovation problem to the right funding tool.

We built THE ATLAS OF INNOVATION to fill that gap.

https://t.co/XZshJ7pr1f

Alongside @UChi_MSA, we’ve boiled down thousands of hours of research into a handful of questions covering how much the R&D funder knows about:
- the problem they want to solve
- the solution it should have
- the team that should build the solution

Why the Atlas matters:

The US government spends close to $200 billion every year on R&D. And after the Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs, there will be hundreds of billions of dollars in new philanthropic giving.

Choosing the correct funding approach to the social problems they’re trying to solve will mean the difference between success and failure.

For example, NSF research grants have helped seed breakthroughs from MRI machines to search engines, but grants aren’t built to deliver the kind of industrial speed and scale that a project like Operation Warp Speed required.

Picking the wrong funding approach can leave programs behind schedule, over budget, or without anything to show for all the money they spent.

How we built the Atlas:

1. We began by creating a matrix of dozens of considerations that a thoughtful policymaker or funder would ideally weigh before deciding how to fund a project.

2. We looked at every major funding approach, from grants to R&D tax credits to advance market commitments, analyzing when they work well and when they fail to meet the mission.

3. We spent months deep in the weeds of contract theory and incentive design, looking at historical examples and the state-of-the-art research in innovation economics.

4. We then worked to turn that research into a tool that time-strapped policymakers and philanthropic funders could rely on at the start of an innovation funding cycle.

5. Three years later, we are launching just that: a new (and visually stunning) website to help funders decide how to best incentivize innovation. And all they have to know… is what they currently know about their innovation goal! The Atlas takes care of the rest.

How to navigate the Atlas:

Answer questions about your goal to find the funding approach aligned with the information you have.

Each funding mechanism has its purpose for particular technologies and specific moments in development.

There shouldn’t be an ARPA for every field, just like we don’t need a prize or AMC for every innovation. The Atlas helps you navigate those tradeoffs.

[Filecoin Foundation @FilFoundation]

Filecoin Public Goods Funding is open! Apply if you're supporting:

1. Core infra maintenance
2. Delivering against RFPs focused on work in key verticals inc. Web3 Builders and Web2 Object Storage

Info: https://t.co/GRwTkZK3wn

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

I have been talking to lot of nonprofits and looks like they are already using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot chat for basic chat and prompts but haven't had the time to take it further.

So I'm offering free 2-hour 1:1 workshops to help nonprofits level up. Just sitting with you for two hours and working through real stuff in your actual workflow.

Depending on where you are, we can go:
1. Starting out: drafting, editing, summarizing RFPs, plain-language rewrites with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft copilot chat
2. Mid-level: reusable prompts for your common application types, Projects to keep funder context organized, drafting from prior submissions
3. Advanced: prospect research, agent workflows, automating reporting cycles

You actually can get quite far with basic ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Microsoft copilot subscription without using any specialized AI powered software. Most teams just haven't had time to figure out how to use what's already there.

It's free because honestly, I learn a ton from sitting and working through with you.

If this sounds useful, grab a time: https://t.co/rSTq8BXIIP

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@SexyLikeMeiosis I would like to work on this, can we chat?

[Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff]

New blog post: The third wave of American philanthropy

Hundreds of billions of dollars in new philanthropic capital will soon become liquid. The OpenAI Foundation holds 26% of OpenAI, worth about $220B at today’s valuation. Anthropic’s seven co-founders have pledged to give away 80% of their wealth and have instituted the most aggressive donor matching program for employees in tech history.

How much does this all add up to? And how meaningful is that in the context of philanthropy today?

I was doing some simple napkin math to wrap my head around the scale of what’s coming, and radicalized myself in the process. I had dramatically underappreciated the scale of the philanthropic capital that’s about to become available and the corresponding gap in talent and organizations that will be needed to make the most of it.

This piece aims to directionally sketch the scale of what’s coming, the gap in operational capacity needed to absorb it, and what we can do to fill it.

(Link to full post in reply)

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

Why we’ve been heads down making Karma headless:

Funders and grantees are increasingly hitting Karma through skills, MCPs, and agents instead of the web app. That trend is only going to increase, we are positioning Karma to enable this and welcoming all agents!

[Karma @karmahq_]

https://t.co/PQqXb40MoR

[Gemini CLI @geminicli]

Scion is a new multi-agent orchestration tool that orchestrates agents (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex, and others) as isolated, concurrent processes.

Each agent gets its own container, git worktree, and credentials — so they can work on different parts of your project without stepping on each other.

https://t.co/q9I3KwM9iF

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

So pumped for this UNICEF partnership. Still feels like a dream! A giant in the philanthropic space using Karma, and our first non-web3 org on the platform 🙌

Can't wait to bring this to more traditional foundations and help them improve funding and impact.

[Karma @karmahq_]

https://t.co/2qKE1XvmRb

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@Jason I'm in

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@VinuChain hey @karmahq_, add this to Karma funding map!

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

I installed @garrytan GStack today. Spent 30 mins with /office-hours skill, was hugely valuable, it caught something in the product/business I was ignoring! To top it off, got a nice note from Agent Garry!

YC should consider selling a more robust /office-hours skill, I would totally buy!

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@jimchang ✨

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

@tallyxyz Huge respect for everything you guys built 🫡

[Karma @karmahq_]

We shipped more agent skills! You can now create and update projects, add roadmaps, and manage milestones, all from Claude, Codex, or your agent of choice.

npx skills add show-karma/skills

[Mahesh Murthy @mvmurthy]

Today we're launching Karma Skills, the first step toward making the entire Karma platform agentic 🤖

Karma has evolved into the place where funders allocate capital and builders find opportunities, earn, build reputation, and raise funding. Now we want to supercharge that so humans and agents can do all of it wherever they are: in their Claudes, Codexes, OpenClaws, or anywhere else.

Excited to continue building and serving our users (and agents) ✨

[Karma @karmahq_]

https://t.co/o1eQRKJNk9