Sean Li and Jaemin Jin founded Magic Labs. Today, they’ve onboarded 50M+ wallets and 200,000 developers, and raised $80M+ in funding from top-tier investors, including PayPal Ventures.
This film captures the raw entrepreneurial journey—from Sean’s early days selling his first startup KiteMatic to Docker, through the near-death experiences of Magic Labs, to their current mission of building Newton Protocol, the programmable trust layer to bring all assets on-chain, for agentic AI, stablecoins, RWAs and the $250T global asset market.
Key Insights:
1. The Apple design philosophy that shaped Magic’s "invisible technology" approach
2. Surviving the 2018 crypto winter when everyone called blockchain a scam
3. The controversial decision to simplify Web3 that got them attacked on Twitter
4. Building non-custodial solutions when VCs demanded centralization
5. The future of AI agents managing trillions in on-chain assets
Timeline:
00:00 Intro
01:14 Founder & Magic Labs
02:17 From Jazz Dreamer to 50M Wallets
10:21 Apple’s Perfectionism vs. Startup Reality
16:52 One Month of Runway: Innovation Pulled from the Brink
24:03 Beyond the Numbers: What Makes Investors Truly Believe in Founders
27:39 Building the ‘Perfect’ User Experience Philosophy in the Age of AI
31:20 The Greatest Risk Is Not Taking Action
About Magic Labs:
Website: https://magic.link
X: @magiclabs
About Newton Protocol:
Website: https://www.magicnewton.com/
X: @magicnewton
EO creates in-depth documentaries and interviews with founders reshaping the global tech ecosystem.
– For collaboration: partner@eoeoeo.net
LinkedIn | @EO STUDIO
X | @eostudi0